There was a Council Public Planning meeting on December 8th of 2020, at which Public Planning Report No. PDS20-077PDS20-077 - Official Plan Review was received.

The main attachments to the report were ...

The Official Plan Review team is preparing four discussion papers ..

    Growth & Infrastructure
    Natural Heritage Network
    Complete Communities
    Cultural Heritage & Archaeology

Public involvement is being facilitated through the Engageaurora.ca website, with online open houses scheduled through to the end of March of 2021.

Considering how the Town of Aurora's 2010 Official Plan (Revised 2015) called for an inventory of cultural heritage landscapes to become part of the Town's Cultural Heritage Register .. considering how within a few months council passed the Tree Protection By-law containing specific reference to cultural heritage landscapes .. considering how six months later Council approved a preliminary cultural heritage landscape project .. and finally considering that eventually not a single Cultural Heritage Landscape was ever established .. I think this review of the Official Plan should emphasize the multi-level role that CHLs can play in the successful preservation and management of local areas' heritage values.

I believe that important community features (containing both built-heritage and natural-heritage values) .. such as a downtown commercial core, stable neighbourhoods, tree bordered parks, areas of mature urban forest canopy, creek valley trails, and quaint tree-lined avenues .. will best be preserved, managed and promoted by being established as Cultural Heritage Landscapes. I'd like to see a very strong case for Cultural Heritage Landscapes built into the revised Official Plan, along with an equally strong directive to in fact establish them.

Given the importance of preserving both built-heritage and natural-heritage values, I think the issue of Cultural Heritage Landscapes should considered a common component shared between the discussions of "Natural Heritage Network" and "Cultural Heritage & Archaeology".

February 18, 2021

Page 9.