This past summer, a vote by Markham City Council to approve a long-awaited plan to revitalize the Thornlea neighbourhood was delayed after local residents and businesses expressed a plethora of concerns. Instead, a new committee was formed consisting of representatives from residents, business owners and city councillors, and the vote was to be rescheduled this fall.
But now that working group is set to expand as concerns are still rampant among the parties involved.
Residents had previously advocated to ban new industrial businesses from the area and rezone the former Canac Kitchens factory site to mostly residential. This concerned businesses and so resulted in the process slowing down.
“Council decided to air on the side of being giving,” said Ward 2 councillor Howard Shore. “If it means an extra couple of meetings with additional representatives, now that people were paying that much more attention, so be it.”
The expanded working group will include residents and businesses.
But Peter Pavlovic, president of the nearby Aileen-Willowbrook Ratepayers Association, said that efforts to be more inclusive haven’t reached his organization.
“As the local ratepayers association, we should be more involved,” said Pavlovic, “But no one has made contact with us.”