Tying transit to urban expansion
Go Ahead

NRU
January 22, 2014
By Edward LaRusic

The City of Vaughan is making the best of a decree by the region to expand its urban boundaries, by starting the process to create a transit-oriented development around a proposed GO station.

Vaughan plans to use the greenfield lands bounded by Jane Street, Keele Street, Kirby Road and Teston Road - better known as block 27 - to support the creation of a complete community.

Vaughan Ward 1 councillor Marilyn Iafrate spoke to NRU about the city’s future plans for the site. The city is still drafting a terms of reference for a secondary plan for the site. The GO
station isn’t a sure thing yet, but there’s been a lot of thought put into what will eventually go in and around block 27. Iafrate spoke as she examined a concept plan for the area.

“They’ve got everything from high density wrapped around the GO station, medium density all the way around the regional roads, to low-density single-family homes and townhouses
[in the interior]. When I look at this plan, there’s a lot of greenspace,” Iafrate said. “Where this block is located is across the road from future employment lands, known as block 34
[directly to the west]. We’d like to see them moving together, because that’s what’s going to provide that sustainability. And of course, just to the south of Teston Road is the new hospital,
which is going to be a huge catalyst for employment.”

Vaughan Planning Commissioner John MacKenzie is setting his goals for block 27 high.

“One of my focuses when I came here was advancing [development] where there’s transit coming. Get the certainty of development, get the secondary plans there. I’ve put a lot of focus
on there [in block 27], and we have been moving that forward.”

MacKenzie said he is aiming to create something similar to Mount Pleasant Village in Brampton, but better.

“I really want this to be a showcase example of how to get it right. Land is so precious, and if we’re going to allow greenfield development to go forward on these lands we want to get the environmental feature protected and restored, we want to make sure we get the transit there, and a mix of uses around the station so it’s a more walkable and complete community.”

The push to develop block 27 came after the city expanded its urban boundaries back in 2012. The process was not without critics however. Citizen’s group Sustainable Vaughan pushed back at expanding into a greenfield area.

NRU spoke with Sustainable Vaughan director Sony Rai.

“[Regional staff members] wanted to have the urban boundary expansion because they said the new housing was needed for the 20-year timeline of the new growth plan,” Rai said. He said that the growth could have instead been accommodated by intensifying the built-up downtown area.

He pointed to the region’s massive debt load, which was just under $2-billion in 2012, as the real driver for development.

”What’s driving development is a need for development levies. And so the city just follows along.”

Iafrate agrees with Rai that the decision to include block 27 in the boundary expansion was done for the wrong reason.

She added that if development was going to happen there, she was going to make sure it was done right.
“I sat down with the developers [in block 27] and said that the only way I can agree to this - because I didn’t agree to [develop block 27] to begin with - is if you work on a plan to bring in the transportation to support this block.”

Getting a GO station at Kirby Road and Keele Street was half of her plan, with the other being a connection between Teston Road and Kirby Road, which Iafrate said is missing a link.

MacKenzie said that block 27 would have been developed eventually, so he is not concerned about whether it was done to collect development levies, but is instead concerned about getting good development on the lands.

“At the end of the day, these things have been approved in the regional official plan, they’re going to be developed. To me, the question is how well these communities are going to be developed, how they function.”

Rai is cautiously optimistic about creating a transit-orientated development around a GO station in block 27.

“I think the problem with all GO station is that they’re ill-conceived. You can’t buy your groceries; deal with your dry-cleaning, drop off your kids at daycare. That’s my issue with all GO developments, is that [GO Transit doesn’t] see these things tied together - having parking, having stores, having daycares, having the mix of what you need in a more dense city.”

Ria is hoping there might be an opportunity to move some of the density proposed for block 41 and instead place it in block 27. Block 41 was also approved for residential expansion, and Sustainable Vaughan was worried that would result predominately single and semi-detached homes.

MacKenzie said that staff are attempting to draft a terms of reference for the area before embarking on a secondary plan for block 27. He hopes that Sustainable Vaughan will be willing to work with them.

“Hopefully we could get the studies underway by the midpoint of this year. But it’s going to take a number of years to get through this. We’ve got to make sure it’s high quality, and we really want to do it differently in terms of making sure that where we have a transit-oriented development opportunity we leverage that and we try and get something that’s a bit better.”

The proposed location near Kirby Road and Keele Street is identified for a GO station in York Region’s and Vaughan’s official plans. Both York and Vaughan councils have formally requested Metrolinx to examine adding a station at that location. Metrolinx has not committed to building a GO station there yet, but will be providing input into the terms of reference for the secondary plan. Metrolinx’s media relations and issues specialist Malon Edwards spoke to NRU by email.

“We recognize the possibility of a new station being needed in the future between Maple GO Station and King GO Station. Metrolinx is working with stakeholders to identify what would be required to accommodate a proposed GO station on these lands.”