News & Views

DEAR RESIDENT:

In the past, I have written about the planning, legal, and engineering work that accompanies
growth and development. My last newsletter recognized that development is not just about water, sewers, transit, roads, and parkland. It’s about people. Knowing who we are and what we want for our Town and our neighbourhoods.

This newsletter will consider another layer of thought which must be applied to growth and development: Sustainability.

Sustainable Development?

“‘Sustainable development’ is development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” (Brundtland Commission 1987)

From a municipal perspective, improving or sustaining our quality of life can be achieved by providing more housing choices, creating attractive public places to encourage community interaction, preserving open and accessible greenspace, practicing conservation, celebrating our culture and heritage, and securing a wide range of local employment opportunities.

For development to be sustainable, municipalities need to consider the economic, social, environmental, and cultural impact on our communities. These principles are known as the Four Pillars of Sustainability. From this foundation, York Region has created our strategic plan, Vision 2026, which helps guide our planning decisions for the next twenty years.

Vision 2026 outlines eight goals: Quality Communities for a Diverse Population; Enhanced Environment; Heritage and Culture; Vibrant Economy; Responding to Residents’ Needs; Housing Choices; Managed and Balanced Growth; Providing Infrastructure; and Engaged Communities in a Responsive Region. With this strategic plan, we monitor our achievements and mitigate our losses so that we may enhance our quality of life.

For development to be ‘sustainable’ it needs to address the following six objectives:

Sustainability Objectives

• Accessibility: With compact, mixed use development, we reduce distances and increase our transportation choices (e.g., walking, cycling, transit) for travel to work, shopping, recreation, and services;
• Housing choices: By expanding the housing choices for different age groups, incomes,
  and household sizes, people are able to remain in the same neighbourhood through different life stages;
• Efficient use of public funds: Why pay more taxes? By encouraging mixed use, higher density areas, we will make better use of existing infrastructure (roads, sewers/ water pipes, filtration systems, transit, public institutions, and services etc.);
• Protect open space and natural areas: Concentrating growth within existing urban areas minimizes land consumption, reduces the economic and environmental impact of ‘sprawl’, by limiting infrastructure costs and environmental consequences;
• ‘Place making’: Most people want to live in neighbourhoods that are lively and attractive live/work/ play environments, with adequate amenities, which respect the community’s character and historic features. ‘Place making’ distinguishes one community from another based on our cultural mix and protected heritage. Every community needs their own identity; and
• Shorter commutes and more transportation choices: If we locate jobs in regionally-accessible hubs served by transit with housing nearby, then people can live closer to work. Transportation planners estimate that in southern Richmond Hill our road network is at capacity. In Richmond Hill alone, the annual cost of traffic congestion is estimated at $45 million. This situation is not sustainable.

Richmond Hill and York Region are putting into action those plans, procedures, and practices which will support ‘sustainable development’. But there are significant challenges. Growth and the pace of growth continues to put pressure on our ability to provide what we now refer to as “just-in-time” services. There are predictions that hydro, water, sewer, and roads are at or are beyond their intended capacity now.

Managing Growth

Public meetings will be held to examine the growth projections of the Province and determine where growth should occur in Richmond Hill. If you would like to attend one of these public meetings, call me at 905-771-2498 for dates and times.

Managing Waste

In Richmond Hill, we are changing our methods of waste pickup to emphasize recycling and composting to reduce garbage. The province has set a 60% diversion rate by 2008. Blue box pickup will be weekly, ‘real garbage’ pickup will be every second week, yard waste will be collected seventeen times per year, and household organics pickup begins in 2007.
The Regions of Durham and York are considering new technologies including incineration and gasification
to eliminate waste left over from recycling and composting. For more information visit the Durham York Residual Waste study at www.durhamyorkwaste.ca.

Managing Traffic

In just six years, York Region’s transit system has moved more than four times the population of Ontario, kept 12.5 million cars off the road, and 60 million people on their way. To celebrate, the Region is holding a contest and the grand prize is FREE travel on YRT/Viva for one year. Check it out at www.yorkregiontransit.ca.

Public meetings will be held to discuss transit options, major intersection improvements, arterial and collector road widenings, new interchanges, costs, and implementation. Our next open house is planned for June 22nd at Hillcrest Mall.
A Healthy Economy is Essential to Support the Quality of Life in our Community Richmond Hill and York Region work closely with the Chambers of Commerce and our many employers. We recognize the need to maintain a balance between the number of jobs and our resident labour force. These jobs should be located for easy access by people who choose, or must rely on, transit services.

In addition to the absolute number of jobs created, other considerations must be made: the number and duration of jobs (full time, part time); the types of jobs; and their income range. If jobs are transient, part-time, and low income, with limited or without benefits, or if our community has not provided a varied housing mix, then employees will not be able to afford to live in our community and the provision of services will suffer. How does the municipality provide for these jobs? First by protecting our limited area of designated employment lands and then, encouraging more compact, mixed use communities that are transit supportive to provide better live-work proximity. Who wants to be stuck in traffic breathing fumes and wasting valuable spare time?

Thank you for reading my newsletter. If you would like a copy of a previous newsletter, please call me at 905-771-2498 and I will mail one out to you.
Sincerely,

Brenda