{"id":8238,"date":"2014-09-24T13:53:41","date_gmt":"2014-09-24T17:53:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=8238"},"modified":"2014-09-24T13:53:41","modified_gmt":"2014-09-24T17:53:41","slug":"debate-highlights-business-concerns-in-yonge-and-wellington-corridors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/debate-highlights-business-concerns-in-yonge-and-wellington-corridors\/","title":{"rendered":"Debate highlights business concerns in Yonge and Wellington corridors"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

In a debate hosted by the Aurora Chamber of Commerce, it should come as no surprise that Aurora\u2019s businesses were a top priority of the first Mayoral debate of the season.<\/p>\n

In a series of wide-ranging questions developed by the Chamber, submitted to the Chamber through social media, and in questions directly from the audience, candidates Geoffrey Dawe and John Gallo zeroed their respective visions repeatedly back to Aurora\u2019s Downtown Core.<\/p>\n

Asked to speak about what they each thought were the biggest challenges facing Aurora\u2019s businesses, Mr. Dawe was first up to bat. Encouraging businesses to develop was a top priority, he said, and to illustrate this, he said he has been \u201cworking on a plan to rejig Yonge Street to make it a more consumer-friendly environment\u201d in the vein of the main commercial areas of places like Kingston and Cobourg. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have implemented a [Community Improvement Plan] CIP, which the Town is now stepping up to say we wish to be part of this walk with you,\u201d said Mr. Dawe. \u201cWe wish to invest some money and help you move forward with your business.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Mr. Gallo, revitalizing Aurora\u2019s Downtown Core is \u201cessential\u201d in moving forward. In his view, the blueprint is already there to do that in the form of Aurora\u2019s Promenade Study. To this end, he said he would implement a \u201ctask force\u201d to implement the principles of the plan, which include architectural and aesthetic standards for the area. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many, many things that are going wrong that need to be fixed,\u201d said Mr. Gallo. \u201cThere are many businesses that are leaving downtown and moving either to the east of Aurora and becoming successful for very specific reasons and they should be encouraged to stay downtown and to deal with the many issues that they have.\u201d<\/p>\n

The number of business closures along the Yonge Street corridor remain steady, as well as elsewhere in Aurora, claimed another question submission, asking each candidate how they would go about bucking this trend. Mr. Dawe told the audience when he was an Aurora business owner he \u201cnever expected\u201d a government to give a handout, but he would have \u201clooked towards my municipal government to create an environment where I wished to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a number of businesses on Yonge Street that are extremely successful; we need to model those businesses,\u201d said Mr. Dawe. \u201cWe have, in the last couple of years, a substantial amount of private sector investment in our downtown core, all within a two-minute walk of Yonge and Wellington. We recently completed [the CIP] which is the Town stepping up and saying, \u2018Okay, you folks have done a lot. Now it is our turn. You want to invest some money in refinishing your storefront? We\u2019re willing to help you with that.\u2019 The Town is taking those steps in order to work with the business to help them be more successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

A key factor in business revitalization in the Yonge Street corridor is renewed focus on the Promenade Plan, argued Mr. Gallo. The plan has been \u201csitting on the shelf\u201d too long and it is time for action.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have sat down with business owners who\u2026had to close their shop and they told me why,\u201d said Mr. Gallo. \u201cWe need to sit down with the Committee with a very specific mandate and we can move that plan forward. I believe that, amongst many other things, is something that will revitalize Downtown and stop this trajectory of stores that are closing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Promenade Study was also key to focusing specifically on the Yonge and Wellington Corridor, but Mr. Gallo said he didn\u2019t think it was \u201cbeneficial\u201d to give \u201cspecific details on what one would do to fix that problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a complicated issue and it is going to take some significant time and effort to solve that problem,\u201d he said. \u201cFortunately we have the base for it in the Promenade Study and a lot of time, money and effort was spent to develop that plan. It is time to implement it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Dawe, on the other hand, said he believed Wellington corridor is \u201crevitalizing itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of those houses have changed ownership, people are investing substantially in those houses to create some very nice places of employment,\u201d he said. \u201cI think what we have to do with Yonge Street is either we have to abandon it because it is the TransCanada Highway and nothing is going to happen with it, or we have to take a very bold move.\u201d<\/p>\n

This bold move is exploring the idea of taking Yonge Street in the Downtown Core down to a single lane each way with permanent parking on either side to make it \u201cmore user-friendly\u201d and a place where people want to come, spend time, and \u201cspend more money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whichever candidate has the plan to get more people into Aurora\u2019s downtown core, the bigger question arises of where these people will go once they are here. \u201cMillions of dollars have been lost\u201d as Aurora does not have overnight accommodation for conferences and sports events, argued one resident in a question. This was something both candidates agreed with, but had differing opinions on how the issue could be rectified.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have met with a number of hoteliers who have told me they are not in a position at this point to come into Aurora and build a hotel,\u201d said Mr. Dawe. \u201cA hotel was actually approved for development in Aurora back in 2008 and then when the U.S. market tanked, they pulled out. That lot was then re-sold to a Canadian developer and we they have chosen, for whatever reason, not to go forward. I absolutely agree we need a hotel and we have been working with hoteliers to get them interested and actively engage in coming up here and providing that facility.\u201d
\nMr. Gallo, on the other hand, disputed the view that there was a lack of interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have already been approached by two developers,\u201d he responded. \u201cAdditionally, I have been approached by land owners in Town who are very interested in developing hotels on their properties. It is something I want to spearhead, it is a huge need in Town, but I think I want to stress that the baseline is it needs to be sustainable.<\/p>\n

\u201cA convention centre needs to be sustainable. I am not interested in spending tax dollars on an ongoing basis, on an operating basis, to bring something like that to Town. It needs to be sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a debate hosted by the Aurora Chamber of Commerce, it should come as no surprise that Aurora\u2019s businesses were a top priority of the first Mayoral debate of the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8202,"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":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/2014-09-25-03.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-28S","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 00:19:28","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\/8238","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=8238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}