Building on our secondary plan and design guidelines for the Clarington Energy Park adjacent to the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station, Urban Strategies has completed three secondary plans and complementary urban design and sustainability guidelines for the fast-growing community of Courtice, at the east end of the Greater Toronto Area.
Approved in 2021, the Southwest Courtice Secondary Plan will guide the expansion of the Bayview Neighbourhood over 200 hectares of greenfield land. The plan calls for a mix of low- and mid-rise housing, a grid-like network of local streets, and open space and trail connections to valley lands associated with Robinson Creek. East of the creek, we next prepared a secondary plan for the much larger Courtice Transit-Oriented Community (CTOC), which includes a Protected Major Transit Station Area centred on the future Courtice GO Station. This complex project followed the Integrated Environmental Assessment process and involved the conversion of former employment lands to facilitate transit-supportive development and the creation of a distinct urban centre within Durham Region.
CTOC is being planned for 33,000 residents and 8,000 jobs and will feature low-rise and mid-rise neighbourhoods, a high-density mixed-use core, and employment areas along Highway 401. The open space network includes a central multi-purpose civic park to serve the entire community and neighbourhood parks located within a 5-minute walk of all future residents. The community’s spine will be an active transportation corridor for convenient access to the planned commercial core and GO station, and which in time will provide access to the Courtice Waterfront to the south.
Developed concurrently with the CTOC Secondary Plan, the Courtice Waterfront Secondary Plan and Guidelines establish a framework of open spaces, streets and land uses to guide the development of a community for at least 5,000 people and destinations anticipated to draw visitors from across the municipality and broader region. A variety of housing types and commercial uses are planned, the latter complementing a new 15-hectare waterfront park serving all of Clarington.
In addition to public engagement through workshops, open houses and online tools, for all three secondary plans we engaged regularly with landowner groups and technical steering committees to build consensus around plan directions. The CTOC and Waterfront secondary plans and guidelines were approved by Council in December 2025 and January 2026, respectively.
