Construction work has begun on Aurora's new industrial business park on St. John’s Sideroad.
The Aurora Mills Business Park located at 1588 St. John's, near the corner of Leslie Street, has been in the works for nearly a decade.
The employment park subdivision is set to include industrial buildings, a self-storage facility and several restaurants, according to Marco Ramunno, director of planning with the Town of Aurora.
Applications for a zoning amendment were filed in 2015 to permit a business park, split into several blocks. Some of the planned sections are already under construction, while some are still awaiting approval or have not had submitted site plans.
The site plans for blocks one, five, and six have been approved and are currently under construction, according to Ramunno. Block one is set to include a Dairy Queen, a Starbucks with drive-thru, and an Osmow’s.
The plans for blocks five and six include a 24-unit industrial condominium building.
Block 1A, located at 70 Melvin Robinson Ave. has also received site plan approval for a five-storey self-storage facility.
The town is reviewing a site application for blocks three and four, for a two-storey multi-unit industrial building.
Ramunno said the town has not been provided any development plan for blocks two and seven as of yet.
Other development along St. John’s Sideroad
There a number of proposed developments along St. John's between Leslie and Highway 404, with the whole area designated for employment uses in the town's official plan.
An application to rezone a rural patch of land to build a business park, at 1756 St. John’s, has not moved forward since a public planning meeting took place on April 11, 2023.
“The Town is awaiting the applicant's response to the comments made during the meeting, as well as feedback from various departments and agencies. Although there is no active site plan application for this property, the intention is to develop it for employment purposes,” according to Ramunno.
On the opposite side of St. John’s, an application for an industrial building and gas bar at 1675 St. John’s, formerly an equestrian centre, has stalled.
The application, filed in July, 2020, outlined plans for an office building, retail building and a gas station. However, the applicant has put a hold on the application and is considering revising the plan, according to Ramunno.
