Richmond Hill invites you to ‘rethink’ future of Yonge Street, Bernard Avenue community

The city is inviting residents to attend an open house to provide input on Dec. 10.

Yorkregion.com
December 2, 2019
Sheila Wang

The fate of one of Richmond Hill’s top development areas -- and perhaps one of the city's most contentious intensification plans -- may be back in your hands.

The city is inviting residents to attend an open house to provide input on land use planning within the Yonge-Bernard Key Development Area (KDA) on Dec. 10.

The two-hour session will take place at the Plaza Suite of the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts, from 6 to 8 p.m.

Staff is expected to provide a brief presentation at 6:30 p.m., and both city and regional staff will be available to respond to questions and hear feedback from the residents about the future for the intensification area located at the intersection of Yonge Street and Bernard Avenue.

Identified in the Richmond Hill official plan as a key development area, the future plan for the neighbourhood has gone through a number of changes over the past years, with a focus on the height limit and the density.

Earlier this year, in May, council reversed a previous resolution on the maximum height, to 15 storeys, back from 37 storeys, as a result of tenacious opposition from area residents.

The Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT), formerly known as the Ontario Municipal Board, will have the final say on the proposed development, because the KDA plan is currently being appealed to the tribunal.

The city is revisiting the secondary plan for the KDA and is looking to “make changes” to better align the plan with “the vision of stakeholders and the local community,” as well as direction from both the regional and the provincial governments regarding intensification, the city’s website reads.

It notes that the KDA has also been identified as a “Major Transit Station Area (MTSA).”

The concept of MTSAs was first introduced in 2017 when Ontario updated the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe. MTSAs are defined as areas that are within 500 to 800 metres of an existing or planned higher-order transit station/stop, which represents about a 10-minute walk.

“As part of the rethinking for the Yonge/Bernard KDA Secondary Plan, it is important to be mindful of this and other related new policy directions,” the website reads.

Visit richmondhill.ca for more information.

You may also submit your comments and questions to the Office of the Clerk at 905-771-8800 or by email at clerks@richmondhill.ca or to the policy planner at bernardkda@richmondhill.ca.