Great News! We are working on the Markham Centre Secondary Plan Draft Development Concept, Smart City Strategy, and Community Energy Plan!

Markham Centre Secondary Plan Update (MCSP)

Background

In the summer of 2020, we held a series of virtual interactive discussions to hear your thoughts on the future of Markham Centre. Nearly 200 people actively participated, and many others listened live on the City of Markham’s YouTube channel. We talked about what makes a great neighbourhood, the opportunities in Markham’s downtown, and how areas in Markham Centre could be more cohesive and connected. You shared many great ideas and important considerations for the future of Markham Centre. This helped us identify the themes to explore moving forward.

In September 2020, we held a virtual visioning workshop. Working together, we refined a Vision and Guiding Principles to help inform Markham Centre’s development over the next 20-30 years.

Drawing on the Vision and Guiding Principles, we generated two development options exploring different mixes and locations of uses, densities, heights, road layouts, approaches to pedestrian and cycling mobility, and parks and open space networks. In the summer of 2021, we held a series of virtual engagement sessions to hear your thoughts on these options.

Based on your feedback, we prepared the “Development Concept” and conducted an in-person Public Open House event in February 2023 to hear from you and further refine the plan. This was our first in-person event since the pandemic! Thank you to everyone who attended this event - your participation and comments helped us develop the Recommended Development Concept and the Draft Markham Centre Secondary Plan.

Smart City Strategy

While working on the Markham Centre Secondary Plan Update, we have launched two new projects - the Smart City Strategy, and the Community Energy Plan.

We want to use a Smart City Strategy to support the Vision and Guiding Principles in the Markham Centre planning process. The Smart City Strategy will:

• Identify information technology opportunities to support Markham Centre infrastructure development and place-making proposals; and
• Define the roadmap for implementation of those smart technologies and initial opportunities.

Please click Smart City Strategies to learn more!

Community Energy Plan

The Markham Centre Community Energy Plan will support our emerging downtown’s goal to become a net-zero emissions community by 2050. Our aim is to meet the energy demand through low-carbon or carbon-free forms of energy and to offset any release of carbon emissions that cannot be eliminated.

Please click Community Energy Plan to learn more!