Debate over Dufferin and Centre streets development
Next public hearing planned for early 2017

Yorkregion.com and mykawartha.com
Nov. 24, 2016
By Simone Joseph

Josh Martow is concerned about the Dufferin and Centre Streets area of Thornhill becoming too developed.

“People are worried about the extra density being jammed into the area,” said Martow,  president of the Beverley Glen Ratepayers Association.

The City of Vaughan hosted a public open house earlier this month, at which a draft plan for the Dufferin-Centre Streets intersection was presented and discussed.

So far, the city has received an application to build a townhouse with 56 units in the area. Last year, it approved the development of a four-storey office building and a one-storey retail building.

“I can’t imagine what it will be like to have another couple of thousand cars on the road,” Goldstein said.

The community supports the building of town homes, yet city officials want to “squeeze condos up to six stories tall to justify building the rapidway bus lanes,” Martow said. While he wasn’t at the public open house, he has spoken to residents about the issue. “Now they're pushing for 12 storeys along Centre Street too,” he said.

Allan Goldstein has a similar concern about the city becoming too dense. He works as a lawyer in the Yonge Street and Sheppard Avenue area of Toronto and worries parts of Vaughan are headed in that same direction - becoming a collection of skyscrapers.

“That’s what it will be like in our area. That’s not what we moved to the suburbs for,” he said.

Goldstein lives in the Bathurst Street and Worth Boulevard area and is former president of the Beverley Glen Ratepayers Association.

But Alan Shefman points out only low to mid-rise density buildings are being proposed in the Dufferin and Centre Sts. area, which is what the Thornhill councillor advocates.

“I want to see controlled density, low-rise development,” Shefman said.

Shefman believes a ten-storey building, for example, would be reasonable for the area.

The tallest building the city is planning for in this area is a 12-storey building.

But Goldstein argues increased density is more than our infrastructure can handle.

“I can’t imagine what it will be like to have another couple of thousand cars on the road,” he said.

Those banking on a subway extension to solve local travelling woes may be disappointed, according to Shefman.

There won’t be a viable enough population at Centre Street and Hwy. 7 to justify subway extension to that area for at least 50 years, Shefman said. In 20 or 25 years when the density increases, the city can move from bus rapid transit to laying down track for light rail transit, he said.

All you have to do is drive to see the necessity of rapid transit, Shefman said.

“Anyone who does not want rapid transit does not get on our roads. We are having a huge problem,” he said.

The next public hearing on the topic of Dufferin and Centre Streets development is planned for early 2017 when the public can comment on the latest proposed plan at this meeting. For more information and to see slides from the public open house presentation, visit vaughan.ca