East Gwillimbury design guidelines - Branding identity

NRU
Nov. 18, 2015
By Geordie Gordon

East Gwillimbury staff are proposing new streetscape and public realm design guidelines to differentiate and strengthen the identity of its local centres and corridors. The guidelines reflect the unique history of the four different communities that make up East Gwillimbury.

East Gwillimbury community parks, recreation and culture general manager Aaron Karmazyn told NRU that the development of the design standards occurred over the course of a year and involved extensive review of background documents and studies as well as community stakeholder outreach.

“From there we started to develop themes for different communities. We’ve a very large and broad land mass, so the history of the town ... is steeped in agricultural history, but we do have very distinctive and separate communities that our residents are very proud of,” he said.

Project consultant and Cosburn Giberson Landscape Architects partner Bruce Johnson, told NRU that the guidelines build on the town’s official plan by recognizing the four distinct areas that together make up East Gwillimbury.

“What [the guidelines] recognize is that East Gwillimbury is composed of these distinct settlement communities, all of which have a slightly unique history to them. What staff wanted to do was make sure that it didn’t get lost in translation as growth happened in the community,” he said.

The community themes are intended to reflect and respect East Gwillimbury’s past. The Mount Albert theme reflects an agricultural tradition, while the Sharon theme reflects the heritage, arts and culture history of the community. The Holland Landing theme uses symbolic materials to recall the industrial and marine past that shaped the community. The theme for Queensville, which is intended to accommodate a significant amount of East Gwillimbury’s future growth, is modern and forward-looking.

Karmazyn says that the use of the various themes is important to maintaining the identity of the local communities in the face of anticipated growth.

“There’s a lot of new development [in municipalities across Ontario] that, unfortunately, [causes municipalities to] lose [their] distinctive communities and it does feel like cookie cutter [developments] ... [The community] loses its sense of identity. And so what we’ve tried to do is create different pockets of interest and spaces that are very interesting and vibrant, and that really played on the past of the individual community. And in the case of Queensville, looking forward to the future,” he said.

Johnson says that while the four communities receive a unique treatment under the guidelines, there is still an overall performance standard for East Gwillimbury that serves to highlight the unique areas.

“There’s also an overall, general guideline so in that way it’s a performance standard and [sets out] expectations.

... Part of the intent [of the guidelines] is [to differentiate] corridors and centres, so that as you move back from the major spines ... [the streetscape] transitions to the more generic detailing that you would expect in a subdivision.

And that’s to make sure that the special places have special focus, and perhaps special investment.”

The new streetscape and public realm design guidelines were on the Whitby council agenda last night after deadline.