A new-home fast track to nowhere

Province helped speed development of Vaughan site. Five years later, it still sits empty

- NOOR JAVED

Block 41 in Vaughan has captured the attention of local and provincial governments like few other properties in the GTA. It has been approved for a 5,000-home subdivision, which was supposed to be finished by 2031 but is well behind schedule.

From the outside, the parcel of land in north Vaughan looks like any other large green space destined for development.

But Block 41 — 428 hectares bounded by Kirby and Teston roads to the north and south, and Weston Road and Pine Valley Drive to the east and west — has captured the attention of local and provincial governments like few other properties in the GTA.

It could be because it’s one of Vaughan’s last greenfield developments — an entirely new subdivision built where there are few houses or the necessary servicing — that also contains a host of environmentally sensitive areas, including the Greenbelt, provincially significant wetlands and endangered species habitat. It’s also home to a critical compressor station and pipeline infrastructure that pumps natural gas out to eastern Ontario and Quebec.

Over the past five years, this plot of land has been the subject of significant intervention from local and provincial governments intended to both speed the development process, and open up more land for housing. Among them: a minister’s zoning order, a rare downgrading of Greenbelt designations on the land, and even Greenbelt land removed — and then returned — following the scandal in 2023.

Yet despite such substantive moves, no new housing has been built on the site. The subdivision plan for Block 41 is expected to be discussed at Vaughan council next week.