Vaughan hopes Spadina subway extension gives it leg up on York University expansion competition

Yorkregion.com
April 9, 2014
By Adam Martin-Robbins

Councillors were seriously considering gambling on bringing a casino to Vaughan’s emerging downtown at about this time last year. Now, they’re putting their minds to convincing York University to build a satellite campus in the same area.

And, although the city is facing stiff competition from some of its neighbouring municipalities, Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua says they’re pulling out all the stops to ensure Vaughan has a good chance of landing at the top of the class

“Post-secondary education was very much part of my agenda when I came in and we’re giving 150 per cent to present the best possible case for York University to come here,” he said. “These discussions have been ongoing for a number of years now and there’s definitely the Vaughan advantage - the proximity to the subway - and when you look at the principles of the request, we are confident that we will be very competitive.”

The city’s preferred location is somewhere in the new downtown core, centred at Hwy. 7 and Jane Street, officially known as the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre (VMC), given the transit infrastructure going there such as the Spadina subway extension and the Viva rapid transit bus line

In fact, the subway would provide a direct link to York University’s main campus, a few kilometres south at Keele Street and Steeles Avenue.

“I think it’s an incredibly exciting project,” said Concord/North Thornhill Councillor Sandra Yeung Racco, whose riding encompasses the developing downtown core. “I am really hoping that this does come to fruition and it does come to the VMC. ... Something like this is what we need in our downtown (because) it will kick start and attract the various components like the office, retail and the commercial and everything else.”

Ms Yeung Racco said a university campus could also tie in nicely with the art, design and cultural campus the city is hoping to build in the downtown.

The Vaughan Metropolitan Centre may also be attractive to the provincial government, which is struggling financially and already owns a large parcel of land in the area, adjacent to the future Hwy. 407 subway station, where a university campus could be housed.

City officials will be making a pitch to York University’s expansion steering committee next week in hopes of convincing them that Vaughan is the place to be.

But they’re going to have to outbid some other local municipalities that are also courting York University.

Markham has indicated that it is quite keen for York University set up shop within its borders and so has Richmond Hill.

East Gwillimbury, meanwhile, has been working on a university attraction business plan for more than two years and the town has had a university in its sights for more than two decades.

Newmarket and Aurora are also developing plans to attract a university.

York University is expected to announce its preferred municipal partner in May. Then it’s up to the provincial government to decide which Ontario universities will be granted expansions.

That decision is expected to be announced in September.