Newmarket lacks town-owned land for housing development

Municipality said town is largely built-out, with majority of town-owned land not suitable for housing

Newmarkettoday.ca
Jan. 24, 2024
Joseph Quigley

The Town of Newmarket is depleted of town-owned land that could be developed for housing.

Newmarket has faced challenges with land for growth for years, leading to intensified development along already developed major corridors. The municipality released a map to NewmarketToday that shows that most of the remaining town-owned land is occupied by facilities or parks.

The town said the municipality is densely populated with limited public lands potentially available for development.

“The majority of town-owned lands are situated on open space zoned green space, and flood plains which are not suitable for housing or infrastructure development,” the municipality said.

The majority of town-owned land lies in parks, as well as some paths. Some pieces of residential areas and a few larger lots of employment lands still intact, that include the town operations centre and a stormwater pond.

Newmarket Mayor John Taylor said government-owned vacant land is not readily available, but there is a question of what government-owned land at every level could be intensified.

“Nobody should ever build a one-storey building ever again for a town office somewhere, in some town in the region,” Taylor said. “It should be, this is valuable land that has the potential for housing.”

Despite the lack of land, Newmarket has made some efforts to use what it can to get housing built in recent years. The municipality donated a small piece of land it had remaining to Inn From the Cold to allow it a location for a new headquarters and shelter facility.

Newmarket also agreed to a resolution passed at York Region to find two acres of land to donate for affordable housing within the next five years. That donation is getting covered by the agreement with Shining Hill, Taylor said, which will see some of that previously private land used for affordable housing.

Meanwhile, Newmarket will also have a new affordable housing development coming on Bayview Parkway, though that is using land owned by York Region.

Taylor said where such development could happen, there is always the challenge of finding funding for development.

”We have historically only got enough funding to do about one building every two years region-wide,” Taylor said. “Land is not the limitation.”

The lack of town land has meant challenges for the prospect of new service facilities.

Southlake Regional Health Centre is searching for a new second hospital location. Although Southlake has not publicly announced any potential sites, the new parcel has to be 75 to 100 acres, and Taylor has previously said residents should not be concerned if the new spot is outside of Newmarket.

Newmarket Deputy Mayor Tom Vegh also identified in 2022 that finding a location would be a challenge for a new public library building, though the town has moved on from the idea and is instead focusing on improving the existing facility.

Although the town lacks municipal lands for development, dozens of private developers are building or have plans for their land in the community. The town plans to have significant intensification on the Yonge Street and Davis Drive corridors through private development, such as around Upper Canada Mall where 5,000 new units are to be built over the next 30 years.