Maple, as a centre of agriculture, was enhanced with the proximity of the CNR line, as well as the growing urban development of Toronto. A major Ontario Department of Lands and Forests office was situated there in the 1960s. Housing developments began in the 1960s in the southwest, as well as replacement of homes damaged in the August 1962 fire and explosion at an industrial propane depot. Massive housing developments did not began until the 1980s in the northwest, near McNaughton.