Planning for Changing Suburbs: Vaughan's Urban Growth Centre

Suburban development, in the last half century, has been the dominant style of urban expansion in Southern Ontario. The Greater Golden Horseshoe, which consists of Ontario's largest and most heavily populated regions, has experienced growth through urban sprawl over the last few decades. There are certain issues associated with this style of growth that are reflected in the environmental, economic and the social well-being of cities. There has been a shift in the way suburbs are being planned and the Province of Ontario has taken steps in recent years towards curbing sprawl through the implementation of policy that encourages compact growth. The policy document that sets out these growth initiatives is called the Places to Grow Act: Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe (2006). This document "sets out policies and guidelines that direct municipalities how and where to grow". The same document also identifies the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre as an Urban Growth Centre with growth targets that the area must meet by the year 2031.

This major paper looks at the process of suburbanization and intensification, as well as the land use policy framework that governs the City of Vaughan and asks the question: is Vaughan developing and growing in the right direction? By looking at the works of Pierre Filion and the Expo City Development the paper argues that the City of Vaughan, while working successfully towards meeting the province's growth targets, lacks certain elements within their growth centre such as affordable housing and a civic centre/city hall (which was recently built away from the site). In the paper I apply Filion's criteria of what makes suburban town centres successful and apply them to the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre to distinguish if Vaughan's downtown centre is headed towards being successful.