The Town of Newmarket is planning to make the area north of its Main Street downtown a vibrant new hub, but is still weighing how dense it should get.
Taller buildings up to six storeys, a new mobility hub around the GO station, new trails and more open spaces are all on the table for a proposed vision for what has been called South of Davis Drive Area (SODA). The municipality has an ongoing study examining the future of the zone stretching from Millard Avenue to Ontario Street along the north end of Main Street South, with council holding a workshop for updates March 3.
Consultants are proposing the area be a dynamic cultural centre providing a mix of housing options, with different possibilities on how much density could be allowed in the zone.
Newmarket Mayor John Taylor said it is an exciting vision and council will have interest in trying to advance the area as quickly as possible.
“It’s an area that’s teeming with potential. We could create another really exciting, vibrant part of our town in this area,” Taylor said.
The study has been ongoing for several months, with WSP Canada consulting with the public about it. The study is part of an ongoing official plan review process, with Newmarket preparing to update its central planning document.
In public consultation, WSP said it heard about the need for pedestrian friendliness, parks or parkettes, and public infrastructure upgrades. The consultant’s draft vision is for the area to “thrive as a dynamic centre for culture, business, tourism, social services, and entertainment, providing a mix of diverse uses and housing options.” It proposes the area as an “urban village,” with distinct areas of character along, and east and west of Main Street.
WSP Canada also laid out different concepts for how the area might develop regarding land-use density. One option is to maintain the "status quo," though with some higher buildings of five or six storeys east of Main. Another is for “gentle density,” with more low-rise forms of three to four storeys and high-rise forms of five to six storeys north of Queen Street. Finally, a third scenario proposes more residential uses throughout the area east of Main Street, with mid-rise forms throughout.
All the proposals would involve identifying more open space areas, with new connections and public realm streetscape enhancement along the north end of Main.
WSP planner Matt Alexander said the plan anticipated some transformation in the area, but demolition is not inherently the vision. He said gentle density could provide a “missing middle” housing option, between detached dwellings and large apartments.
“We don’t want to see the whole area torn down and replaced with skyscrapers,” he said. “But as things change and as homes are renovated or upgrades or intensified a little bit, we’d like to see consistent setbacks on property lines (and) site organization.”
The plan would also entail identifying priority sites for development along Main Street, and develop transition strategies to adjacent lower-scale neighbourhoods.
Councillors praised the presentation and vision for the area. Taylor suggested starting another process in concert with the planning process, delving into what investments the town could make in the area.
But there were some concerns, primarily around parking. Provincial planning processes in major transit station areas require no parking minimums, and councillors raised issues with where parking would come into the picture with further development.
“Sooner rather than later, the town will be on the hook trying to accommodate something,” he said. “Where can we have some kind of flexibility with parking?”
Alexander responded that developers would still try to accommodate parking in any future projects in the area depending on the market, even with reduced or no parking minimums.
“The elimination of parking minimums does not mean a prohibition,” he said. “Developers still do their due diligence and their market assessment to determine how much parking to provide.”
The study process is still ongoing, with no final decisions made at the workshop. WSP Canada will be doing more public consultations in the spring.
More information on the study is available at heynewmarket.ca/soda.