Road Ahead: York Region works toward growth blueprint in 2016

Yorkregion.com
Dec. 31, 2015
By Lisa Queen

With another 700,000 residents making York Region home over the next quarter century, council is expected next spring to choose between two possible growth scenarios.

Under the first model, the region is looking at the minimum amount of intensification allowed by the province, which would permit more development to be built on now-undeveloped land.

The second scenario would see more development take place in already established communities while still allowing construction on undeveloped land.

That would balance good planning policies with market housing demands, the region’s chief planner, Val Shuttleworth, said.

However, environmentalists are upset council may consider expanding the region’s urban boundary beyond growth already accounted for and say the two remaining options on the table will lead to sprawl.

“Allowing an expansion of urban boundaries as part of the region’s growth management plan contradicts the region’s own planning report that clearly indicates that there is more than enough land already allocated for future growth to 2041,” environmental watchdog Environmental Defence said.

Not expanding the urban boundary would lead to smarter, more compact growth better supporting investments in public transit, the group said, urging the region to consult with residents before settling on an option.

“Council’s decision to drop the most efficient growth scenario and, instead, continue 1950s style development patterns, which pave over farmland, shows why we need continued provincial leadership in land use planning,” it added.

But funnelling all those people into already established communities would create high densities that residents who have chosen to make York home wouldn’t want, developers and some councillors argue.

Many residents want to live in York because it offers traditional family housing, said David Stewart, vice-president of TACC Developments.

The region’s move toward choosing a preferred growth blueprint next spring comes amid new recommendations on the province’s greenbelt and growth plans from a panel headed by former Toronto mayor David Crombie.

The recommendations are applauded by the Ontario Greenbelt Alliance, made up of more than 117 organizations, because they increase the size of the greenbelt and curb urban sprawl.

“The panel’s call for greater urban densities that limit sprawl and enable better transit is a clear, smart solution,” said Environmental Defence executive director Tim Gray, a member of the alliance’s steering committee.

“It sets the stage for the province to provide transit funding incentives that are contingent on growing more compactly and for Ontario to clarify to communities that land cannot be removed from the greenbelt to ensure sprawl is slowed and stopped.”