sixrings said:
cant build 5 floor condos? anyways wilson has an abandoned bus bay as well... more wasted space.
Click to expand...

Are we not building some more (soon to be) abandoned bus bays at Finch West. They will be used a few years and then abandoned since the subway is built before the FWLRT opens.

Could the City not move this line ahead of SELRT in order to avoid this?
 
BurlOak said:
Are we not building some more (soon to be) abandoned bus bays at Finch West. They will be used a few years and then abandoned since the subway is built before the FWLRT opens.

Could the City not move this line ahead of SELRT in order to avoid this?
Click to expand...
Finch West station will open in 2015. No way the LRT can be built by then. Even then, you'd need buses between Finch West and Finch stations, along with some of the other local services. Sometimes you have to build something you won't use for a long time - look at the Woodbine station and Keele station streetcar platforms.
 
sixrings said:
cant build 5 floor condos? anyways wilson has an abandoned bus bay as well... more wasted space.
Click to expand...

They can't even keep the construction cranes over the pit upright when an aircraft lands.

5 floor may well be 4 floors too tall depending on how close to the runway they would be.
 
Last edited:
nfitz said:
Finch West station will open in 2015. No way the LRT can be built by then. Even then, you'd need buses between Finch West and Finch stations, along with some of the other local services. Sometimes you have to build something you won't use for a long time - look at the Woodbine station and Keele station streetcar platforms.
Click to expand...

Are those even still there? I thought they were walled up completely and/or demolished.
 
rbt said:
They can't even keep the construction cranes over the pit upright when an aircraft lands.

5 floor may well be 4 floors too tall depending on how close to the runway they would be.
Click to expand...

They best buy is at least 2 floors tall. If you can't build condos how about downsview park type townhouses.
 
sixrings said:
They best buy is at least 2 floors tall. If you can't build condos how about downsview park type townhouses.
Click to expand...

I'm not personally familiar with the rules but if residential is allowed, a dense layout of townhomes would seem like a possibility.
 
gweed123 said:
Are those even still there? I thought they were walled up completely and/or demolished.
Click to expand...
Yes, walled up, demolished, abandoned. I meant look at the concept of building a platform that was only going to be used for a short period.

At Woodbine, the tunnel to the platforms is still there, walled off, and used for storage. The stairwell is gone. Some of the track is still there on Strathmore and Cedarvale. Not sure if some of the platform is in the garden centre. I'm not that familiar with Keele.
 
CDL.TO said:
All the parking lots suck, but retail does generate a lot of travel. Replacing those stores with homes could well reduce ridership at Wilson, not increase it.

Also... "Residences of Under the Flightpath" is NOT good planning.
Click to expand...

I highly doubt there is a lot of pedestrians coming off the ttc to go to cosco or home depot. I have done it but I am a little crazy and am willing to lug a sheet of dry wall onto the subway. I'm pretty sure 99% of ppl are not up to that challenge. Cosco is built around buying bulk food. You kinda need a car to get that stuff home. If it was retail like the shops at don mills then I am sure ppl would use the ttc to get there. But the type of retail that is there is not geared towards TTC usage.
 
rbt said:
Downsview is a very low-use airport. I can't come up with a number of actual movements though.
Click to expand...

So you're not going to get NIMBY complaints about planes flying low over their houses even a couple times a day?

sixrings said:
I highly doubt there is a lot of pedestrians coming off the ttc to go to cosco or home depot. I have done it but I am a little crazy and am willing to lug a sheet of dry wall onto the subway. I'm pretty sure 99% of ppl are not up to that challenge. Cosco is built around buying bulk food. You kinda need a car to get that stuff home. If it was retail like the shops at don mills then I am sure ppl would use the ttc to get there. But the type of retail that is there is not geared towards TTC usage.
Click to expand...

For sure it could be better oriented to the subway, but still don't assume that residential will generate more traffic. For stores with thousands of customers a day, only a few percent arriving by transit is still a large trip generator. (Besides, there are Costco stores in downtown Vancouver and in Manhattan. Midtown Manhattan has a Home Depot. So it's not like these stores can't work in non-auto-centric environments.)

Look, what I'm saying is that replacing this big box plaza with residential is a bad idea for multiple reasons. It's zoned for employment lands right now for good reason. Redevelop the site within that context.
 
CDL.TO said:
So you're not going to get NIMBY complaints about planes flying low over their houses even a couple times a day?
Click to expand...

I'm not even sure it is a couple a day (a couple of each Bombardier aircraft rolled out, perhaps 5 per week?) and they tend to be during the day when many people would not be home.

I expect it would be lower than the number of complaints ORNG receives for their 3am medevac trips to downtown hospitals. Anyone happen to know that number?
 
I just don't buy the idea that this is where retail needs to be. Yorkdale is across the street and expand it with a best buy if you need to. As for your comments that residential would not necessarily mean more transit use, I guess I look at the four new condos across from downsview metrogate. Since those buildings went up there is significant more foot traffic around the area. Much more then ever existed with that idomo retail. If you buy on a subway line there is a chance that at least one person in each house will use the ttc.
 
sixrings said:
I just don't buy the idea that this is where retail needs to be. Yorkdale is across the street and expand it with a best buy if you need to. As for your comments that residential would not necessarily mean more transit use, I guess I look at the four new condos across from downsview metrogate. Since those buildings went up there is significant more foot traffic around the area. Much more then ever existed with that idomo retail. If you buy on a subway line there is a chance that at least one person in each house will use the ttc.
Click to expand...

It's hardly surprising that four highrises generate more traffic than one furniture store.
The question is is whether townhouses (just past the end of a runway) would generate more traffic than the seven existing retail units (or the even more retail that may arise as part of a redevelopment).
 
What surprises me is that Wilson Station is always the example used here about undeveloped land next to subway stations. Sure, it's a good example, but development has started. The fact is that some land, being directly adjacent to a airport runway, can not be developed with multi-story residental. I'm not a fan of big-box retail, but I can't think of too many other things that could have made economic sense for the site at the time.

Why isn't there the same calls for the Warden parking lots to be redeveloped? Or Kennedy? What about all the McMansions now sprouting around Glencairn?

As for big boxes, the Stockyards is more offensive. Though who would have wanted to build residental high rises on former industrial lands, that 20 years ago, was far from any desirable neighbourhood?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top