IT MAY HAVE TO GET WORSE BEFORE IT GETS BETTER

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "A SPADE IS A SPADE..IS A SPADE ..IS A SPADE": 

An interesting historical interlude.

The Golf Glen lands were always privately owned. The reference to "Aurora land" is its location, not its title.

But a growing population, an exploding population, has to be located somewhere. 100 or so homes are just a drop in the bucket to provide for the approximately 25,000 population influx that is provincially planned for poor, dear "our town."

There is only a finite amount of land, unless you happen to be Holland, Singapore or China, where in-filling is really filling in.

The luxury days of single family homes are at an end and future residential accommodation might have to involve 3, 4 or 5 story buildings. That is the only way baseball diamonds or other recreational facilities can be provided for our children, or for ourselves. 

Posted by Anonymous to  Our Town and Its Business at 14 June 2017 at 19:35

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The reality is the land is privately owned. The other reality is when people don't want anything to change in their neighbourhood , they tend to insist the municipality buy or otherwise obtain ownership.

The town  just did that with a 6 acre parcel in Mavric Land . Additional millions are to be spent to create a redundant park. 

I think the settlement agreed for the golf course is similar. Numbers of residential units are shrunk to a minimum and park area increased to a maximum. Cost per unit increases commensurately. 

Who cares? Not the developer. Time is money. They will agree to anything just to get going. 

Not Golf Glen or Mavricland residents that's for sure .They already have theirs. 

But more reprehensibly,  the consistent official position of some ,not all, politicians, is to do everything possible to accommodate the demands of some, not all, abutting homeowners.

It's the nature of the beast. It's certainly the easiest way to win votes. Always was. 

That's why there has always been an Ontario Municipal Board . 

There used  to be Municipal Planning Boards as well for the same reason. 

Politicians complained about that as well ,the same way they complain about the Ontario Municipal Board today. 

A SPADE IS A SPADE..IS A SPADE ..IS A SPADE

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "GYPSY..GYPSY..LIVES IN A TENT": 

Had the OMB not existed at the time of the Highland "agreement" between the parties it is conceivable that this development would not take place, or if done so, on a greatly reduced scale.

So the rape of Aurora land might have been negligible.

But leaving future development to local councils with little or no oversight might be even worse. 

Posted by Anonymous to  Our Town and Its Business at 14 June 2017 at 13:43

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The golf course was never  "Aurora land". It has always been privately owned . Before  a golf course, it was a farm on the outside edge of Aurora in King Township. 

Homes abutting the erstwhile golf course came later but  have similar history. 

The  Nesbitt family were never accused of "raping" the land when the golf course was built. 

They  were not accused of being accessory to "rape" when they sold the land to Joe Shaw,

who was a developer at the time. He built a beautiful club house that was an asset to the community for many years . Nesbitt's built two more golf courses Westview and St. Andrew's

The town continued to grow out  into the countryside . I'm  certain, the seven-hundred and fifty families who bought homes in Regency Acres were glad of that. 

I raised my family here. Golf Glen subdivision was a small fill-in development between Regency and the golf course.

 Nobody objected to Regency Acres.

Nobody objected to Golf Glen. 

Instead of being developed ,the golf course continued for half a century longer. 

Now  that  planned fill-in development  is compared to the land being "raped".

There is nothing logical or reasonable about that. 

But it's not just illogical or unreasonable. 

Community  interest is nowhere reflected in opposition to vacant serviced land being developed. 

The opposite is true. 

 

GYPSY..GYPSY..LIVES IN A TENT

Councillor Mrakas made the link available on Facebook for the Bill to establish the new Appeal Trubunal designed to disallow appeals from Municipal Official Plans. The bill has received First

Reading. Councillor Mrakas has put tremendous time and effort into organising support from municipalities across the length and breadth of the Province. 

A committee of the legislature was appointed and hearings were held for public input. 

I read it. I hate reading legislative acts. Writing does not improve. Clarity is clearly  not the objective.

 It's as if legal practitioners are afraid non-practitioners might discover the secret. 

Giving first reading to a Bill  is common practice. Three readings are required for it to pass. Even if  three readings proceed,  it can't be enacted until definitions and regulations are in place to enable enforcement. 

It used to add a year to the process. It might be better now.  And it might not. 

Councillor Mrakas is hopeful the signs and portents are positive. 

To-night's Global news had a relevant item. The provincially owned former lakefront power generation site in Missuassaga Is to be remediated and sold for multiple residential development. 

It's huge. Thousands of units will be accommodated. Worth millions it might  help reduce  debt

 caused by cancelling new generation mid contract. Two of McGuinty's staff might go to jail for 

wiling out records that traced the decision. 

This neighbourhood persuaded  McGuinty to cancel the project. Brought about his early retirement. 

and hangs around Premier Wynn's neck like a dead weight. 

The site is no doubt designated Industrial in Missuassaga's Official Plan. 

A change in Land Use designation will be necessary to allow residential development. It will change

the neighbourhood. 

We should watch that. 

It's not exactly a change from golf course open space to residential.  It is  multiplied many times 

over In neighbourhood impact. 

POLLY PUT THE KETTLE ON ...SUKY TOOK IT OFF AGAIN

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "WITH DUE RESPECT": 

I bet that senior living building will have total occupancy before the doors are opened. Traffic? Pollution? Has anyone been to seniors home in Toronto? 
Posted by Anonymous to  Our Town and Its Business at 31 May 2017 at 06:15

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If the  building proposed is ever constructed, the comment is likely correct. 

For the same reason, people come from Toronto to buy multi-million dollar mansions because 

they would cost twice as much there, senior living facilities would quickly fill. Every vacant 

site in Aurora could be used for the purpose and they would still be fully occupied. It's a lucrative business. 

The Town  of Newmarket keeps moving forward in partnership with York Region to provide  rental housing for families and the elderly . Can't point to a single such development in the last twenty-five years in the Town of Aurora. 

But the discussion is  not about that. pay attention people. 

The town  recently  adopted a Secondary Plan for the  area.

It calls for a Culture Precinct. Whatever one thinks about that , it was approved during the last

term. It allows for residential intensification in the area; purpose being to cut down urban sprawl

 and make public transit an option for commuters. 

A Senior's Living Centre does neither. Though it suits the needs of the United Church, it contributes 

zilch, zero, nada, nil , to the Town's stated objective.

Without  a study or collected data to prove my contention, I'm willing to  bet Senior Living and day- long parking in every nook and cranny  in the town centre for commuters is high on change activity 

in the last several years. 

Neither contribute to re-vitalisation of  Aurora. 

The opposite is true.

If it were the Town's intention, it may be argued. 

But it's not. 

The Town has expended substantial resources developing an Official Plan that generates a different objective. 

The document went through all  legal requirements; advertising, public meetings, consultant studies, 

public input, endless routine occupying planners, and finally public approval and the stamp of authority. 

If this proposal is approved , it will prove once and for all, planning is a farce.