unimaginative2
Senior Member
Jaycola's definitely on the right track here. City-wide density stats rean't really very informative, especially when much of the municipality is undeveloped.
That's why I think it would make a lot of sense for part of the Subway to be a sort of upgraded Viva Blue. If they put a transfer at a station with a Go station on an Express Richmond Hill line and made stations more convenient, it might actually alleviate some of Yonge. Highway 7 would be a great place to do this, because it would connect with Viva Purple and Langstaff. The only problem I see is that it might be inconvenient for residents in Thornhill without Fare Integration, so that problem will have to be overcome before any more extensions.
2. With respect to other intensification around the Yonge Street corridor, I think you are quite wrong. Apart from the Galleria plaza, most of the landholders on this corridor are basically waiting for the details of the Yonge subway plans to get concretized -- and, now, for the credit crunch to abate -- to move forward and unlock the tremendous value in their land.
That's why all the car lots remain, why there are no long-term tenants taking departed one's places in the sprawly ex-Chapters plaza at NW Yonge/Steeles, and so forth. Roy Foss alone is sitting very pretty on this one -- but there have gotten to be a dozen smaller versions of Roy Foss in and around there which basically form a giant land bank.
Yeah, I get the sense Amphibius really doesn't know the area that well.
There is definitely some waiting going on.
No doubt the private landowners are waiting to make sure the subway is coming and no doubt the recession is slowing things. Still, it's clearly only a short matter of time until those sites you cite are gone.
The planning is there now. Markham is in the process of rezoning all that land for 2.5-3.5FSI and Vaughan is a few months behind them in doing the same. I heard a rumour (and it was just a rumour) Roy Foss got offered $90M for that land and while it seems crazy....it didn't seem TOTALLY crazy before the recession.
FYI - here is what Vaughan is doing:
http://www.yorkregion.com/article/89745
And here is what Markham is doing:
http://www.yorkregion.com/article/82661
So, know the facts before you say there's little potential for development and intensification.
should a Planned Community take precedence over Preexisting Density in already established UBCs (SCC, MCC, Downtown Toronto, Midtown Toronto i.e. Eglinton) at this point in time? It's like a chicken-egg scenario; in RHC's case, their urban growth potential seems tied to and contingent upon extending the subway there, when for other UBCs the opposite has occured. They've flourished with nothing more grandscale than local/express bus or light-rail transit and yet have achieved high population densities, have skyscrapers, etc.
I wasn't saying that there isn't potential for urban growth. I'm sure 30-40 years from now 407/7/Yonge will have the numbers to justify an extesnion.
However as a priority I'm posing the question: should a Planned Community take precedence over Preexisting Density in already established UBCs (SCC, MCC, Downtown Toronto, Midtown Toronto i.e. Eglinton) at this point in time?
I think it's signficant that Markham residents would have multiple alternate N-S feeders with which to link them to the downtown (Lincolnville GO Line; VIVA Green; Transit City along Don Mills, Warden and McCowan connecting to subway lines). This places far less emphasis on the Richmond Hill Centre transit hub for Toronto-oriented commutes, unless commuters desire actual points off Yonge St.
I mentioned the Promenade in my prior post because Bathurst's close enough that riders may opt to head over to Yonge to utilize the subway through Thornhill. However were a Bathurst LRT to be established, these commuters could easy well find it more convenient to enter the city via this manner instead.
All points west of Bathurst will utilize the Vaughan City Centre Stn.
So again, it is primarily Yonge Street which will sustain its own basis for this extension, something that can be accomplished from Steeles Avenue meanwhile establishing surafce rapid transit to the north; improving accessibility, triggering urban infill and becoming the foundation of light rail all across York Region.
in RHC's case, their urban growth potential seems tied to and contingent upon extending the subway there
[...] but I remain one of those who thinks that public transit is a good way to relieve traffic congestion.
Isn't that just common sense?
And a lot of people that I know in Markham go to Yonge to get downtown or to the subway. Most people west of Kennedy will still travel to Yonge to connect to Viva to get to Finch Station.
Why should people in the east quadrant have to go all the way west just to go south?)
That's a question I've been wondering for years... That area of town (just east of the 404 and just west of Kennedy) is in this dead-zone for a useful way to use transit, let alone getting downtown. It's really poorly planned out, so most people end up driving (naturally).