{"id":4654,"date":"2013-11-20T17:46:55","date_gmt":"2013-11-20T22:46:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=4654"},"modified":"2013-12-04T13:33:42","modified_gmt":"2013-12-04T18:33:42","slug":"aurora-needs-to-hold-developers-to-mavrinac-agreement-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/aurora-needs-to-hold-developers-to-mavrinac-agreement-council\/","title":{"rendered":"Council votes to forge ahead on Mavrinac agreement"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aurora will forge ahead with exercising its first right of refusal for the sale of potential parkland on Mavrinac Boulevard.<\/p>\n

Councillors last week ratified a decision made the previous week at the Committee level to take the \u201cnext steps\u201d in exploring how to secure a six acre plot of land near the northeast corner of Bayview Avenue and Wellington Street. <\/p>\n

The land in question is a block formerly earmarked for the York Catholic District School Board. It was previously billed as a site for either a school or a park, but that was thrown into question when the Board decided to release any rights they had to the property, changing direction.<\/p>\n

Under the subdivision agreement for the 2B Lands between Aurora and Minto Communities, the Town has the right of first refusal to purchase the land at a price determined at the time the agreement was set. This is a claim Minto contends (see below), but Councillors have voted to press ahead under the terms of the agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe, as a Town, have an obligation to enforce our contracts and clauses,\u201d said Mayor Geoffrey Dawe. \u201cMy opinion is we have a right in that subdivision agreement. I was explicit last week that I don\u2019t see this as making a leap that this is going to be a park or anything else. I am doing this because the Town needs to confirm the integrity of our agreements.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councillor Wendy Gaertner expressed similar views both last week, and the previous week. <\/p>\n

\u201cI believe this supports what we were elected to do and that is to do [the] very best we can for our residents,\u201d she said. \u201cI believe it shows we are serious about our contracts being honoured.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some Councillors, however, were not so enthusiastic about going forward with the recommendation to exercise the right of first refusal, arguing it is leading the residents down the garden path in creating a sense of false hope. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you choose to exercise the right of first refusal, it shows intent to complete the deal,\u201d argued Councillor Michael Thompson. \u201c[This] raises those expectations. I have already had residents in that area come up and congratulate us because we have chosen to exercise the right of first refusal. They are under the absolute belief that we are going to purchase it and turn it into a park. They are not interested in reading all the reports. The message got whittled down to a simple thing that we are exercising our right of first refusal.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of us know where this is headed and I can see another situation down the road where we\u2019re going to be apologising to the residents again.\u201d
\nLooking to the future, some Councillors indeed saw trouble ahead. Councillor Paul Pirri, for instance, said he saw \u201cstrong parallels\u201d to traffic calming in Aurora\u2019s northeast quadrant which catered to some residents, but not the community as a whole. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re providing a service level that goes over and above what the rest of the municipality has and, for me, I cannot do that,\u201d he said. \u201cI see a very strong, vocal, organized group coming forward making a request and, for me, it is not an equitable request that we can replicate across the municipality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councillor John Gallo, on the other hand, said he did not see any parallels to that. In fact, he said he was \u201cperplexed\u201d by some of the comments made around the table. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about time we\u2019re very clear what we\u2019re all saying about this issue,\u201d he said. \u201cI believe it is time that we have these discussions fully and in full disclosure out in the public so the residents can clearly see what people are saying. I think it is a matter of do you want this property at that price, or don\u2019t you? I think that\u2019s what the residents want to hear from us. Of course, there might be stumbling blocks along the way that, yes, we want that property at that price, and we\u2019ll have to deal with them as they come. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have heard Minto doesn\u2019t believe we have the right and that is their right to say that, but I think we need to be steadfast in our views on this.\u201d
\nCouncillor John Abel, long an advocate for Aurora doing everything it can to snap up similar parcels of land for parks and recreation spaces when they become available, contended this is an important decision for Council to consider, even if it is in a relatively small section of Town.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019re showing weak knees,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have been setting this in motion for months.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Councillor Evelyn Buck, on the other hand, although she voted in favour of Aurora taking those first steps to see all the options ahead, price is key, particularly if the landowner is going to put up a fight in the courts. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole community needs to know what it is we\u2019re taking about because we can be talking about not just $2.6 million, we can be talking about a least a million more,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have to be looking sensibly and practically about that clause in the agreement in determining what is in the best interests of the community. That is what it comes down to.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aurora will forge ahead with exercising its first right of refusal for the sale of potential parkland on Mavrinac Boulevard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1d4","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-24 17:17:02","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4654\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}