'Growing pains' expected in Richmond Hill to accommodate population growth

Richmond Hill’s population is expected to reach 277,900 by 2041, more than doubling its population in 2001

Yorkregion.com
October 4, 2018
Sheila Wang

For anyone who sets foot in the Town of Richmond Hill for the first time, it’d be difficult to picture what this vibrant town used to look like -- a farming community with crossroad villages and separate hamlets.

The transformation of Richmond Hill continues, only at a higher pace and a higher cost.

“The days of building subdivisions with low-density housing -- because we don’t have the land to do it any more -- are behind us,” said Leigh McGrath, urban planner by training at Urban Strategies Inc., a Toronto-based urban design and planning consultancy.

The Town of Richmond Hill, like other municipalities in the Greater Golden Horseshoe, is required to comply with a provincial-level growth plan, which directs each municipality to grow by a certain number of people by 2041.

What municipal election candidates are saying about density issues in Richmond Hill
Richmond Hill’s population is expected to reach 277,900 by 2041, more than doubling its population in 2001, according to the town’s economic development strategy, which was updated January 2017.

“The only way Richmond Hill can accommodate more population is in different housing forms, in higher density, in different kinds of ways,” said Ana Bassios, who is Richmond Hill’s former commissioner of planning and regulatory services.

The town has been well prepared for the new population and high density, said Patrick Lee, Richmond Hill's director of policy planning.

“We’ve tried to be sensitive to the desire of the community, in terms of what the community felt was appropriate scale of development for Richmond Hill,” Lee said.

High-density residential development is planned for two key development areas along Yonge Street: the intersection of Yonge Street and Carrville/16th Avenue and the intersection of Yonge Street and Bernard Avenue, according to the 2010 Richmond Hill official plan.

Residents are expected to see more mid-rise and highrise residential buildings along the other regional corridor -- Highway 7. Meanwhile, some smaller-scale, mixed-use services centres are planned along the Major Mackenzie corridor including Mackenzie Health's Richmond Hill hospital, the Newkirk GO Station and the Bayview Avenue and Major Mackenzie Drive East intersection.

“The growth is planned in the right place,” McGrath said. “Matching the intensification with the transit is one of the challenges.”

The transit is not there yet, and probably will not be there for quite a while.

With the current size of population, there is already no lack of traffic problems in Richmond Hill, as yorkregion.com previously reported.

The ongoing construction of rapidway bus transit along Yonge Street is scheduled to be complete in December 2020; it is hoped to help alleviate some of the traffic pressure along the corridor. However, it remains unclear when the residents can expect the much-awaited subway extension along Yonge Street, which would be key to alleviating Richmond Hill’s long-standing traffic woes.

“There is a growing period, or some growing pains between the time when the density is being built in the right place, and the transit infrastructure isn’t yet in place to help alleviate some of the traffic pressure that, in particular, comes along with density,” McGrath said.

“Transit funding and the building of the transit need to speed up and meet the demand,” she added.

Jim Canale-Parola, a Richmond Hill native, pointed out all kinds of infrastructure are lagging, unable to cope with the population growth in Richmond Hill, such as libraries, public schools, emergency services and community centres.

“I’m not against development, as long as it’s sustainable and doesn’t affect the residents,” he said. “I think they have to understand there should be infrastructure first before they can start building.”

Reminiscing about the good old days, the 52-year-old said Richmond Hill is simply not ready for the city feeling. Many old-time residents, he said, are going to leave the town because of that.

“It (the development) is so destructive,” Canale-Parola said, remembering a time when it was scenic to drive down Bayview Avenue, with homes on one side and farms on the other.

After a century of transformation and more than three decades of rapid urbanization, Richmond Hill is no longer the village it used to be, but something remains unchanged -- a sense of belonging to neighbourhoods.

Many, including Canale-Parola, fear that the planned higher-density housing would erode the sense of community belonging.

Lesley Block, a 15-year resident of Richmond Hill, shared the same sentiment.

"When there is (higher) density in any community, it breaks down the feeling of community and the closeness of community," she said.

Block added she's seen many housing units planned in a place where one house once stood. "The smaller the community, the more support people get. The larger the community, the less support people get."

What the town should do is to develop central public spaces where people can get together and relax, such as the strip on Yonge Street between Major Mackenzie Drive and Wright Street, she suggested.

“I think the town has done their job in identifying where they want the growth to occur. But the kind of growth that the town is encouraging -- in the smaller footprint, taller buildings, some more intense buildings -- isn’t necessarily the same types that the community of Richmond Hill had built in the past,” McGrath said.

But it is not contradictory to having a sense of community. The sense of community is not about the building itself, but everything around it, she said.

“A sense of community is certainly not dictated by the form or the height or the density of the development that you have. It’s more dictated by the sense of belonging, sense of identification in the area,” Lee said.

He said the town will promote the sense of community through public-oriented events and people places such as the local parks system, music festivals, farmers' markets and local businesses.

The issues involving population growth are nothing unique. It is something that every city and every major urban area in the world has to deal with, said Bassios.

“It’s how you balance that system that makes the place function or not,” Bassios said, noting that land use, traffic and employment are part of the system.

In McGrath’s view, there is a certain uniqueness in Richmond Hill’s density issue.

“Richmond Hill, compared with other locations in York Region, is smaller,” McGrath said. “The growth areas in Richmond Hill are very much hooked up with along Yonge Street corridor. I think the pressures there aren’t spread out, whereas in other parts of the region it may be a little more spread out.”

As of 2016, there were 1,929 people per square kilometres in Richmond Hill -- 70 per cent denser than its neighbouring City of Vaughan, which is significantly larger in land area, according to the 2016 census profile on the Town of Richmond Hill.

Like it or not, Richmond Hill is going to get denser, taller and busier.

“I’d have to say community has started understanding the benefit of higher density. Pushback isn’t as great as it used to be,” Lee said.