Employment Land Strategy

Employment Lands are lands designated in an official plan for clusters of certain business and economic uses, including manufacturing, warehousing, offices and associated retail and ancillary facilities.

Provincial planning policy mandates municipalities to provide and protect sufficient land to accommodate competitive opportunities for employment growth, while promoting intensification and mixed use development, all within the context of sustainable, complete communities and long term economic prosperity.

In 2007, Markham initiated an Employment Land Strategy to provide guidance on how to accommodate employment growth to 2031.

The Strategy was undertaken in two phases:

Phase 1 – identified the land requirements to achieve employment forecasts to 2031
Phase 2 – identified updated employment policies for the 2014 Official Plan

Status

Phase 1 of the Employment Land Strategy was completed in the spring of 2009, with a report to Development Services Committee in June 2009. At Council’s request, an Employment Land intensification study was also undertaken. The purpose of the intensification study was to determine how many new employment land (manufacturing, warehousing, etc) jobs could be accommodated on existing, developed sites. The Employment Land Intensification Study was completed with a report to Development Services Committee in June 2011.

Phase 2 of the Employment Land Strategy was completed with Council adoption of updated employment policies in the 2014 Official Plan.

Reports/Presentations

Additional information is available from the following staff reports:

June, 2011 - Employment Land Employment (ELE) Intensification Study - Staff Report
May, 2011 – Employment Land Employment (ELE) Intensification Study (Meridian)
June, 2009 – Employment Land Strategy (Phase 1) Report (urbanMetrics/Meridian) and Staff Report

Contact Information:

Marg Wouters
Senior Manager, Policy & Research
E-mail: mwouters@markham.ca
Phone: 905-477-7000 extension 2909

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