'It is wrong on so many levels': Smarter planning demanded for Richmond Hill Centre development

Yorkregion.com
Feb. 7, 2022

Ontario is fast-tracking two colossal projects along the Yonge North Subway Extension in southern York region, but some residents believe there is a smarter way to develop transit hubs.

"It is wrong on so many levels," said Graham Churchill, who lives just outside the proposed Richmond Hill Centre and has been following the development plan for years.

In 2021, the province revealed its plans to build two "transit-oriented communities (TOCs)" surrounding the High Tech subway station in Richmond Hill and the Bridge station in Markham.

Resident John Li, felt it is "another pro-developer plan" after he reviewed the draft Richmond Hill Centre Secondary Plan, similar to the Yonge-Bernard KDA revised plan.

Density is their primary concern about the proposed developments, with High Tech TOC bringing 33 towers, some up to 80 storeys tall, to the Yonge Street and Highway 7 area.

"I'm not against reasonable density. I am against crazy density," said Churchill, who has visited every major city globally and believes the plans would put that area on the map as one of the densest spots in the world, second only to the Dharavi slums of Mumbai, India.

His calculations related to the densities of the two TOCs were based on the province's plan to bring in 80,000 new residents.

What's equally concerning is that these proposals diminish employment while doubling densities, which residents say will make the so-called "bedroom community" even more so.

Regional and municipal planners say there have been long-standing plans for intensification in the area, but the growth proposed is well beyond what is planned for, and will impact the planning of infrastructure and services.

"These proposals do not currently align with the planning framework established through secondary plans for these planned and growing communities," said chief planner Paul Freeman in a Jan. 13 report from York Region.

"These developments are not following the review and decision process timelines legislated through the Planning Act," stated the report.

Richmond Hill's newly elected Mayor David West also points out the inconsistency of the growth plans and timelines.

"There seems to be a time crunch on that plan," said West. "But it needs to be done right so that it is a really excellent and dynamic community."

Churchill and Richmond Hill’s Council Accountability Group believe Infrastructure Ontario negotiated with the DeGasperis family, which owns the project land and are big donors to the Ontario PC Party, to give them what Churchill calls the "egregious densities" they wanted to provide financing for the Yonge subway.

Churchill also believes that the province is prepared to use a minister's zoning order (MZO) in order to achieve "zoning certainty" for the TOC proposals by March 2022, before the writ is dropped on the provincial election.

"The Ford government is setting up to pull the trigger," said Churchill. "It is getting ready to push through a major train wreck. If they do, it will be impossible to change short of new legislation."

Churchill concludes that a better plan is needed that integrates the community, the long-term vision of the region, and the overall GTA.

That, he said, includes burying the hydro corridor between Bayview Avenue and Yonge Street, providing an integrated rail system linking the centres, and creating an integrated park that runs right across the region.

"The reality is that they are proposing condo-wasteland," said Churchill. "There is a smarter way to build cities."

The transit hub developments are part of Ontario's plan to increase housing supply and reduce urban sprawl. But some experts say sprawl can be horizontal or vertical, and vertical sprawl is equally problematic.

Sprawl is big-ticket politics in Ontario where converting real estate properties into financial assets is driving the economy in the province, and particularly the GTA, said professor Roger Keil and colleague Murat Üçoğlu of the faculty of environmental and urban change at York University.

West, the new mayor, wants all the parties to be sitting at the table to create a comprehensive, thoughtful plan that works for Richmond Hill.