I don't think we need amalgamation (though I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to it), but I do think we need to be reorganised.
For example, Breslau, Elmira, Wellesley, Baden, New Hamburg, and Ayr need to be made "urban". Make those towns "urban", perhaps even fully separate their from the surrounding townships in the way that Guelph is separate from Wellington County.
Right now those towns are planned by rural township governments, but they are not rural towns, and those townships can effectively fudge on their "hard countryside line" boundaries with zoning just outside those towns and keep in-town land for low-density, single-detached residential.
They are prime source of sprawl and that needs to be contained. In New Hamburg, for example, apartments are limited to a tiny, tiny fraction of the residential-zoned area and can only be three stories tall. Further, they limit unit density to 35 units per hectare. That would limit a building like 310 Queen St. S. (at Queen & Courtland) would be limited to 14 units and half it's current length.
These towns are swiftly growing and they would benefit greatly from being required to have urban-style planning to make them think about how that growth will happen. They are at the stage now, but not for long, where they could actually implement smart growth for 15 minute communities and missing middle housing a lot faster than the Cities can.
Extend GRT's mandate to them to support that smart growth, requiring stops no more than a 5 minute walk from 85% of the houses & businesses, but also express bus service (15 minute headways) all day long into the Cities' business cores.
If there's any other services that the Region only provides in the Cities, bring them to the towns as well.
Implied is a concomitant reorg of the Council structure.
For example, Breslau, Elmira, Wellesley, Baden, New Hamburg, and Ayr need to be made "urban". Make those towns "urban", perhaps even fully separate their from the surrounding townships in the way that Guelph is separate from Wellington County.
Right now those towns are planned by rural township governments, but they are not rural towns, and those townships can effectively fudge on their "hard countryside line" boundaries with zoning just outside those towns and keep in-town land for low-density, single-detached residential.
They are prime source of sprawl and that needs to be contained. In New Hamburg, for example, apartments are limited to a tiny, tiny fraction of the residential-zoned area and can only be three stories tall. Further, they limit unit density to 35 units per hectare. That would limit a building like 310 Queen St. S. (at Queen & Courtland) would be limited to 14 units and half it's current length.
These towns are swiftly growing and they would benefit greatly from being required to have urban-style planning to make them think about how that growth will happen. They are at the stage now, but not for long, where they could actually implement smart growth for 15 minute communities and missing middle housing a lot faster than the Cities can.
Extend GRT's mandate to them to support that smart growth, requiring stops no more than a 5 minute walk from 85% of the houses & businesses, but also express bus service (15 minute headways) all day long into the Cities' business cores.
If there's any other services that the Region only provides in the Cities, bring them to the towns as well.
Implied is a concomitant reorg of the Council structure.