At June 28 council meeting there is a very important report presenting the staff recommendation for feedback to the York Region’s draft Forecast and Lands Needs Assessment. The latter is important as it lays out the framework for growth through to 2051. I am pleased that our planning staff is rejecting the York Region proposal that King should meet its population goals bye redesignating 70 of the 80 hectares of whitebelt in our southern area around the 400 for population growth. As reviewed in the report there is no need to meet population target; and to do so is not consistent with our current plans to build complete communities which are sustainable and healthy. Building out on the fringe is not the way to go. I do not support the staff proposal to redesignate 10 hectares of the 80 hectares of white belt for employment. We have not yet built out our current employment lands; it is unnecessary to change the designation now. In the report there is no mention of the current status of the 80 hectares; I believe they are currently agriculture and accordingly there should be serious resistance to developing those lands. The basis for my agreement in the lack of need to develop the white belt is that we will continue to intensify and to focus on building residential units other than single detached.
The province’s legislation “A Place to Grow: Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe’ mandates that upper and single tier municipalities develop a plan to achieve the 2051 forecasts given to them. When this new mandate was given there was opposition for many reasons including that it is simply unnecessary to make such far out plans particularly as many municipalities, including York Region is not on track to meet the 2031 targets; furthermore there was disagreement with the targets. But the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing persisted and today municipalities are doing the necessary work. York Region is forecast to grow to a population of 2.02 million and 990,000 jobs by 2051 this represents growth of approximately 800,000 people and 340,000 jobs between 2021 and 2051. Kim is forecasted to grow from 34,900 which is our (OP)i forecast to 49,600. Employment is forecast to grow to 16,400.
As reviewed in more detail in the York Region report (which is the last 80 pages) of the staff report one of the very significant hurdles for York Region is servicing (water and sewage) .This is also of relevance to King as Nobleton growth is constrained. York Region’s draft report assumes that a meaningful increase in servicing capacity is not financially feasible and hence their forecasted growth for Nobleton in 2051 is less than it could be given the amount of land that is within the Nobleton boundary i.e. including the Nobleton Reserve. In King City servicing for the increased population will also require an increase in capacity; as to how that will be achieved is not defined but it is assumed to be achieved.
As always you can present comments at a Council meeting by registering at clerks@king.ca 0r 905 833 by 12 noon on June 28th; or comments can be emailed to clerks@king.ca and they will be circulated to council.
I am in total agreement with you although I don’t expect to be around in 2051 as I would be well over 110!! Please keep using your voice of sanity in this situation.
I do enjoy reading your weekly posts.