Markham Centre Secondary Plan Update

GPA is leading a multi-disciplinary team of consultants to update the Markham Centre Secondary Plan. Since the adoption of the first Secondary Plan for the area in the 1990s, a vision has been pursued for Markham Centre as a high-intensity urban place with all the amenities and activities to support an amazing quality of life. Great progress has been made toward that vision. However, a lot has changed since the adoption of the first Secondary Plan. The area has been successful in attracting development, and the scale of recent proposals is significantly taller and denser than anything envisioned in the original plan. The construction and proposed expansion of higher order transit promises to create a major interchange point centred on the Unionville GO station. A number of significant public sector investments (the Pan Am Centre and York University) have been attracted to the area, as have a number of major employers. Given these changing circumstances, the City of Markham is undertaking an update of the Secondary Plan for Markham Centre. The update will revisit the vision and principles that have guided the area’s evolution, look at what has been achieved to date and create a planning policy framework that builds on success and hones the effectiveness of policies in realizing the highest aspirations of the City for its downtown.