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ISSUE 7: Big Box stores south of Highway 7

I’m 100% opposed to big box stores south of Hwy 7! We need a commercial area in the East End of Markham, but we don’t need something that looks like Markham Road south of 14th Avenue.

• I have traveled and researched extensively with our Town Planners and architects to find alternatives that work. And we’ve found them.
• We have brought the lifestyle concept to the landowners in the Highway 7 Corridor and they are in agreement that this is the way to go.
• We are planning for higher residential density along Highway 7, where it belongs, not in the middle of single-family dwellings. The density will support the shops and businesses, so we don’t have empty storefronts and vacant properties. The compact New Urban form will combat sprawl, and will mean that people will be able to walk to parks and amenities close at hand.
• My plan is that the industrial area be a research park, attracting clean, environmentally-friendly buildings with well-educated, community-minded employees who prefer to live in a low maintenance residential area such as Cornell.
• With the work our Council has done to attract the National Research Council to Markham, and the proximity to the lifestyle of Cornell, the rapid transit, the shopping and theatre areas, library, community centre and the two hospitals, this vision will become a reality. The East End of Markham will become the prestige area to live, to work, to play and learn, that it was meant to be.