Road Ahead: East Gwillimbury population about to boom

Yorkregion.com
Jan. 4, 2016
By Simon Martin

While 2015 might be remembered as the year of construction in East Gwillimbury, the year didn’t actually bring many new residents to town.

While new homes in Sharon were selling like hot cakes, new homeowners aren’t your neighbours quite yet.

In fact, despite targets, the pace of new home development in East Gwillimbury slowed in 2015. New home building permits dropped from 167 in 2014 to an estimated 87 in 2015.

The numbers were surprising to some members of East Gwillimbury council. “I thought we were booming in East Gwillimbury,” Councillor Joe Persechini said.

The lull, however, is just temporary, according to projections.

While development services had expected a higher volume of permits in 2015, general manager Carolyn Kellington said the slowdown was due to the timing of the York Durham Sewage System extension completion at the end of this year.

That will all change in 2016. With completion of the York Durham Sewage System extension, that mean residents will finally be able to move to East Gwillimbury.

CAO Tom Webster said the town expects somewhere in the vicinity of 1,000 building permits in 2016 as new development starts to come online.

Town staff has laid out how many homes have draft plan approval in Holland Landing, Sharon, Mount Albert and Queensville.

The numbers are big.

In Holland Landing west, there is approval for 1,294 homes, with 987 serviced through the YDSS.

In Holland Landing east, there are 1,626 approved units, with 906 serviced through the YDSS.

In Queensville, there are 1,826 approved units, with a YDSS allotment of 3,151.

In Sharon, there are 1,974 approved homes, with 1,546 serviced through the YDSS.

Finally, in Mount Albert, there is approval for 454 homes that are serviced by the Mount Albert sewage treatment plant.

In total, that is 7,174 homes that already have draft plan approval.

Ideally, town staff would like to have a stable building rate of about 800 homes every year, but that’s not how the market works.

While homes in Holland Landing and Queensville appear to be going forward at a steady pace, that is not the case in Sharon. With 10 builders in Sharon and sales centres selling out in record time, the town is expecting a huge spike of new home builds in 2016 and 2017, which has council a little concerned.

Councillor James Young likened the experience to slowly climbing to the top of a roller-coaster and holding on for dear life.

“I don’t know if I have enough Gravol to hang on for the ride,” he said. “I just don’t know if we have the horses to do it."

With new development comes site grading and earthworks, pre-servicing, field review and inspections of site works, roads and sidewalks to maintain and plow, water and wastewater to manage, waste management, storm water runoff and ponds, design, construction and maintenance of parks, trails, sports fields and playgrounds, plan approvals for new building and field review and inspections of construction.

Town leaders are planning to hire a building official in 2016, a zoning examiner in 2017, a planner in 2018 and a building inspector in 2019. They are also looking to hire as many contract workers as possible to deal with the large spike of growth projected in 2016 in 2017.

Town staff estimates 1,400 new homes will be built 2016 and 2017, with that rate falling to 800 from 2018 to 2020.