{"id":9492,"date":"2015-01-14T17:43:51","date_gmt":"2015-01-14T22:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=9492"},"modified":"2015-01-28T17:45:34","modified_gmt":"2015-01-28T22:45:34","slug":"parking-overhaul-proposed-for-yonge-st-core","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/parking-overhaul-proposed-for-yonge-st-core\/","title":{"rendered":"Parking overhaul proposed for Yonge St. core"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you ask people where Aurora\u2019s biggest traffic problems lie, residents are most likely to look in the general direction of the Yonge and Wellington intersection.<\/p>\n

This month, however, may lay the foundation for significant changes down the road which could help alleviate regular traffic snarls in Aurora\u2019s busiest corridor.<\/p>\n

Next week, Council is set to consider two notices of motion on Aurora\u2019s Downtown Core. The first is a plan touted by Mayor Geoff Dawe throughout the 2014 Election Campaign to overhaul on-street parking in Yonge Street\u2019s historic core. The second is a proposal from Councillor Tom Mrakas to implement left turn restrictions at the intersection.<\/p>\n

In his pitch to Council, Mayor Dawe proposes a plan that would reduce Yonge Street to single lanes of traffic with the second lane on the east and west sides of the street reserved for parking and other streetscape improvements. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Town of Aurora recognizes the importance of Yonge Street as a corridor of business in our historic downtown and is fully committed to ensuring its long-term commercial sustainability,\u201d says Mayor Dawe in his notice of motion, citing studies focusing on downtown revitalization going back to 2009, as well as the Aurora Promenade Secondary Plan of 2010.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Town of Aurora Economic Development Action Plan and Business Retention and Expansion Strategy emphasize the importance of supporting local business and revitalizing the Downtown [and Aurora] approved the Community Improvement Plan (CIP) to support downtown revitalization in 2014.\u201d<\/p>\n

This concept, he says, will work hand-in-hand with these plans and, if passed, the notice of motion will direct staff to investigate the feasibility of implementing the plan.<\/p>\n

Starting in the south, the one lane of parking and one lane of traffic concept begins at Kennedy Street, running north to Wellington Street where two lanes of traffic would then resume. But, speaking to The Auroran, he emphasises this is strictly a conceptual plan and it is likely to significantly change down the line.<\/p>\n

That being said, Mayor Dawe said the reception to the idea since the election campaign has all been on the \u201cpositive side of the ledger\u201d to various degrees of enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

\u201cA number of places have done this, so it certainly isn\u2019t new,\u201d he said, noting the concept was really brought home to him during the Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference in Niagara Falls last year, with a tour of the city\u2019s downtown. <\/p>\n

Should the plan be approved in whatever form it ultimately takes, it will bring benefits not only to traffic flow, but also local businesses, concludes Mayor Dawe, noting business owners have also expressed enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you cruise around the Library parking lot a couple of times and don\u2019t see anything, you either park on Church Street or on Yonge Street. I don\u2019t have a great feeling of parking on Yonge Street in front of the Library, although it is a perfectly valid thing to do. I think by creating a very specific parking area that will change that tenor. People will be more comfortable to park there and perhaps it can drive business.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Councillor Mrakas\u2019 Notice of Motion gains traction, it will institute a pilot project at Yonge and Wellington to restrict left turns at the intersection. It calls upon the Region of York to investigate \u201cthe feasibility of implementing a pilot project for left turn restrictions to north and southbound Yonge Street at Wellington Street turning [morning and afternoon] peak traffic periods for the purposes of addressing traffic congestion.\u201d
\nIt goes a step further calling on the Region to provide Council with a presentation on whether such a move is feasible and impacts it would have. <\/p>\n

\u201cTraffic congestion at the intersection of Yonge Street and Wellington Street is an ongoing concern for Aurora residents and businesses,\u201d says Councillor Mrakas in his Notice of Motion. \u201cThe flow of northbound and southbound traffic is significantly impeded during peak traffic periods due to left turning vehicles. Many municipalities restrict left-hand turns at high volume intersections during peak traffic periods as a means to address similar concerns with traffic congestion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bolstering his motion, he harkens back to a pilot project undertaken by the Region in 1998 which prohibited left turns at the intersection during peak periods having \u201ca significant improvement in traffic operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

HAVE YOUR SAY \u2013 Do you think these changes will make a difference in traffic flow at Yonge and Wellington? Do you have any other ideas? Send your thoughts and suggestions to letters@auroran.com.<\/em><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you ask people where Aurora\u2019s biggest traffic problems lie, residents are most likely to look in the general direction of the Yonge and Wellington intersection.<\/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-9492","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\/p3D2k4-2t6","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-09 21:50:07","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\/9492","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=9492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9492\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}