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http://www.yorkregion.com/news/local/article/626812--markham-aims-to-boost-population-job-density
“The only way Langstaff will work is if it is transit dependent,” and not just transit oriented, planning commissioner Jim Baird said. Development will be phased so high-density buildings do not proceed until other targets are met. The number of trips taken by methods other than cars is expected to be 60 per cent, extremely atypical for the suburbs. Despite those ambitious targets, concerns have been raised about what the real traffic impacts will be, particularly with only one road in and out and a planned TTC commuter lot across Yonge Street. A complex matrix of triggers aims to ensure that new phases only move forward when the community is ready. The first phase will not proceed until after the restoration of Pomona Mills Creek and the establishment of a link with the Richmond Hill Viva station via Cedar Avenue. The second wouldn’t go forward until the Yonge subway is operational and elementary schools have been built.
While buildings as high as 50 storeys are proposed near Yonge and toward the centre, plans also call for mid-rise buildings and townhouses. At full build-out, Markham targets 32,000 residents and 15,000 workers — a density of 1,000 people and jobs per hectare. That is more than twice the provincial target of 400 people and jobs per hectare. To put it in perspective, only parts of downtown Toronto and the Yonge-Eglinton area meet that target. Langstaff aims to more than double it. “If all of it gets built, the densities become a reality,” Mayor Frank Scarpitti said. “It is unique, maybe the first of its kind.”
But if full-day GO service, the 407 Transitway and Yonge subway don’t develop as planned, future phases will be curtailed since the road capacity to house so many people does not exist, Markham officials said. “It has to be transit first. We have to innovate,” Ms Shapero said.
“The only way Langstaff will work is if it is transit dependent,” and not just transit oriented, planning commissioner Jim Baird said. Development will be phased so high-density buildings do not proceed until other targets are met. The number of trips taken by methods other than cars is expected to be 60 per cent, extremely atypical for the suburbs. Despite those ambitious targets, concerns have been raised about what the real traffic impacts will be, particularly with only one road in and out and a planned TTC commuter lot across Yonge Street. A complex matrix of triggers aims to ensure that new phases only move forward when the community is ready. The first phase will not proceed until after the restoration of Pomona Mills Creek and the establishment of a link with the Richmond Hill Viva station via Cedar Avenue. The second wouldn’t go forward until the Yonge subway is operational and elementary schools have been built.
While buildings as high as 50 storeys are proposed near Yonge and toward the centre, plans also call for mid-rise buildings and townhouses. At full build-out, Markham targets 32,000 residents and 15,000 workers — a density of 1,000 people and jobs per hectare. That is more than twice the provincial target of 400 people and jobs per hectare. To put it in perspective, only parts of downtown Toronto and the Yonge-Eglinton area meet that target. Langstaff aims to more than double it. “If all of it gets built, the densities become a reality,” Mayor Frank Scarpitti said. “It is unique, maybe the first of its kind.”
But if full-day GO service, the 407 Transitway and Yonge subway don’t develop as planned, future phases will be curtailed since the road capacity to house so many people does not exist, Markham officials said. “It has to be transit first. We have to innovate,” Ms Shapero said.
