Markham Future Urban Area
Ahead of the Curve

NRU
Sept. 20, 2017
Dominik Matusik

Markham is ready to move ahead on developing its new urban area, with the focus on creating a new employment zone.

Planning staff has prepared a conceptual master plan for a 1,300-ha greenfield site in north Markham. The new urban area will be divided into four secondary plan areas, three residential and one employment lands.

Ward 6 councillor Amanda Collucci told NRU that the main focus of the master plan is on the creation of a new employment area in the city’s north end, to take pressure off of the Highway 7 corridor.

“The key thing about this future urban area is really a vision for the City of Markham to create an employment area and also a mixed-use [area] of residential and retail,” she says. “And according to the conceptual plan, there will be neighbourhood parks and there will be a mix of high density and low density residential areas. But more importantly there will be a really big employment area between Woodbine [Avenue] and Warden [Avenue] and then from Elgin Mills [Road] to 19th Avenue.”

Collucci says that having all of Markham’s employment clustered around Highway 7 creates traffic problems that could be solved by creating an employment zone in the city’s north end. Additionally, she says that the intensification proposed through the master plan will help the city meet the provincial growth targets.

Development services commissioner Jim Baird says that Markham is on-track to meeting provincial density and intensification targets.

“The focus of the 2014 official plan is intensification,” Baird told NRU. “In terms of the overall growth projected in Markham to 2031, fully 60 per cent of that new growth is to be accommodated in the form of infill and intensification within the existing urban boundary. Another 20 per cent was to be accommodated by completing existing communities that are not yet fully built out and therefore were not part of the province’s built boundary... Then 20 per cent is this future urban area.”

Baird says that Markham still has a considerable amount of greenfield land, some of which may be developed for the next round of growth planning to 2041. However, he says that Markham has historically been “ahead of the curve” on building dense communities like Cornell, which have allowed the city to maintain a relatively high density.

“We are accommodating roughly 70 residents and jobs per hectare and 20 units per hectare, which complies with the York Region Official Plan,” Baird says. “Going forward to 2041, we know the province is increasing the density requirements but [it] also put in place transition rules. So this planning program is in compliance with current city and regional OP requirements, [and] current provincial requirements to 2031. Going forward, we know the province is seeking even more intensification and higher density for both infill and greenfield.”

The conceptual master plan for the future urban area will be considered by Markham council at its meeting September 26.