'Buyer's remorse': Significant development coming to Newmarket's doorstep, including on Greenbelt lands

New growth in East Gwillimbury and King Township will add thousands of new residents

Yorkregion.com
May 8, 2023
Lisa Queen

Over the next three decades, Newmarket residents will see significant development on the town’s doorstep in King Township and East Gwillimbury.

That has many people concerned about the impact on Newmarket’s services, municipalities’ inability to pay for amenities through the development charges on which they’ve traditionally relied, sewage capacity restraints, and the loss of Greenbelt lands.

Newmarket, with the slowest growth rate in York Region, has a population of 91,500. By 2051, that’s projected to be almost 116,000.

Meanwhile, as the fastest growing municipality in Canada, East Gwillimbury’s population of 37,600 in 2021 is expected to reach 127,700 by 2051.

Much of that growth will take place just north of Newmarket, such as Redwood Properties’ proposed 3,000-unit development north of Yonge Street and Green Lane.

King’s population of 27,800 in 2021 is forecast to reach 50,300 in 2051.

Last November, the provincial government infuriated many when it announced 15 parcels of Greenbelt lands would now be developed as part of Queen’s Park’s push to build 1.5 million homes over the next decade to address the housing crisis.

That comes as Bill 23, the More Homes Built Faster Act, exempts developers from paying some development charges, the fees on new construction to help fund municipal infrastructure and amenities.

One of the Greenbelt parcels is in King at Bathurst Street and Miller’s Sideroad on Newmarket’s western border.

While it’s not yet known how many homes will be built there and if the site will house the new Southlake Region Health Centre, development on the site will be significant.

The site is far from other King communities so residents could turn to Newmarket for services, Mayor John Taylor said.

And it could rob Newmarket of sewage allocation it needs for new development, making it impossible to meet the province’s mandate to add 12,000 homes to the town by 2031, he said.

Taylor sees a big difference between the long-planned development in East Gwillimbury and the “isolated pop-up” growth at Bathurst and Miller’s Sideroad on Greenbelt lands in King.

All the growth concerns longtime Newmarket resident Rex Taylor, a supporter of affordable housing, Pamela Vega, a Newmarket member of Climate Action Newmarket-Aurora, and Claire Malcolmson, executive director of the Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition.

While new housing is needed, they argue planning experts insist there is enough land available within existing urban boundaries to accommodate growth, including intensification that maximizes taxpayers’ dollars invested in transit and other infrastructure.

Until Premier Doug Ford reneged on his promise not to allow development on the Greenbelt, the environmentally sensitive lands were off limits to large scale urban development and stood as an international model, Taylor said.

“People need to remember that the Greenbelt is not some sort of radical, lefty, ‘tree-hugger’ thing. There are really sound economic reasons for its existence. It saves hundreds of millions of dollars annually in flood mitigation alone. And for these reasons and others, you could say that protecting the Greenbelt from development is actually a very conservative, fiscally responsible thing,” he said.

“I suspect that a lot of people who voted for the Tories in the last election, in part because of Ford’s solemn promise, have a case of buyer’s remorse today.”

It makes no sense to build on the Greenbelt and put the environment and farmland at risk when the focus should be on building compact, walkable communities, Vega, a Newmarket resident, said.

“Building into the Greenbelt will only build more of the same old, same old and create outdated and unsustainable forms of living,” she said.

Malcolmson believes East Gwillimbury is the “poster child” of urban sprawl and feels the King development is just a new subdivision hiding behind the prospect of a new hospital and will result in a subdivision relying on Newmarket for services.

“This is the way you wreck towns and it's the province doing this, not the mayors and councils,” she added.

John Taylor, who argues housing of all types is needed as the Greater Toronto Area is North America’s fastest growing area, stressed that if growth is going to happen, it’s crucial the province ensure municipalities have funding sources to provide transit, roads, recreation centres, seniors housing, rental housing and other services.