Last Yonge-Green Lane corner development appears headed toward the OMB

YorkRegion.com
March 20, 2017
Simon Martin

The last corner to be developed at Yonge at Green Lane in East Gwillimbury appears headed toward the Ontario Municipal Board. The town clerk has received notice that Rice Commercial Group has filed an appeal to the OMB in regards to lands on the northwest corner.

Rice Commercial Group came to council last year wanting to jump-start the process of developing the northwest corner.  Its proposal would see a mix of commercial, high density, medium density and low density housing that would including 2,300 residential units. The only problem is East Gwillimbury council didin’t appear interested until they were able to complete the ongoing Green Lane Secondary Plan.

The town did give the Rice Group 60 days to try to change the region’s mind on the matter, but there was little appetite from council to move forward with the plan Rice presented so an OMB appeal seemed inevitable.

The northeast corner of Yonge and Green Lane has the Lowe’s plaza, the southeast corner has SilverCity, the southwest corner has Costco and the northwest corner has a farm.

It’s safe to say RCG has been waiting for some action on the corner for a long time. Back in 2012, RCG presented council with a plan that could include mixed-use retail and commercial, restaurants, hotels, pedestrian trails and a central community park for the area.

Four years later in 2016, instead of waiting for the town’s secondary plan, Rice went forward and developed its own secondary plan for the area. That move didn’t sit well with the region, which wrote a letter to the town to say it cannot support the privately-initiated plan because it doesn’t fit with the comprehensive and collaborative manner the area should be planned with.

While East Gwillimbury undertook site specific planning for the SilverCity site many years ago, council said it wanted to have a secondary plan on Green Lane before hearing individual applications from developers. “We don’t want planning on a piecemeal basis,” Coun. Tara Roy-DiClemente said. “We need to take a cohesive look at the whole stretch (of Green Lane).”

Coun. James Young echoed that sentiment. “The whole thing needs to be looked at comprehensively,” he said.  

In RCG’s secondary plan, the area would include 600 low density homes, 1,350 townhouses and 350 apartment units. The plan also forecasts 1,440 jobs coming from the area and close to $13 million in additional municipal and regional taxes annually.

The town is in the midst of undertaking the Green Lane Secondary Plan. There are very few specifics as of yet, but residents are being asked to comment about what kind of streetscape they would like to see at Yonge and Green Lane. 

Guests packed the Canada Room of the East Gwillimbury Sports Complex Jan. 18 to catch a first glimpse at what changes could be coming to Green Lane. The open house was the first of several that are slated for this year with more scheduled in April to hear about land-use concepts and September before a public meeting to take place in December.