East Gwillimbury expecting 1,700 new homes occupied by end of year

Yorkregion.com
Aug. 22, 2017
By Simon Martin

In case you were wondering how many new neighbours you have in East Gwillimbury, it's a lot. At the town's mid-year review presentation, town staff told council that 850 new homes have already been occupied with that number likely to double by the end of the year, engineering director Paul Neumann said.

"That is a huge growth for our municipality," he said.

According to staff, there are 26 active development sites being monitored and enforced by staff.

The news looks good financially as the town is forecasting a modest surplus for the end of the year and continues to be debt free.

As far major infrastructure projects, more information is expected to come in the near future on the Health and Active Living Plaza with an update expected at council in September. The town announced a memorandum of understanding with the YMCA of the Greater Toronto Area on the project last September, but little has been made public since the town signed the MOU. The memorandum was the first step in the plan to bring the multi-functional plaza offering a recreation centre, pool, health and community services and a library to town.

The plaza is scheduled to open once the population of the town reaches 40,000 people which the town estimated for 2020. The town estimated the cost savings of the partnership would be $30 million over the next 50 years. Based on preliminary designs, the projected construction cost of the plaza is $38 million. The town portion of the cost is to be funded through development charges.

Another major infrastructure project the town has on the docket this year is a new operations centre with a tender anticipated for the project late this year.

In terms of important planning documents, the town is about halfway through the Green Lane Secondary Plan process which dictates the future development of Green Lane as the town continues to grow. There has been two open houses held to date with the future of the Green Lane corridor looking like more houses, more apartments, more townhomes, more schools, more stores more roads, more trails more parks, more traffic and fewer farms.