Not a reach to say it's owned by the Sorbara family, or that those properties are the closest residential to Hwy 407 stn. Both are true

A reach to say there's some plan to reap the benefit of its proximity to Hwy 407 stn? Naturally, and likely libelous to state outright. But surely you'd agree it's worthy of a footnote to acknowledge that the #1 person for getting this extension built also happens to be from a family of developers/landowners (whom own a disproportionate amount of land within the extension's immediate/general catchment). I mean, such a scenario isn't exactly common. And obviously many are not aware of this... peculiarity.

Specific to Jane/Steeles properties, it's not like we're talking a house or two. 5000 Jane, 4001 Steeles, and 360 Hullmar amount to like 10acres. That's clearly sizable. And ~800m to a station is fairly close for suburban standards. Great infill/upzone opportunity, and with premium feature of close proximity to a subway station (8min walk, short bus ride, or simply drive 30sec to its massive parking). Was kinda under the impression people here were expecting to see infill/upzone on properties like these.
 
44 North said:
Not a reach to say it's owned by the Sorbara family, or that those properties are the closest residential to Hwy 407 stn. Both are true

A reach to say there's some plan to reap the benefit of its proximity to Hwy 407 stn? Naturally, and likely libelous to state outright. But surely you'd agree it's worthy of a footnote to acknowledge that the #1 person for getting this extension built also happens to be from a family of developers/landowners (whom own a disproportionate amount of land within the extension's immediate/general catchment). I mean, such a scenario isn't exactly common. And obviously many are not aware of this... peculiarity.

Specific to Jane/Steeles properties, it's not like we're talking a house or two. 5000 Jane, 4001 Steeles, and 360 Hullmar amount to like 10acres. That's clearly sizable. And ~800m to a station is fairly close for suburban standards. Great infill/upzone opportunity, and with premium feature of close proximity to a subway station (8min walk, short bus ride, or simply drive 30sec to its massive parking). Was kinda under the impression people here were expecting to see infill/upzone on properties like these.
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Besides rent controls, I mean it would seem like a hassle to evict all the current tenants, tear down the property, go through a zoning amendment, design a new building, sell it and construct it.
 
narduch said:
But anyone living in those apartments would use Pioneer Village Station. Bringing up the 407 station is pointless and irrelevant.
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I've lived between two stations of similar distances. More often than not the one that's both closer and quicker to access will be the go to, even if I double back while on the train. On the Sorbara properties it seems like that would be 407. Equal/lesser distance, and one less intersection to cross. For bus, yeah probably Pioneer.

And with the shelving of the Transitway, pointless and irrelevant may unfortunately be ways 407 stn is described.

BMO said:
Besides rent controls, I mean it would seem like a hassle to evict all the current tenants, tear down the property, go through a zoning amendment, design a new building, sell it and construct it.
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Surprised no mention of infill considering 4001's open greenspace. And these 'hassles' of upzoning haven't stopped it from happening across the city going on many years.
 
44 North said:
On the Sorbara properties it seems like that would be 407. Equal/lesser distance, and one less intersection to cross.
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Both stations are a kilometer away. Nobody's going to be walking that distance.

Something I'm curious about now: Why didn't the TTC build a VMC-like bus station in the middle of Steeles to speed up the 60 bus? It's not like they're hard-pressed for space in the area.
 
amnesiajune said:
Both stations are a kilometer away. Nobody's going to be walking that distance.

Something I'm curious about now: Why didn't the TTC build a VMC-like bus station in the middle of Steeles to speed up the 60 bus? It's not like they're hard-pressed for space in the area.
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I'd imagine because they may envision a large portion of passengers starting and ending at Steeles West Station, thus it may be more convenient for operational purposes to have a split line or something like that in the future (negating the benefit of a costly station in the middle of the road. This may be something they eventually look at in the future when they start planning the Steeles BRT.
 
Everything the government does could benefit anyone who has a lot of money, some of whom happen to be in the government. That doesn't mean that the projects are bad or that those government officials have some nefarious intentions.
 
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amnesiajune said:
Everything the government does could benefit anyone who has a lot of money, some of whom happen to be in the government. That doesn't mean that the projects are bad or that those government officials have some nefarious intentions.
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It also doesn't mean that they didn't also act in their own best interest.

That being said though, I think the subway to both York U stops is a benefit. Anyone who has tried to drive around there in rush hour would agree too. And I've always said pushing the subway to the other side of the adjacent expressway is always a good thing, rather than making everyone cross it. (which is why I always felt the Sheppard subway should have crossed the 404, if only to Consumers Drive. And that stopping the Danforth extension just south of the 401 is just stupid.
 
nfitz said:
It also doesn't mean that they didn't also act in their own best interest.

That being said though, I think the subway to both York U stops is a benefit. Anyone who has tried to drive around there in rush hour would agree too. And I've always said pushing the subway to the other side of the adjacent expressway is always a good thing, rather than making everyone cross it. (which is why I always felt the Sheppard subway should have crossed the 404, if only to Consumers Drive. And that stopping the Danforth extension just south of the 401 is just stupid.
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The Sheppard line ran out of money and that is why it stop at Don Mills. Good old Mike was only willing to put in a Billion for the line that was plan to be built over to Victoria Park. If Mike allow extra funds for the line, it would at Victoria Park today and would made things easier to transfer from subway to LRT if the LRT was built.

Since a tunnel has to be built under the 404, you are far better off extending the subway to Victoria as plan than doing an LRT line. Even if the Sheppard subway was converted to LRT, you still need a tunnel under the 404 for the LRT line extension.

Stopping the Danforth extension at STC is dumb even for a dumb subway extension, but it boil down to funds that Toronto doesn't have in the first place.
 
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TOareaFan said:
Honestly, I think you are working too hard to keep this tiny slither of a hint of a Sorbara connection/scandal alive.

Do your families have some sort of ancient grudge or something ;)
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Well I wrote one short post that I stand by, so not hard at all. And compared to replies rife with untrue absolutes (e.g nobody walks), or positing silly concepts that run afoul of reality (e.g development's a hassle and doesn't occur), seems more like others are working hard to...I guess deflect or absolve.
 
drum118 said:
The Sheppard line ran out of money and that is why it stop at Don Mills. Good old Mike was only willing to put in a Billion for the line that was plan to be built over to Victoria Park. If Mike allow extra funds for the line, it would at Victoria Park today and would made things easier to transfer from subway to LRT if the LRT was built.

Since a tunnel has to be built under the 404, you are far better off extending the subway to Victoria as plan than doing an LRT line. Even if the Sheppard subway was converted to LRT, you still need a tunnel under the 404 for the LRT line extension.

Stopping the Danforth extension at STC is dumb even for a dumb subway extension, but it boil down to funds that Toronto doesn't have in the first place.
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I just don't get why you would arbitrarily end the line at Victoria Park. It's not a major node and will likely cause more transfers for people than less.
 
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