King
December 23, 2007 07:36 PM
By: Joan Ransberry
Nothing kick-starts a domino effect faster than growth, officials in the northern part of York Region agree.
As Newmarket, Aurora, King Township and East Gwillimbury grow bigger and bigger, local governments are getting hit with the fallout.
In the new year, King Township may consider expanding its fire and emergency services, Newmarket is building up instead of out, Aurora is trying to maintain its small town flavour and East Gwillimbury is looking to other communities for direction linked to growth.
In King Township, the movers and shakers are, indeed, taking a hard look at fire services.
“One of the challenges of the surrounding growth is the increased demand on our fire department, including servicing Hwy. 400 and Hwy. 9,” King Mayor Margaret Black said.
Most of King’s fire and emergency service runs on a volunteer or part-time basis. With increased growth, this is apt to change.
“Over the past five years, we have experienced an approximate 20-per-cent increase in call volume,” Mrs. Black said.
“In 2007, we will respond to close to 1,100 emergency calls, an increase from 850 in 2002.”
With King Township expecting even more growth in the not-too-distant future, a fourth fire station might be built at Aurora Road and Hwy. 400.
The new station would serve the demands from the major highway and to augment the protection of the residents of Pottageville and Kettleby, the mayor said.
“The increase in our fire service requirements is putting pressure on our budget,” Mrs. Black said. “We must receive funding from other levels of government to assist in meeting the challenges caused by the grown surrounding us.”
Almost landlocked, Newmarket’s focus is to re-jig existing development and to build up instead of out.
Home to about 80,000 residents, Newmarket is one of the most densely populated municipalities in Ontario.
Since vacant land is in short supply, council joins Rick Nethery, the town’s director of planning, in facing difficult challenges.
Remaining Newmarket lands, suitable for residential development, are in the southeast part of town, while there’s some in the northwest behind Upper Canada Mall. Once these areas are fully developed, new growth will be along Davis Drive, Yonge Street and Newmarket’s downtown area over the next 20 years.
As well as a vertical approach to development in this part of Newmarket, it will be complemented by a more pedestrian-friendly plan complete with bike lanes and improved pubic transit.
“This means the town will no longer be growing outward as growth and change will be focused in specific areas of the town that currently serve as commercial and other business areas,” Mr. Nethery said.
“The target will be on redeveloping existing areas rather than creating new ones as the population grows to a projected 98,000 by 2026.”
While significant growth has not, as yet, made its way to East Gwillimbury, it’s not far off.
Since East Gwillimbury was highlighted in the province’s Places to Grow legislation, Mayor Jamie Young knows both change and challenge are knocking at the door.
Mr. Young likes the Places to Grow legislation: it requires an additional 600,000 people to come to York Region by 2031.
Mr. Young notices the burgeoning growth in York Region has caused government planners to abandon the idea of simply putting homes in open spaces, commonly known as urban sprawl.
Instead of staring at a “blank canvas”, the Places to Grow legislation has given the rural town an opportunity to review what other communities are doing, the mayor said. The challenge lies in putting together “all the best ideas from the leading municipalities” and see how they fit East Gwillimbury, Mr. Young added.
The goal for Aurora is to make sure the reasons people moved here 10 or 20 years ago will still be the same a decade or so down the road.
Making sure growth doesn’t diminish Aurora’s “small town and high standard” lifestyle is the biggest challenge facing the town, Mayor Phyllis Morris stressed.
“The most pressing thing in my heart is to be sure whatever attracted most people to Aurora years ago stays the same, despite present and pending growth,” Mrs. Morris said.
“To make sure people want to stay, growth has to be balanced.”