Put new facility in southern York, urge regional councillors

Markham, Vaughan reps want building in Richmond Hill

Yorkregion.com
March 5, 2015
By Lisa Queen

Ten months after the most recent decision by York Region councillors to move forward with a $212.8-million administrative annex building adjacent to the Newmarket headquarters, two councillors now want the project moved to Richmond Hill to serve the growing population in the three southern municipalities.

“The bottom line is we want to have the services where the residents are. They are not up here,” Vaughan Regional Councillor Michael Di Biase said following a regional council meeting in Newmarket.

“Seventy-eight per cent of the residents live in Markham, Richmond Hill or Vaughan.”

The region’s population will grow from today’s 1.2 million to more than two million in the next quarter century, with the majority of new residents settling in the southern three municipalities, he said.

Di Biase and Markham Regional Councillor Jim Jones say it probably makes sense to abandon the Newmarket site and locate health, social and court services at Hwy. 7 and Yonge Street., where Markham, Richmond Hill and Vaughan intersect.

“My understanding is the majority of uses (services provided in the building) would be for Markham, Vaughan and Richmond Hill. The majority of growth will be in Markham, Vaughan and Richmond Hill,” Jones said.

“It is at the apex of all kinds of transportation and transit versus up here (in Newmarket).”

Council voted to bring back a report on relocating the project to Richmond Hill in April.

The only transit linking the south part of the region with the Newmarket site is Viva, Jones said. On the other hand, Yonge and Hwy. 7 is emerging as a transit nerve centre to accommodate growth, he said.

It has been identified as a major regional transit hub, joining the potential Yonge subway extension, the Richmond Hill GO train, the provincial Hwy. 407 rail transit-way, the Viva Yonge bus rapid transit (BRT) rapidway, the Viva Hwy. 7 BRT and York Region Transit services, he said.

Although Jones estimated the region has already spent $9 million on studies and architectural drawings on the Newmarket building, he argued the money wouldn’t be wasted because some of that information could be applied to the Richmond Hill project.

Meanwhile, the region could look at options rather than constructing its own building, such as leasing or leasing to own and also sharing space with the federal and provincial governments to provide one-stop government services, he said.

Under the Newmarket plan, the annex building planned for Yonge Street, north of Eagle Street, would be about 422,000 square feet and hold about 1,500 work spaces.

It would be connected by a footbridge to the regional headquarters, which houses twice the staff for which it was designed.

Urging councillors last May to get past “political rhetoric,” Newmarket Mayor Tony Van Bynen called the Newmarket location ideal given its proximity to transit and the fact the region owns the land.

The annex could bring under one roof services now provided in space the region owns and leases around Newmarket. The consolidation could save the region between $26 and $60 million over the life of the building.

But Jones argued his plan doesn’t preclude offering services in Newmarket and even at a Georgina location, while recognizing the bulk of the services should be provided in the south to accommodate the majority of residents.

Jones and Di Biase dismissed suggestions that moving the project to Richmond Hill is an attempt to shift the region’s traditional home in Newmarket to the southern part of the region.

“(Newmarket) is the regional centre for government, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be the regional centre for all services,” Jones said.

“Newmarket will always be that,” Di Biase added. “But we’re talking services. If you need an inoculation, if you need to go to court to challenge a ticket, (you need) welfare ... the growth we’re going to see - it’s all down there.”