General Committee Update – Sept 05, 2017

Last night Council at General Committee had its first meeting since returning from summer and we had a few items of interest before us… One item that I would like to highlight was a discussion surrounding a request to receive the application for development at 46 St. John’s Sideroad (Biddington Homes Aurora Inc.) Under Bill 73, as Council has already approved its comprehensive zoning bylaw, the Town of aurora is under a 2 yr freeze period with respect to zoning amendment requests (for development) unless Council decides otherwise. This provision was not meant to be used to stop all development for 2 years. This was put in place so that communities such as Aurora would have some more control on what would be built in Town. Thus, Council was being asked to receive this as a zoning bylaw amendment application to follow the regular process of public planing meetings (a vote in favour of receiving the application does not mean a vote in favour of the development). While there was some discussion on whether Council should look at the merits of the application, under bill 73, Council has the authority to decide whether to allow an application to actually come forward at all, regardless of its merit or potential benefit to our community.. So while this provision is afforded us, I believe that using this provision to stop all development is not beneficial to the Town and the residents. And I don’t believe that is the intention of the provision either. We need to look at the whether the proposed application benefits the community and – if it does – to allow it to be received and follow the regular process of public planning. That’s appropriate development. That’s smart growth. Here is what I said at the table…