Whatever you might think of the outer reaches of Durham Region, you have to admire the efforts of city officials to sustain the character of an upright small town in a world of interminable technological progress.
When you call Ajax's city hall, for instance, the automated switchboard will allow you to report littering or vandalism to a voice-mail extension before it will patch you through to the person with whom you wish to speak. It's a charming touch, though it's hard to imagine the litter bugs and scalawags of this city of nearly 85,000 shaking in their Airwalks.
Ajax, the wartime factory town that became the poster child for planned communities in the postwar period, is still a small town in more ways than one.
It's only 67 square kilometres in area, which is less than half of the area compared to its neighbour Whitby with an area of 146 square kilometres.
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In spite of this, Ajax's official plan clearly states that it has no intention of expanding beyond its present boundaries after 2021, when it's estimated the present land supply will be built out. It also calls for a large conservation area to be maintained on its eastern border as a buffer between Whitby. Both concepts were endorsed in 2002 when Durham Region signed off on the plan.
But unlike a lot of its Durham Region neighbours where local job growth has exploded, Ajax remains a stalwart bedroom community where the commuter is king. And if you have to commute to up to 50 kilometres to your job in Toronto, you're not going to want to settle for anything less than a large single detached home on a large lot.
"It's a much newer city, so the redevelopment opportunities are not as great," said planner Bob Lehman, a partner with Meridian Consultants who was also on the team that drafted the Ajax official plan. "It also has one of the lowest ratios of jobs to population in the GTA [Greater Toronto Area], so it's still very much a commuter community."
Most of the recent new subdivisions have cropped up on the east end of town around Richardson Point on Lake Ontario and between Rossland Road and Taunton Road north of Highway 401. In spite of its small area, there are a great many waterfront parks and conservation areas that go a long way to making it one of the more enjoyable municipalities in Durham.
And everyone seems to be excited about the 200 slot machines coming to the Picov Downs racetrack on Kingston Road, especially the city, which will cart away up to $2-million a year in gambling revenue.
The looming land squeeze for new detached homes has led to a few skirmishes between builders and city officials. A number of builders have applied to convert industrial-zoned areas (known as employment land) into residential zones in order to build new subdivisions, according to Brian Bridgeman, Ajax 's manager of planning and development. So far, the city has resisted.
"We need to maintain the supply of employment lands that we've got," Mr. Bridgeman said. "We'd like Ajax to grow into a community where people can live and work."
Mr. Bridgeman notes that some Ajax subdivisions currently under construction have sought permission from the city to include more semis and townhomes in their communities, though some have sought to increase the size of their detached lots as well.
These smaller homes have been selling well in Ajax. Better, in fact, than the larger models on some subdivisions.
"The semis went out the door pretty quick," said Mitch Avenus, who is selling homes at Great Gulf Homes' Wyndam Manor subdivision.
He adds that the company is rushing a new batch of townhouses to be released in the next phase of the development just south of Taunton Road at Salem Road.
"We're finding that a lot of first time buyers are buying up to $300,000, when typically they would go more for the low twos [$200,000 range]," he said. Wyndam Manor prices range from $263,990 to $359,990 for semis and detached homes, but they are virtually sold out of the current phase.
Ajax continues to be an attractive market for the price sensitive new-home buyer. The average price of a new single detached home there actually declined in 2004 to $311,697 from $318,540 for 2003, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
Whitby's average new detached price for 2004 landed at $283,068, up from $251,483 over the 2003 calendar year. It was also the only market among those monitored by CMHC in Toronto's suburban 905 belt with a lower average price than Ajax.
It's likely that the sheer volume of housing starts kept prices in check.
Ajax led Durham Region in detached new-home starts in 2004 with 1,191, compared to 932 in neighbouring Whitby, which had the second most detached starts in the region.
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