ç$... VoL UwJý - 12, No. 20 Wednesday, May 19, 1982 20 Pages Development worth $225 million A developer has put forward plans worth an estimated $225 million for the Rossland Road Garden Street area. Markborough Proper- ties Limited unveiled their plans at Monday night's meeting of Whit- by Town Council's ad- ministrative commit- -tee. The development, which will be completed by the year 2001 will cover an area of 258 acres while providing 2240 residential units, 1.4 million square feet of commercial space and an estimated population of 6,319. In a written state- ment, Markborough said that the develop- ment will include cultural and recreation- al facilities, govern- ment and private offices and "prestige" regional shopping complex. According to Mayor Bob Attersley, "Com- pletion of the total development package will fully meet the requirements and poli- cies of the (Durham) region's official plan." He also claimed that it will help meet "the On- tario government's goal of stimulating growth east of Toronto." According to the de- veloper, the area slated for development is still largely rural in nature. Markborough owns 57 of the 258 acres in the plan. The other major landowners include the three levels of govern- ment (47 acres), Kipling Grove Developments (39 acres), Costain Limited (37 acres) and Paramount Develop- ment Corporation and John Podpallack (22 acres each). The proposal includes a high density, "pres- tige" mixed use area. The shopping centre will boast 450,000 square feet of space with expansion available to 800,000 square feet. The plan also provides for a commercial and civic focus based on the municipal, regional and county court buildings. It also makes provision for a hotel and addi- tional high density resi- dential development. Markborough, which calls this development "Durham Heights" will provide for lower den- sity land use through the construction of a com- munity theatre, a multi- denominational church campus, an outdoor theatre, ball courts and parkland. Surrounding this area will be low density housing. "The entire commu- nity would be linked by planned roadways as well as pedestrian walk- ways," the developer said. Representatives of Markborough told the committee that the plans had been fully a year in preparation. Its report "examines both population and housing requirements and relates them to the economic needs of Whitby and the region between now and 2001." The developer also expects some 4,500 new permanent jobs would be created by the plan in addition to the construc- tion workforce that would be created. They also estimate that "assessment value of the property would be in the range of $15 to $16 million, and at today's rate, this would result in tome $3 million an- nually in taxes." "Whitby has captured a very high share of Durham Region's growth since 1978," the developer's report says. "This high capture rate has been partly due to relatively lower housing prices in Whitby. "Whitby should be able to sustain a capture rate close to its historic 22 per cent trend over the next decade," it ad- ds. "Population will double to 72,600 from today's 36,800, and will require an additional 14,200 new housing units by 2001." The administrative committee referred Markborough's propos- al to town planning staff for study. RýEjE! Pt E S t' 't 't J' Il