Council Update – June 13, 2017

Tom Mrakas

Last night at Council the majority of time was spent discussing the joint motion regarding the Highland Gate Development put forward by Councillor Gaertner and myself. In the rather lengthy discussion of the motion, a number of members made note of what a great job the developer is doing in terms of accommodations and working with the Town and the residents in regards to a construction mitigation plan. However, as I explained, the focus of the motion is not what the developer is going to do or whether they are going above and beyond, the point of the motion is to know what Town staff will be doing to make sure that what is being promised will be happening.. How will the Town be monitoring the construction; how will the Town be enforcing the policies within the mitigation plan.
As I stated at the table I believe it is Council’s obligation to ensure that the construction will adhere to the plan as outlined. Given that this is the first development of its kind in Aurora – a re-development of a golf course within a stable/existing neighbourhood – Council needs to make sure that our residents and community as a whole will be disrupted as little as possible. A member put forward an amendment to the motion, to remove the wording “before any agreement is signed”, however this amendment failed 6-3 against. After subsequent discussion, Council voted unanimously in favour of the motion.
The discussion of the motion is quite long, as members spoke at length about it. Here is the the discussion in its entirety…

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2 Responses

  1. I’m glad to see you and Ms. Gaertner are staying on top of this issue. However it doesn’t excuse the fact that the Council allowed this development to happen in the 1st place. There are plenty of other areas that could have been chosen.
    I’m (along with many others I know) are looking forward to the elections to change many Council members.

  2. Good Morning Mr. Mrakas:
    I appreciate your up-date, however the committee’s comment on “… of what a great job the developer is doing in terms of accommodation and working with the Town and residents…” is completely laughable. As a resident of 46 Golf Links Drive for the past 15 years ( and previously 16 years on Marsh Harbour), I am in the majority who find this “new development” a “royal pain in the A–” in its disruption of our established way of life. Nobody mentions the inconvenience and disruption which will occur during the next 5 years of construction.

    All in all its bad news that should not be glorified. However it’s here now and we are relying on you to keep these people in line and produce what was promised.

    Regards
    Al Podhorodeski
    46 Golf Links Dr.
    Aurora

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