King Township supports GTA West transportation corridor

Thestar.com
Nov. 12, 2020
Mark Pavilons

King Township has lent its support to the GTA West corridor being built south of King-Vaughan municipal boundary.

King council voted to support the Ministry of Transportation Ontario’s (MTO) preferred route for the proposed GTA West Transportation Corridor, a 400-series highway built south of the municipality.

The vote was held on a resolution brought forward by Mayor Steve Pellegrini at a special planning meeting held Nov. 2.

“The most appropriate place for the GTA West Transportation Corridor to be built is south of the King-Vaughan municipal boundary for several reasons,” said Mayor Pellegrini. “First and foremost, any suggestions to move the proposed route further north into King Township would not be supported by council as it would have many negative impacts, including to the environment.”

Back in January of this year, King Township council passed a resolution fully supporting the MTO’s preferred technical Route S8-3 based on its natural, land use/socio-economic and transportation technical merits.

The City of Vaughan has also requested that a portion of the proposed alignment and Highway 27 interchange be located as far north as possible in order to minimize the impact on the existing residential communities.

York Region’s Committee of the Whole Transportation Services approved the recommendation to request that the MTO assess, as part of the Environmental Assessment, a highway alignment that avoids impacts to the approved community areas in the North Kleinburg-Nashville Secondary Plan area.

Now that the alignment of the MTO’s preferred route takes all of those issues into account, King Township council has advised the MTO it fully supports the preferred route.