MZO's No More, Housing Minister Very Sorry
Plus, Markham Comic-Con and Santa's coming to Unionville
Good Morning Markhamites,
How many square feet can $400k afford in Markham? Surprisingly more than you think. Despite having an average home cost of well over $1.3M, Markham’s price per square foot is about $775, which comes in below Toronto, Vaughan and Oakville in terms of affordability.
Todays read is about 4 minutes.
Paul Calandra is super sorry to all those developers inconvenienced by the Greenbelt
Robert Benzie of the Toronto Star reported on a speech that Paul Calandra gave to the BILD Association last week in which he apologized to a room of developers, including a personal apology to Silvio De Gasparis, whose company owns over 2,364 acres of land that had been slated to be removed from the Greenbelt.
“It has been a challenging time for us — and I think it has been an even more challenging time for many of you. I am sincerely sorry for the difficulties we have caused you and the industry over the last number of months. I think the failures that have happened over the last number of months aren't a failing of your industry, It's a failing of government — as how we have put together the things that we have wanted to accomplish. The speed at which we moved — and the inability of us to bring people with us — is what has caused the challenges over the last number of months and we will not repeat those mistakes going forward.”
Calandra tabled a bill in November to restore greenbelt protections and cancel outstanding land swaps, which wipes out $8.2 Billion of value for the land owners impacted.
Two Markham MZO’s revoked after government review
The Ministry has also been busy reviewing over 100 Ministerial Zoning Orders they handed out since 2018, issuing warnings and revoking some based on project progress or development feasibility. MZO’s are utilized to fast-track high-priority projects and cut through some red tape to get projects built faster.
As part of this review, they reached out to municipalities to get a sense of where the MZO’s had helped move the needle and where things were getting stuck. This includes asking if they’ve seen site plans or if the sites have been connected to municipal infrastructure like water or roads.
Based on the findings, two properties in Markham to which MZOs had been issued to fast-track development have been revoked. Markham currently has 6 active MZO’s so it’s unclear which two are no longer moving forward.
Community Notes
Hyundai Canada rewarded for best inclusive workplace
What’s going on in Markham this weekend.
Breakfast with Santa on Main street Unionville - Saturday Dec 16 9:00 am at Jakes on Main and Sunday Dec 17, 9:00 at The Unionville Arms.
December 16th -Thornhill Community Centre - Markham Comic-Con
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