Georgina
September 24, 2008 07:35 PM
John Slykhuis
With half a million new residents moving to York Region between now and 2031, more than 26,000 of them to Georgina, having a plan for dealing with growth is a priority, council was told last week.
The region hosted a series of meetings to give you a chance to have you say on the third phase of its Planning for Tomorrow program.
The last meeting will be held tonight starting with an open house at 6 p.m. at the Town of Newmarket municipal offices, 395 Mulock Dr. None of the meetings were held in Georgina.
The first two phases of consultation helped identify the broad directions for governing the process, regional planner John Waller said.
“We’re zeroing in on the issues and policies,” he said.
The plan’s intention is to intensify development by 40 per cent to accommodate a population that is expected to reach 1.5 million within the next 25 years.
In addition to the 234,000 housing units required to house these future residents, more than 330,000 jobs are expected to be created.
Regional planning staff will review public input from the meetings and incorporate them into new master plans and the region’s Official Plan.
The region and other GTA municipalities need to adjust its plans to conform with the province’s Places to Grow legislation, Mr. Waller said.
That growth plan mandates municipalities to reign in sprawl by intensifying development in already-built areas.
That will create a minimum density of 50 people and jobs per acre across the region.
Four regional nodes (Markham, Vaughan, Richmond Hill, Newmarket) must achieve a minimum of 200 jobs and people per acre, the report states.
Nearly half of all future development will be in “greenfields,” undeveloped, but already-designated urban areas.
A key area for future growth is to create, “a strong, linked natural heritage system”, council was told.
A further 14 per cent of development takes place in “whitefields”, which are not designated urban areas or protected parts of the Green Belt or Oak Ridges moraine.
The three main whitefield areas are in East Gwillimbury, Vaughan/King and Markham/Whitchurch-Stouffville.
Georgina’s population will grow from 45,000 to 70,700 by 2031.
Most of that in Keswick, however, municipalities are awaiting new provincial legislation regarding new phosphorus loading restrictions for sewage treatment plants for the protection of Lake Simcoe that could limit new development, Mayor Rob Grossi pointed out.
Georgina’s growth accounts for just 5 per cent of that in the region.
Currently 8,000 of the town’s residents work here, with that projected to grow to 31,800 by 2031. Single family detached homes will drop from 79 to 62 per cent of our housing stock
Vaughan and Markham will shoulder most of the growth, growing by 29 and 26 per cent respectively.
With files from David Fleischer