East Gwillimbury council, staff brace for massive growth
Yorkregion.com
Aug. 6, 2015
By Simon Martin
Everywhere you look in East Gwillimbury, there is a new sales centre.
Another new subdivision, South Sharon, will bring more houses and another sales centre to town.
Town officials announced York Region representatives have told them the York Durham Sewage System (YDSS) extension could be operational within six months.
Many residents are asking town employees how they are going to handle such rapid growth.
Some answers came at a special council meeting on growth management.
Town staff 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 in East Gwillimbury that already have draft plan approval. Ideally, town staff would like to have a stable building rate of around 800 homes every year, but that’s not how the market works, CAO Tom Webster said.
While homes in Holland Landing and Queensville appear to be going forward at a steady rate, 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 worried.
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 come site grading and earthworks, preservicing, field review and inspections of site works, roads and sidewalks to maintain and plow, water and wastewater to manage, waste management, stormwater 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.
All this puts a large amount of stress on town staff.
“I need to know how we are able to facilitate this,” Councillor Tara Roy-DiClemente said. “I don’t have that clear in my mind.”
Councillor Marlene Johnston added there needs to be a clear message for residents to digest.
While the town has plans in place to deal with the pressure of growth, it is hard to know how it will play out until it actually happens.
A huge advantage the town has is that it is debt free, Mayor Virginia Hackson said.
That should give the town added flexibility other municipalities didn’t have. The town will add a host of new employees to deal with the added growth.
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.
Johnston mentioned the possibility of putting a cap on the number of building permits issued in a year.
