For some reason I thought the compromised heights were in the high 40s. How tall is the tallest one?

Anyway, my question still basically stands...

52 and that's your answer :)

Way to early to tell now ... floor counts don't equate to building heights.
But it will probably be shorter then Hullmark proposed in NYCC by tridel.

Also, this is just a planning report in the very early stages, there is no developer connection yet. It's really too early to be talking about building heights. I guess what we can take out of it is the highest building that will be permitted in the area is somewhere around 50 floors.
 
Planners didn't try hard enough! :p


That's really unfortunate though because, as bad as the highway is in cutting this area in half, the hydro corridor really gives it a deadening slice.
 
Peter Calthorpe calls it "the best in North America"

I hope the quiets some of the criticism of extending the subway to Hwy 7.


http://www.thestar.com/gta/columnist/article/639723
Christopher Hume

It's a long way from California to Markham, but not for Peter Calthorpe, who has made the trip to design what could be the most vital project of his career.

The influential San Francisco architect, author, planner and co-founder of the Congress of New Urbanism calls this job "the highest manifestation of transit-oriented development I have been involved in."

He's referring to Langstaff, a new-style urban community proposed for a 57-hectare site south of Highway 7 between Yonge St. and Bayview Ave.

The scheme, approved by Markham council last week, will be highrise, mixed-use and pedestrian-friendly. Organized around transit – new subway lines and expanded bus service – Langstaff represents the new face of suburbia, which is no suburbia at all.

In other words, it is urban.

"We've had a 50-year experiment with sprawl," Calthorpe argues. "Now it's over. Everything's changing. There's a huge demographic shift happening. If you include externalities and eliminate subsidies, sprawl is not affordable. The key to unlocking the potential is transit."

But as Calthorpe also points out, successful transit is regional transit. That's surely true at Langstaff. Cut off by hydro easements, highways, railway tracks and cemeteries, the missing connections to the external world can only be created through transit. Extending the Yonge subway to Hwy. 7 is critical to the project, as are the locations of the new stations.

"If you want to get people out of cars," says Calthorpe, "you've got to get them close to transit. And transit must be there to support walkability, not the other way around. Destinations have to be nearby."

The Langstaff master plan shows a community laid out in small blocks on an east-west axis. A strip of parkland runs down the centre, divided into sections by a grid of short, narrow streets. Buildings range from mid-rise to highrise, townhouses to towers, much like City Place in downtown Toronto.

A density of 360 units per hectare will be typical; residents will presumably hold many of the 23,000 jobs based in Langstaff. Two retail clusters will be centred around transit hubs, and the CN track to the south will be covered.

"This will have the kind of urbanism you get in a city," Calthorpe says. He projects that "65 per cent of trips will be transit/walking and only 35 per cent by car."

"The consumer is a smart consumer now," notes Sam Balsamo, whose firm, Condor Properties, owns a portion of the Langstaff land. "We embrace the Ontario Growth Plan. We want to build a community that isn't your typical suburban community, a community that's walkable and transit oriented."

Speaking of Premier Dalton McGuinty's Growth Plan, Calthorpe calls it "the best in North America right now ... the standard these days."

Adopted several years ago, the legislation sets out where development may and may not occur. Though some have complained it doesn't go far enough, the Growth Plan represents the province's first attempt to stop sprawl.

Because of the size of the grand plan, Langstaff will be developed in phases, each contingent upon the one before. Densities can be adjusted according to demand, and to fit with transit capacity, which lies at the heart of things.

It remains to be seen how the bureaucracy, let alone the market, will respond to Markham's new urban face. Not everyone will be pleased to see the shift from cars to transit; but better get used to it: This is what the future looks like.

Not to say cars won't continue to be an essential part of North American life; it means they will be one element of a more balanced transportation system comprised of many parts.

But Langstaffians will also enjoy one of urbanity's greatest gifts, proximity.
 
Seperately: The hydro corridor is going to kind of cut this Langstaff/RHC development in half, which is unfortunate. I don't suppose there is any way the whole thing can be buried. Do any technologies/processes/techniques exist for making this possible? I think it would be rather desirable here.

It's entirely possible to do, and I've always wondered why hydro hasn't looked at doing it, especially along Finch and the corridor from Leaside to Cherrywood. It'd be a little bit harder to bury the 500kv lines that run by Langstaff, but it's still doable. You'd think that the money they make from selling the land would pay for most of the development.
 
Council asked Calthorpe's guy about it and he said it was a no go. Sounds like it has more to do with Hydro than anything else. He said they tried it with other projects elsewhere and haven't been successful yet.

The 407 is such a hard barrier anyway that while I think it would be great to fix the hydro problem, there's nothing you can do to change the fact it's going to be divided. We'll have to see if the planners come up with any clever plans to integrate it at all.
 
Council asked Calthorpe's guy about it and he said it was a no go. Sounds like it has more to do with Hydro than anything else. He said they tried it with other projects elsewhere and haven't been successful yet.

I'm guessing that the issue has to do with the 500kv voltage, but there are lots of underground high-voltage lines around the world. It shouldn't be an issue. Off the top of my head, there are lots of 345kv underground lines in New York, so I don't see why 500kv would be that much more difficult. If they're willing to look at new technologies, a couple superconducting cables could easily handle the load.
 
Local paper article on the Calthorpe presentation:

http://www.yorkregion.com/News/Richmond Hill/article/92236

May 26, 2009 02:38 PM

BY DAVID FLEISCHER
Call it Extreme Makeover: Yonge Street edition.

Markham and Richmond Hill are well along in plans to turn the Yonge-Hwy. 7 area into a state-of-the art urban centre unlike anything seen in the suburbs.

Obsolete is the model of a downtown surrounded by suburbs. The future is the "poly-centric city" with multiple urban centres, smart growth expert Peter Calthorpe told Markham's development services committee Tuesday.

Mr. Calthorpe's California firm was hired by the town a year ago to plan the Langstaff Gateway and he was in town this week to present the final plan to council.

"I think we're accomplishing something that really sets a standard, at least for North America, if not for the world, Mr. Calthorpe said.

When built out, the area between Bayview Avenue and Yonge Street, south of Hwy. 407, will boast 15,000 new housing units and 15,000 jobs.

TOWERS OF 50-STOREYS

York Region will also gain a skyline with towers as high as 50-storeys.

"We ought to open the doors to this kind of urbanism in non-downtown areas," Mr. Calthorpe said. "This can sit as a small, urban island and a focal point."

What makes this particular site unique, Mr. Calthorpe explained, is the confluence of transit options, including a major highway, a planned subway stop, GO service and two east-west bus rapid transit systems.

TRANSIT MAIN FOCUS

The entire development is built with transit capacity, not road capacity in mind. Planners hope that a worst-case scenario will see 50 per cent of trips without using cars, although planners have targeted 65 per cent.

Later phases of development won't proceed unless specific criteria, including transit targets, are met.

The highest towers won't go forward until then and the subway is "the key to unlocking density in the majority of the towers," said Markham planning director Valerie Shuttleworth.

Markham is throwing in just about every sustainable initiative town officials can think of, from cogeneration plants to green roofs and recycled storm water.

Lining a "green spine" will be Parisian-style boulevards, lined with mid-rise buildings.

"We're breaking new ground and setting new standards," Condor Properties president Sam Balsamo said.

Condor owns much of the land west of the CN rail tracks and has worked with the town and planners to get the best possible plan. Construction work could begin in as little as two to three years, once some leases have expired, Mr. Balsamo said.

NORTH SIDE AMBITIOUS TOO

Richmond Hill didn't hire Mr. Calthorpe, but that town's study of their side of the regional centre is hardly less ambitious. The town held a public meeting earlier this month, outlining plans for remaking the corridor as far north as 16th Avenue. (see story facing page)

Though it stretches across the two municipalities, the area was designated by the province as one of four key growth nodes in York Region (the others are in Markham, Vaughan and Newmarket).

A challenge for both municipalities is how to ensure their plans, and the two communities, are integrated.

An ongoing challenge has been figuring out the most efficient way to build an multi-mode transit terminal incorporating the existing GO and Viva terminals, as well as the planned 407 Transitway bus rapid transit system.

Regional working groups and sub-committees will provide a forum for marrying the Richmond Hill and Markham plans, Richmond Hill director of planning policy Patrick Lee said.

"The biggest challenge is the distance involved and that you have Hwy. 7 and the 407. It's a rather imposing physical barrier," Mr. Lee said.

Meanwhile, while they are relatively new, all the big box stores from Yonge Street over towards Bayview Avenue - including always-busy businesses such as Silver City and Home Depot - will be replaced.

In their place will rise a new, transit-oriented development dominated by mid- and high-rise buildings.

Learn more about Richmond Hill's plan at tinyurl.com/qw8frs and read about Markham's at tinyurl.com/pv7qhu
 
Toronto Star article: Your City My City: High expectations in Markham
Langstaff Gateway aims to be a car-free mecca


Peter Calthorpe likes to say that how far someone is willing to walk to reach public transit depends on how interesting the journey is.

It’s that kind of thinking that got the California-based new urbanism planner and champion of the “walkable city” hired to design a revolutionary, transit-dependent live-work community in Markham.[............

http://www.thestar.com/yourcitymyci...ity-my-city-high-expectations-in-markham?bn=1
 
A walkable community isn't enough, there needs to be enough density along the main roads to make placing a public transit route in the neighbourhood justifiable. Otherwise people will still take their personal vehicles to the subway stops.
 
What I want to know is how come Toronot's developments ... City place at Sheppard / waterfront ... so on, can't include a lot of employment as well?
 
A better question may be why exactly does Cityplace need employment with 70 million square of office space a few blocks away. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big supporter of mixed use developments however the area around the CBD is in need of as much residential as it can handle. The neighbourhood has a huge surplus of jobs.
 
What I want to know is how come Toronot's developments ... City place at Sheppard / waterfront ... so on, can't include a lot of employment as well?

It's a max 20 minute walk from the furthest point to the subway station. Are people really this lazy?
 
^Yeah. However, it only takes me 22 minutes to walk one major block in Toronto--St Clair to Bloor, or Bathurst to Dufferin. Sometimes I prefer the walk to the claustrophobic atmosphere of the TTC during peak hours. I don't view walking as a waste of time--rather a pleasurable way to enjoy the city, listen to new music on my ipod, check out cute girls, etc....
 
One point missed is that the York Region buses coming up to the Yonge HRT station will require another fare, since they are not in the City of Toronto, unless they walk to it. Or the area gets annexed by Toronto (unlikely).
 

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