What happens next as Buttonville airport in Markham prepares to shut down?

With news that Buttonville airport in Markham will be closing by the end of November 2023, there are questions about what will come next at the massive property and where companies will relocate.

“It is really sad to see the airport have to close down, but as a city councillor, I have been hearing from residents it is time,” City of Markham Ward 2 Coun. Ritch Lau said while surveying the property Friday afternoon.

He recalled his time as a student pilot at Toronto Buttonville Municipal Airport, which is located at the southeast corner of Highway 404 and 16th Avenue, and added fellow pilots have been sharing feelings of nostalgia.

“This is something I hear … ‘I treasure this airport, it’s a good memory, it’s a really remarkable landmark for Markham,'” Lau said.

“It is time for the airport to come to a conclusion here. It is not a surprise for residents and City staff.”

While many skilled pilots operate out of Buttonville airport daily without incident, in recent years, the facility — which is home to many student pilots — has seen a few high-profile mishaps.

Those incidents have been shared on social media, and while major damages haven’t been caused, Lau said it had sparked concern among those contacting his office.

“So many residents in Ward 2 Markham and also our neighbours, Richmond Hill, are so worried about aircraft doing emergency landings at their homes, not just on the highways,” he said.

Lau added federal air traffic controllers have been pulled from the control tower, something that has left pilots on the ground to work together to navigate aircraft movements themselves.

“That is OK for rural areas, for some airports not in the city, but Markham is not 20 years ago, and now there is a lot of residential and commercial,” he said.

“I was talking to the residents: Either reinstate the control tower, keep it as a fully functional airport, or close it down.”

RELATED: Markham’s Buttonville Airport to close this fall

In a letter addressed to the airport’s staff and tenants obtained by CityNews 680, Torontair president Derek Sifton said a lease agreement that allowed the airport to continue operating is set to expire.

“Since 2010, the airport has been operating under a land lease with Cadillac Fairview which has now reached its natural expiry, and they may look to redevelop the airport site at some time in the future,” he wrote, going on to thank stakeholders for their loyalty and dedication.

When reached by phone on Thursday and asked about the letter, Sifton confirmed the planned closure of the airport to CityNews 680.

Dan Naismith, a pilot with the Canadian Traffic Network — the operator of CityNews’ chopper, said the location of Buttonville airport is ideal.

“Coming in and out of Buttonville is pretty simple, straightforward for us,” he said.

“From a pilot’s perspective, it’s a really good location for us being so central to really the GTA — the area we cover.”

CityNews contacted Cadillac Fairview, an operator of several major malls, to ask about the corporation’s plans for the property and a potential timeline for redevelopment. A response wasn’t provided by the time of publication.

Lau said he recently heard from the company and that a development application would be filed soon, adding he’s waiting to see the details. A plan floated a decade ago would have seen commercial and entertainment uses on the property. He said he expects to see a mixed-use plan with residential buildings.

Regardless of whatever comes, Lau said there are challenges that will need to be addressed, and residents must be consulted.

“It doesn’t have all the services … water, sewage and also electricity. What I want to see is infrastructure. If they’re going to have development right here, right next to Highway 404 and 16th, traffic is going to be a problem,” he said.

“If we’re doing a residential site here, we’ll want to make sure we have the infrastructure, we have parks, we have community centres, we have transit, we have accommodations to go along with new development coming up here.”

Could closure of Buttonville fuel development of new, existing airports?

Currently, several private and public operators are based at Buttonville Airport, including companies that provide flight training.

One of the public operators in need of a new space is York Regional Police (YRP). The service uses the airport as a base for Air2, YRP’s chopper. A spokesperson told CityNews in a statement on Friday the service still hasn’t found a new space.

The closest comparable airport to Buttonville is Oshawa. There’s also the Brampton-Caledon Airport in Cheltenham.

However, more than 20 kilometres east along 16th Avenue (east of York Durham Line and north of Highway 7) are federal lands set aside more than 50 years ago. There have been multiple studies to examine the construction of an airport in Pickering.

Community members CityNews spoke with said news of Buttonville’s closure raised questions on Facebook groups in Durham Region — not something unheard of every so often amid perpetual studying of an airport in the area.

Mary Delaney, the chair of the longstanding group Land Over Landings — a community organization against building an airport in Pickering, said she isn’t worried yet about Buttonville’s closure forcing another aviation push in her area.

RELATED: Pickering airport opponents hope the proposal will be abandoned after 50 years

“There will be the same few people … who will probably say, ‘Oh yes, this means it’s going to happen,’ but Buttonville has been in trouble for a very long time,” she told CityNews Friday afternoon, calling for affordable housing to be part of the Buttonville redevelopment plan.

Delaney is among those calling for the federal government to finally make a decision on the Pickering airport lands.

“That’s the one thing I think everybody agrees on no matter what side of this you’re on is let’s end this. It’s been over half a century. The time has come to end it once and for all,” she said, referencing a recent federal government announcement of another study on airport capacity in southern Ontario.

During an April debate at Pickering city council, Coun. Mara Nagy led a push to declare that the legislative body doesn’t support an airport on lands set aside in Pickering and that no further money or resources be used for an airport. All of the council members present voted to endorse the move, but Pickering Mayor Kevin Ashe abstained.

Meanwhile, Delaney said she and her organization want to see protected farmland guaranteed in the lands set aside by the federal government.

“Our hope is when this study is completed, that will allow the opportunity for Ottawa to say we’re not building an airport,” she said while also calling for longer-term leasing to facilitate better agricultural investments.

“It allows [newer, innovative farmers and food entrepreneurs] to come in and work some magic with these lands and turn them into something incredible — a real food basket and food hub for the GTA.”

With files from Kyle Hocking of CityNews 680