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Developer Green Earth Village has offered to be the site of the future hospital northwest of Queensville Sideroad and Leslie Street.

Following a closed-door meeting on the afternoon of March 4, councillors and Mayor Virginia Hackson unanimously approved the idea with no discussion.

East Gwillimbury is “optimally located” for the new hospital, being within Southlake’s search area and situated north of the hospital’s existing location in Newmarket, the town’s resolution said.

The existing Newmarket location at Davis Drive and Prospect Street will operate as an ambulatory care centre once the new hospital is built.

Green Earth Village has two 40- to 50-acre sites available.

To the north, is 120 acres owned by the Region of York, for a state-of-the-art plant for what would have been the Upper York Sewage Solution.

The UYSS would have taken wastewater from East Gwillimbury, Newmarket and Aurora to Lake Simcoe, a project the region spent $100 million on.

However, the provincial government scuttled those plans a day after the 2022 municipal elections, saying wastewater from East Gwillimbury will now go to the Duffin Creek treatment plant in Pickering.

The town and the region have redesignated the Queensville lands to an urban area.

The area provides “a geographically strategic location, appropriate access, timely servicing potential, no environmental or heritage constraints, and the potential for complementary uses that would strengthen the hospital expansion and associated campus,” the town’s resolution said.

“(The Queensville site) will provide significant economic development benefits including ongoing and recurring direct job creation, indirect job creation, local government revenues, and additional business development and local business investments and spending.”

Green Earth Village has successfully passed the first stage of Southlake’s assessment process.

The town’s resolution does not address a number of issues, including whether the developer is donating or charging a minimal amount for the property, details of any arrangement that may have been agreed to with the developer and where Southlake places the location on its list of preferred sites.

East Gwillimbury is committed to expediting the planning process for Green Earth Village “to allow Southlake to start construction on its future hospital site in a timely basis in co-ordination with the proposed Green Earth Village development,” the town’s resolution said.

It also says the town will advocate that the Region of York continue its ongoing efforts regarding the timely expansion of regional water and sanitary services to meet Southlake’s development timeline.