Vaughan celebrating a quarter-century as a city

YorkRegion.com
Jan. 8, 2016
By Adam Martin-Robbins

A quarter of a century ago, Vaughan made the leap in status from town to city and in celebration of that milestone municipal officials are encouraging residents to share their fondest memories from the past 25 years.

To that end, the municipality has created a website (www.vaughan25.ca) dedicated to its anniversary where you can share your stories. You can also post your memories on the city’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/thecityofvaughan/) or other social media channels using the hashtag #Vaughan25.

 “What a journey this city is undergoing,” Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua said during a 25th anniversary launch event at city hall Thursday. “We start off as a small town with small-town values, but we always had within us a deep sense of citizenship; a deep sense of wanting to reach higher heights, to go forward, to move faster, to build a community that speaks to those values rooted in humility, optimism and hope. All those values that have made this great city the great city that it is.”

Thursday’s event - attended by residents, city employees and a host of dignitaries from all levels of government - was just the first of many slated to take place throughout the year culminating in a “signature” celebration in the fall.

HISTORY

The city, named after British diplomat Benjamin Vaughan, has experienced a number of highs and lows during the last 25 years. But its roots date further back in history.

Vaughan as it’s configured today - a suburban community made up of an amalgamation of former villages including Concord, Kleinburg, Maple, Thornhill and Woodbridge - emerged in 1971.

That was the year Vaughan Township, founded in 1850, merged with the Village of Woodbridge, which had its own municipal government since 1882, to create the Town of Vaughan.

Twenty years later, in 1991, with its population at just more than 100,000, the town applied to change its legal status to become a city.

CHALLENGES

Since that time, Vaughan’s population has soared to more than 320,000, making it one of the fastest growing communities in Canada.

And with that type of growth has come traffic congestion, the loss of trees and green space as well as poorer air quality, among other challenges.

The municipality has also seen its share of political scandals over the years, too, although city officials, led by Bevilacqua, have worked hard, with some success in the past few years, to try to rehabilitate Vaughan’s image.

HONOURS

Over the last 25 years, the city has also captured its fair-share of honours including landing the first subway outside of Toronto.

The 8.6-kilometre, six-stop addition to the Spadina line is expected to open at the end of 2017 in the emerging downtown, dubbed the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre (VMC), near Hwy. 7 and Jane Street.

Speaking of the VMC, Vaughan reached new heights in July 2014 with the completion of the 37-storey Expo City condominium, which is York Region’s tallest building.

Of course, Vaughan also boasts Canada’s first Legoland Discovery Centre, which opened in 2013.

It’s also home to the country’s tallest and fastest roller coaster - Leviathan, which started rolling at Canada’s Wonderland in 2012, stands 93 metres tall and reaches a top speed of 148 km/h.

Vaughan can also boast about being the hometown of two of the best athletes Canada has produced in the last 25 years.

Top-ranked tennis star Milos Raonic spent hours smashing balls on the court near his family’s home in Thornhill.

The hard-serving 25-year-old made history in the spring of 2015 by placing fourth in the ATP tennis rankings - the highest ranking ever by a Canadian singles player.

And, of course, there’s Basketball phenom Andrew Wiggins, selected first overall in the 2014 NBA draft.

The towering 20-year-old, with the incredible vertical leap, also hails from Thornhill.

Vaughan celebrated another sporting milestone in January 2015, landing its first professional soccer team - TFC II, a farm team for Toronto FC.

HOSPITAL ANTICIPATED DEVELOPMENT

One of the most highly anticipated developments in the city’s maturation, the opening of Vaughan’s first hospital, is still a few years away.

The Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital is slated to open at the northwest corner of Major Mackenzie Drive and Jane Street in 2019.

But there’s been major progress in the last couple of years after roughly a decade of waiting fraught with political infighting and wrangling.

Bevilacqua touted both the hospital and subway as among Vaughan’s most notable achievements during his address to the large crowd of residents gathered in the atrium at city hall Thursday afternoon.

“I’m really overjoyed by what has transpired in this city,” he said. “This is an experiment that has gone right.”