Report to: Development Services Committee Report
Date: June 23, 2009
SUBJECT: Update
on Status of Draft Growth Management Strategy
PREPARED BY: Policy and Research Division, Staff
Planning
& Urban Design
RECOMMENDATION:
1.
That the report
entitled “Update on Status of Draft Growth Management Strategy”, dated June 23, 2009 be received as information;
2.
That staff report
back in the Fall with the final draft Growth Management Strategy;
3.
And that Staff be
authorized and directed to do all things necessary to give effect to this
resolution.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
In
November 2007, Council authorized the preparation of a Growth Management
Strategy (GMS) for Markham. A draft
Growth Management Strategy is now being prepared. The GMS responds to the Province’s Growth
Plan and Council’s identification of growth management as a strategic area of
focus of “Building Markham’s Future Together”.
The
Growth Management Strategy is being prepared in consultation with Town
Departments whose work will also form part of the Town’s growth management
response. The Town is undertaking a
number of studies (e.g. Environmental Policy Review, Housing Stock Analysis, Employment
Lands Strategy, Integrated Leisure Master Plan, Green Print, etc.), which will
contribute to the refinement of the GMS.
In
February, 2009 the Town initiated a public engagement program associated with
the development of the Growth Management Strategy. This program included a launch event,
community meetings, online consultation and meetings with individual
stakeholders. In addition, a number of
communication tools were used to educate and engage the public (webpage,
workbook etc.). The results of the public
engagement activities will be posted on the website by the end of this month.
The
Region has established growth forecasts for Markham, targeting a 2031 Town population of 423,500 and a
workforce of 248,500. Markham has reviewed the forecasts and related land budgets in
establishing a preferred growth scenario.
This growth scenario will continue to be assessed in finalizing the GMS
and preparing the Town’s new Official Plan.
The
preferred scenario represents a balanced approach to managing growth to
2031. The scenario focuses the majority
of growth within the current urban boundary, in designated urban growth centres, key development areas, corridors and local centres. It results
in more than 90% of the 2031 Town population and employment having located
within the current settlement area. Outward
growth is limited and will be phased over time.
As and when new lands are required to be added to the urban area, they
will be in the form of complete, healthy and sustainable communities.
The
GMS is based on environmental protection, a diversified housing stock
incorporating siginificant residential
intensification and limited outward growth.
It recognizes the link between land use and transportation planning and
broader Town goals such as economic vitality, natural environment preservation and
healthy communities. The GMS integrates
these related elements into a sustainable growth plan for the future (2031). Finally, the Growth Management Strategy
speaks to carefully phased and sequenced growth which will be monitored and
adjusted over time to ensure Markham’s strategic directions for growth is realized.
The
priorities identified in the GMS document will form part of the guiding
priorities for the Town’s New Official Plan.
Staff are proposing to finalize the GMS document over the Summer and release a draft GMS for public input and review
in the Fall, with anticipated endorsement by Council later in 2009. Staff will present the Growth Management
Strategy document to Development Services Committee in September before
releasing the document for public review and consultation.
FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS:
Not
applicable
1. Purpose 2. Background 3. Discussion 4. Financial 5. Environmental
PURPOSE:
The purpose of this report is to update Committee on the
status of the draft Growth Management Strategy.
BACKGROUND:
Growth Plan
for the Greater Golden Horseshoe
The Province of Ontario approved the
Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe in June 2006 under the authority
of the Places to Grow Act. The Growth
Plan established polices relating to land use planning in the Greater Golden
Horseshoe and the requirements for municipalities to address these policies
through amendments to municipal official plans.
Municipalities are required by
the Places to Grow Act to amend their Official Plans to conform to the
Provincial Growth Plan by June 2009. The
Growth Plan is a companion document to the Greenbelt Plan, and the Regional
Transportation Plan prepared by Metrolinx. The Town’s new Official Plan must also conform
with the Regional Official Plan, as amended to conform to the Growth Plan. The Regional Official Plan is proposed to be
approved by the end of 2009 (discussed below).
The Town has requested the Province to grant a one year extension to
complete the new Town Official Plan.
Region of York Official
Plan
In response to the Places to Grow Act and the Growth Plan,
the Region has completed a growth management review known as “Planning for
Tomorrow”. Committee has received
regular updates from Town and Regional staff regarding their work on developing
a response to Provincial growth policy, which has included several
presentations, and community meetings.
The Region is proposing to release a draft Regional
Official Plan Update for public input and review in June 2009, with anticipated
adoption by Regional Council late in 2009.
Presentations to local municipal Councils are anticipated to commence this
September.
Growth
Management is identified as one of the strategic priorities of Building Markham’s Future
Together
The context for a Growth Management Strategy was confirmed
by Council through the strategic priority of Growth Management “Building
Markham’s Future Together” (BMFT) and the Action Plans to implement this
initiative. Growth Management is one of
the six strategic priorities that make up Markham Council’s strategic
direction. An important action item
associated with this priority is the development of a plan for sustainable
growth that addresses Provincial and Regional growth management initiatives. This will include the proposed new Markham
Official Plan, in concert with a number of Town initiatives including Markham
Transportation Strategic Plan and the integrated Community Sustainability Plan,
the “Green Print”.
Status of
supporting studies for the Growth Management Strategy
In November 2007, Council directed that a Growth
Management Strategy (GMS) be prepared for Markham. The Town has undertaken a number of studies
to address the potential characteristics and requirements of planning for
forecast growth and to begin to identify possible policies that will guide
growth through a new Official Plan.
Some of these studies/initiatives fall under the umbrella
of a Building Markham’s Future Together, but correspond to an area of focus
other than Growth Management. However,
they inform decisions relating to growth, and will contribute to the GMS and
the Town’s ongoing management of growth.
The following is a list of studies and supporting studies and their
current status:
Supporting studies:
Public
Engagement and Consultation
In February, 2009 the Town initiated a public engagement
program associated with the development of the Town’s Growth Management
Strategy. This public consultation
program included a launch event, five community meetings, online consultation
and meetings with individual stakeholders and groups. In addition, a number of communications tools
were used to educate and engage the public, which included:
·
Webpage on the Town website that allowed residents to
obtain more information about the GMS and engagement process.
·
Email address established for use by residents to
submit comments and ask questions.
·
Advertised in the local paper from January 29, 2009 to April 2, 2009.
·
Information letter sent to First Nations and
Aboriginal Groups.
·
BMFT postcard
·
Workbook was developed and distributed to residents
(Library branches, Town offices and at community meetings) and made available
on Town website.
A summary of public comment was presented to Committee on May 26, 2009 (Part A). Informative, though not statistically valid,
the results of the public engagement activities will be posted on the Town
website later this month for the public to view.
Draft Growth
Management Strategy is being prepared
A draft Growth Management Strategy (GMS) has now being
prepared. The GMS responds to the Province’s
Growth Plan and Council’s identification of growth management as a strategic
area priority of “Building Markham’s Future Together”. As well, the GMS incorporates
findings and directions from related studies and articulates a “made in Markham” approach to
growth management to 2031.
The GMS is one of the Town’s highest level policy
documents, created to shape and direct strategic decision making for Markham. It has been prepared in consultation with
several Departments whose work will also form part of the Town’s growth
management response. A number of the Town studies that are currently underway
will also contribute to the refinement of the GMS. The document also takes into consideration polices
and directions for growth emerging from the Region.
Priorities
for Managing Growth
Establishing
a community vision for Markham in 2031, and
developing a strategy to manage Markham’s growth to
achieve that vision, is a daunting task.
Before embarking on the growth management strategy exercise, Council
first set a number of priorities for managing growth. These priorities will continue to guide the completion
of the strategy and the formulation of a new Official Plan for the Town. The GMS is based on eight key priorities for
managing growth, which include:
1. Support Environment First Approach
Markham is a leader
in natural heritage preservation, protection and enhancement. Before considering alternatives to
accommodate future growth, Council determined to first define, protect and
develop leading edge preservation policies for the Greenway System in Markham. The
framework identifies a Town-wide Greenway
System and protection policies for natural
heritage and hydrological features. It
also includes Greenbelt Plan conformity policies including Greenbelt agricultural policies, proposed Hamlet boundary
adjustments and land use designations for defined Special Policy Areas.
2. Preserve and protect established
residential and employment areas
Markham’s many
unique and distinct communities (eg. Unionville, Markham, Thornhill and Milliken/Armadale),
heritage conservation districts and prestige employment areas have been our
strength and identity, and have contributed to the vitality and attractiveness
of our Town. As the management of future
growth is addressed, it is imperative that we ensure these areas remain stable,
attractive and thriving and continue to contribute to the liveability of our
Town. Inappropriate residential
intensification projects must not intrude into our established neighbourhoods
or our heritage conservation districts, but rather will be directed to transit
nodes and corridors. Appropriate infill and
re-development for employment uses will occur within our existing employment
areas, in accordance with stated policy objectives.
3. Establish Intensification Strategies
Intensification within the Town’s current settlement
area is a key component of the Growth Management
Strategy which, after defining the greenway system, will focus growth within
the current settlement area at priority locations served by rapid transit. An Intensification Strategy is necessary to
guide Markham’s vision for
its intensification areas. The vision
will provide for predominantly mixed use, pedestrian friendly, livable
communities that will generally be served by higher order transit and will be
transit supportive.
The strategy will provide overall direction on where
both residential and employment intensification should occur, and will identify
matters relating to appropriate land uses and amount of development, and the
anticipated phasing of new development to be further addressed in future
detailed planning studies. It will have regard for the Provincial and Regional emphasis on intensification as
the means of encouraging the development of urban growth centres (Markham
Centre and Richmond Hill/Langstaff Gateway) and identified
locations in Regional corridors at transit supportive densities.
4. Accommodate Employment Growth and maintain
economic competitiveness
To address Markham’s economic
competitiveness and sustainability, the Town launched Markham 2020, the Town’s Economic Development Strategy, in 2008. Markham 2020 identifies key
employment sectors for the Town to pursue.
The accommodation needs of the 4 key sectors are being taken into
account in a new Employment Lands Strategy undertaken as part of the growth
management strategy exercise. As well, in order to implement the new Provincial Planning framework and meet the Regional employment forecasts for Markham to 2031, policies related to protection of strategic employment
lands will be updated.
Through new
employment land policies, the Town will ensure that a sufficient supply of
employment lands remains available to accommodate a variety of potential
employment uses. Employment lands should
not be converted to other uses (including major retail) and appropriate
intensification of employment lands with additional employment uses will be
encouraged.
5. Provide a range of housing choices
Markham’s challenge
in regard to housing is to serve the resident housing market, while meeting the
density and intensification requirements established by senior governments.
Today, there are essentially two main housing
markets, reflecting the two primary demographic groups seeking housing
accommodation in Markham:
1.
family households preferring predominantly ground-related housing types
including single and semi-detached dwellings, townhouses; and
2.
non-family and small
family households, dominated by younger and older singles and couples,
preferring higher density housing,
typically offering smaller and less expensive accommodation, primarily
apartment type forms.
Family households are anticipated to continue to
comprise a large component of the Markham housing
market, although there is expected to be an increase in the non-family
household market as the Town’s population ages, and the lifestyle and economic
arrangements on which new households are based, continue to evolve and
diversify.
The residential intensification target will be
challenging to achieve. To do so, the Town must maximize the opportunity to
deliver housing suited to family households, and ensure that housing suited to
non-family households is suitably located to access community services and
amenities.
6. Build Compact, complete,
sustainable and transit-supportive communities
Markham is well
known for its progressive growth management policies dating back to the early
1990’s and it’s new urbanist approach to new
community design and development. As we
move into this new growth management era, the Town will ensure that new
communities are not only designed and built on new urbanist
principles, but that they also reflect emerging best practices and are:
·
complete, including a variety of housing choices, and
places to work, shop, worship, play and learn;
·
healthy, with
well connected streets and a public realm that encourages walking, cycling, and
transit use, and
·
sustainable, being
designed to reduce reliance on the car and incorporate sustainable community design
and building technologies, contributing to improved air and water quality,
energy efficiency, and environmental protection.
7. Provide Infrastructure to Support Growth
Infrastructure
includes both hard services (pipes, roads, storm water management ponds etc.)
and soft services (schools, parks, community centres, arts and culture, places
of worship, etc,). We recognize the
importance of delivering infrastructure to serve the needs of residents and
employees in a timely manner. In addition, we regard infrastructure as a
resource to support and achieve our vision for Markham as a
complete, sustainable and economically viable community. The Town will identify infrastructure needed
to support growth and the delivery, phasing and funding requirements to deliver
the infrastructure concurrent with growth.
We will also partner with other levels of government, new governmental
organizations and the private sector to ensure that all of the needs or our
residents are addressed to the extent possible.
8. Monitoring Growth
The vision
that we want to achieve for Markham and the
context in which growth toward our vision will occur include aspects that are
new and untried. This challenges our ability to be certain that our decisions
will always align with future circumstances that we cannot predict. For this
reason, we will carefully monitor the progress of our growth, and its
implementation relative to our vision, and prepare to adjust if circumstances
are different than we anticipate. We will
also plan our growth more deliberately, in phases, using the tools available to
us to facilitate the implementation of growth policies and any needed “course
corrections”.
The priorities identified in the GMS
document will provide guidance for the Town’s New Official Plan.
Structure of
the Growth Management Strategy document
The document will focus on each of
the eight key GMS priorities outlined above. Under each key priority, the
document will be structured to:
·
provide background information, identify trends and forecasts
and identify policy context
·
identify areas where change is being addressed or must
be realized to deliver Markham’s vision for
2031
·
identify policy directions and action items to be
carried forward through Town strategies, plans and implementing initiatives
Extracts of the document are attached
for information as Appendix A.
Staff are proposing to refine the Growth
Management Strategy over the Summer, review the
document with Committee in September and release a draft GMS for public input
and review in the Fall, with anticipated adoption late in 2009.
Markham’s Preferred Growth Scenario
The Region has prepared a draft
Official Plan which addresses Provincial requirements and provides direction to
Markham. Markham must conform
with this direction in preparing a Town strategy for
managing growth.
The Region has established growth
forecasts for Markham, targeting a
2031 Town population of 423500 and a workforce of 248500. These population and
employment values represent a reasonable increase over the forecasts for the
Town already established through the Regional Official Plan. Markham has reviewed
the forecasts and related land budgets and has prepared comparable forecasts
that vary in terms of some of the underlying assumptions, but achieve the same
growth by 2031. Through this analysis we have arrived at a preferred growth
scenario. This preferred growth scenario will continue to be assessed in finalizing
the GMS and in preparing the Town’s new Official Plan.
The preferred scenario represents a
balanced approach to managing growth to 2031.
The scenario focuses the majority of growth within the current settlement
area, in designated urban growth centres, key development areas, corridors and
local centres. It results in more than
90% of the 2031 Town population and employment being located within the current
settlement area. Outward growth is
limited and will be phased over time. As
and when new lands are required to be added to the urban area, they will be used
to accommodate complete, healthy and sustainable communities.
Markham’s
Changing Housing Stock
The mix of the new units assumed in
the preferred growth scenario is much different than the 2006 mix. In 2006, Markham’s housing
stock was dominated by single detached housing (56%), but included a one-third
share of medium density housing (semi-detached and townhouse units). Apartment
units comprised only 11% of the stock.
In order to meet the Town’s
objectives of residential intensification and to provide a diverse housing
stock, the majority of housing added over the period from 2006 to 2031 will be
apartment type units (56%) and new medium density units (semi-detached and
townhouses) (26%). The forecast change
in the housing stock over the period to 2031 will be significant, but is
consistent with senior government policies for growth.
In order to accommodate the new
ground related units in the forecast housing stock, the Region and Town have
determined that some units will need to be located in an extension of Markham’s current
settlement area, as provided for in Provincial policies. These lands are to be
phased in overtime.
Markham’s
Role as a Regional Employment Centre
The Region’s forecast of 104000 new
employees in Markham between 2006
and 2031 is a significant increase. It recognizes the Town’s prominence as a
regional employment centre and the strong role that Markham will
continue to play in the Region’s office and business park employment markets.
The forecast is consistent with Markham’s approved Economic
Development Strategy, Markham 2020, which envisions the Town as one of Canada’s leading communities in the knowledge economy. The Regional targets can be met as follows:
The Region forecasts an additional 41300 major office
jobs for Markham, which represents
approximately 69% of the total forecast growth for York Region (2006 to 2031).
The Town has concluded that these jobs can be accommodated within the current
settlement area, and should be directed primarily to Markham’s Regional Centres, Key Development Areas in Regional Corridors and
established business parks.
Employment serving
the Town’s population is forecast to increase by almost 26000 jobs during the
same forecast period. Markham’s review
concludes that almost 90% of this employment can be accommodated within the current settlement area, with the
exception of the jobs serving the new population in an extension of the
settlement area.
Business park employment, sometimes referred to as “employment land
employment” (excluding that in major offices) is forecast to increase by 36500
jobs. The Town and Region have both concluded that there is sufficient land
within the current settlement area to accommodate about half of this growth and
that land for the remainder will need to be identified in an extension of the
current settlement area.
Land
Requirements for Growth
In addition to determining how much
growth can be accommodated within and beyond the current settlement area, it is
necessary to estimate how much land will be needed to accommodate new housing
and employment. The Town has reviewed the Region’s proposed residential land
budget and has concluded that the requirement for residential land of
approximately 600 gross hectares is appropriate and should be protected.
The Region’s employment land budget
requirement for Markham includes:
·
437 gross hectares for business park (employment
land) employment and
·
120 gross hectares for major retail employment.
The Town’s work, through the Employment
Land Strategy has determined that a similar land area of 421 gross hectares,
including a market contingency, should be set aside for business park
(employment land) employment, provided the lands east of the Don Cousens Parkway,
previously identified in the Cornell Secondary Plan process for addition to the
current settlement area (+/- 35 ha), are also approved for the planned
employment uses. However, Markham’s review
concludes that land for major retail is not required to be set aside outside
the current settlement area. Rather, the Town’s preferred approach is to
provide appropriately scaled opportunities to accommodate retail and service
uses within the residential and employment lands, in mixed use developments. Both
the residential and employment land budgets will be subject to review, in
analyzing the GMS and preparing the new Official Plan.
Markham’s Preferred Growth Scenario,
in Summary for 2031
The table below is an overview of the
preferred growth scenario for Markham for 2031 in
relation to the current settlement area of the Town.
FINANCIAL TEMPLATE
(external link):
Not applicable at this time.
ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS:
The Draft Growth Management Strategy
encourages a responsible and sustainable
approach to the environment.
ACCESSIBILITY CONSIDERATIONS:
In the developing the new Official Plan
policy, the Planning Act requires that Council have regard to accessibility for
persons with disabilities.
ALIGNMENT
WITH STRATEGIC INITIATIVES:
The Growth Management Strategy
establishes the framework for a new Town Official Plan, which is one of the
strategic initiatives relating to Managed Growth specifically identified in the
“Building Markham’s Future Together”.
Each of the other BMFT strategic priorities will also inform and
contribute to the GMS and new Official Plan.
BUSINESS
UNITS CONSULTED AND AFFECTED:
The Growth Management Strategy has been prepared in
consultation with Department Heads prior to submitting this report.
RECOMMENDED
BY:
______________________________ ________________________
Valerie Shuttleworth, M.C.I.P., R.P.P Jim
Baird, M.C.I.P, R.P.P
Director of Planning & Urban Design Commissioner,
Development
Services
ATTACHMENTS:
Appendix A – Extract from Growth
Management Strategy
Q:/Development/Planning/Misc/ MI 510/Growth Management/Reports/DSC_GMS_June23_2009