If Bradford West Gwillimbury residents are tired of the spike in local development in recent years, they should brace themselves for more.
There are many projects on the horizon for this area in an effort to meet the demands of a population that is expected to increase to 50,500 by 2031 — a 40-per-cent jump, said Peter Loukes, director of development and engineering services for the Town of BWG.
“There’s a lot of development … coming,” he said during a presentation Wednesday at Bradford Board of Trade’s Re-Con Forum for the real-estate and construction industries.
The town plans to build 5,200 additional dwelling units between 2016 and 2031, which is 325 a year, he said.
According to provincial guidelines, 40 per cent of these units must be constructed in existing built-up areas around BWG, so the town is encouraging the development of mixed-use buildings, with commercial businesses on the main level.
Construction will also begin soon on the Strathallen property at the town’s Highway 400 employment lands, Loukes said, adding roads will start being paved there by mid-September.
“We will start to see some things starting to come up out of the fields in the next 18 months,” Loukes said.
As well, BWG council is expected to address the town’s new official plan early next year, he added.
The official plan is about “how to build a proper community. It’s not just about homes.”
Many of the town’s projects are focused on transportation. For example, the Highway 400-Line 5 interchange is expected to be opened this October, with a partial opening potentially earlier than that, Loukes said.
The construction of a southwest arterial road in a kind of S-bend heading west down Line 6, to Sideroad 10, to Line 5 is also expected to begin next year, he said.
The Holland Street Reconstruction Project will also “restart” in 2019, and the town is still continuing to advocate for the Highway 400-404 Connecting Link, he said.
“When talking about transportation, the elephant in the room on this is the link,” Loukes said. “If the link were open, we’d have ⅓ of the traffic on Holland Street. I’m sure there are many people who would be happy to see that one go in.”
A 46-metre-tall water tower in Bond Head will also start being built in 2019 on the north side of County Road 88 between Highway 400 and County Road 27, he said.
In terms of local real-estate, the average house price in BWG decreased to $682,084 this year from $850,000 last year, said Eryn Richardson, broker and general manager with Century 21.
The number of sales also decreased to 371 so far this year from 462 in 2017, he said.
The exception is July, which was a banner month for local real estate — 62 sales this year, compared to 23 last July, and the average house price was $671,455 this year, compared to $633,561 last July, he said.
“We don’t want these ups and downs. We want a consistent flow,” Richardson said.
He said an event like Re-Con, which is the first sector-specific event the Bradford Board of Trade has hosted, is useful to real-estate agents because they “put a lot of emphasis on knowing what happens in our community.”
Some of the latest marketing tactics for the real-estate industry include targeted social-media posts, researching demographics, and videos taken by drones for online house listings, Richardson said.
Part of a real-estate agent’s job is to adapt and innovate as a community grows.
“(I remember) fishing in the canal. … Getting my car fixed at Gary’s Auto. I think I even spent a couple nights at the (Village Inn),” he said, with a laugh. “Things are changing.”
