Goodbye cosco, bestbuy, home depot
mrgrieves said:
Once the BBD airport is decommissioned there will be no more height restrictions on the neighbouring lands. Anyone have a sense how this will impact the lands south of Wilson where the Costco/Home Depot is, and where the TTC just converted a former parking lot into a big box style shopping centre?

I believe Smart REIT owns the Costco centre.

I would imagine the TTC owned shopping centre would be much better by high density residential and would expect it will be repurposed in time? There is a tunnel from the shops to the subway
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mrgrieves said:
Once the BBD airport is decommissioned there will be no more height restrictions on the neighbouring lands. Anyone have a sense how this will impact the lands south of Wilson where the Costco/Home Depot is, and where the TTC just converted a former parking lot into a big box style shopping centre?

I believe Smart REIT owns the Costco centre.

I would imagine the TTC owned shopping centre would be much better by high density residential and would expect it will be repurposed in time? There is a tunnel from the shops to the subway
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sixrings said:
Goodbye costco
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Hah yeah right.

But something funny to note, the city just completed a shopping plaza on the west side of Line 1 south of Wilson because it was restricted in height. Ah, if they had waited a little longer to sell it to a high-rise developer...
 
I'd love to see Oxford build something really tall and ambitious at Yorkdale--maybe include a 5 star hotel on top of condos, on top of office. Throw in a skating rink, water park, climbing wall, whatever else will stick. The expansion plans they have right now are pretty lukewarm at best. Why not take some inspiration from some of the me shopping malls in Bangkok?
 
There is a Keele-Finch study underway "Keele Finch Plus" which has had to consider plenty of restrictions due to the take-off zone of the air port going directly over that intersection. https://www.toronto.ca/city-governm...lanning-studies-initiatives/keele-finch-plus/ You can find documents about the airport studies on that site such as: https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/u...-plus-Phase1-downsview-airport-needs-full.pdf

The university heights development had height restrictions (http://havendevelopments.ca/haven-properties/university-heights/) as well as this one from CTN developments at 1315 Finch (http://ctndevelopments.com/1315-finch-ave-west/)

So without the airport there can be huge implications for Keele and Finch in terms of density in a transit hub.
 
Irishmonk said:
I'd love to see Oxford build something really tall and ambitious at Yorkdale--maybe include a 5 star hotel on top of condos, on top of office. Throw in a skating rink, water park, climbing wall, whatever else will stick. The expansion plans they have right now are pretty lukewarm at best. Why not take some inspiration from some of the me shopping malls in Bangkok?
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Yorkdale sounds like the last place in the city I'd want to live...

Access to the place by car or bus is already nuts, it would need major reconfiguration to handle more traffic. There is also nowhere to walk to, its basically an island surrounded by highways, a really unappealing part of Dufferin and Lawrence Heights
 
mrgrieves said:
Yorkdale sounds like the last place in the city I'd want to live...

Access to the place by car or bus is already nuts, it would need major reconfiguration to handle more traffic. There is also nowhere to walk to, its basically an island surrounded by highways, a really unappealing part of Dufferin and Lawrence Heights
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However, Dufferin has quite a number of large lots south of Yorkdale (and only a quick bus away from the subway).

If Toronto doesn't shy away from a transformational change to this area (Steeles to Lawrence) centered on Downsview it could be a really amazing area built around transit. But the NIMBY's will start screaming and a patchwork of crappy decisions will be made to ruin any potential for a cohesive plan.
 
mrgrieves said:
Yorkdale sounds like the last place in the city I'd want to live...

Access to the place by car or bus is already nuts, it would need major reconfiguration to handle more traffic. There is also nowhere to walk to, its basically an island surrounded by highways, a really unappealing part of Dufferin and Lawrence Heights
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I couldn't agree more - I would hate to live anywhere near that part of Toronto. I find the built form rather depressing.
 
Towered said:
I couldn't agree more - I would hate to live anywhere near that part of Toronto. I find the built form rather depressing.
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You are right by a ski hill. A public golf course. A brand new huge park at Downsview. On the subway. Near a brand new hospital. Mixed income neighborhoods. York U. Close to lots of diverse food choices within a 15 minute drive. Shopping.

The build form will improve as development improves. But a pretty good central location for someone who grew up in North York/Vaughan/Newmarket and wants to be on the subway line (and not downtown).
 
A lot of elitests on here. If you think so negatively about here you probably think brampton, scarborough should be bombed for their urban built form.
 
sixrings said:
A lot of elitests on here. If you think so negatively about here you probably think brampton, scarborough should be bombed for their urban built form.
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Precisely. Basically the only way to improve them is to demolish everything and start from scratch.
 
sixrings said:
A lot of elitests on here. If you think so negatively about here you probably think brampton, scarborough should be bombed for their urban built form.
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You're misusing the term 'elitist'. It's like calling doctors elitists for recommending vaccination.

Low density suburban development is wasteful and irresponsible. It's not elitism it's math. If the entire world was built like that we'd probably run out of oil in a decade.
 
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muller877 said:
You are right by a ski hill. A public golf course. A brand new huge park at Downsview. On the subway. Near a brand new hospital. Mixed income neighborhoods. York U. Close to lots of diverse food choices within a 15 minute drive. Shopping.

The build form will improve as development improves. But a pretty good central location for someone who grew up in North York/Vaughan/Newmarket and wants to be on the subway line (and not downtown).
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1) That so-called ski hill is an utter joke. It's not an asset whatsoever.
2) Golf courses are an extremely inappropriate use of land within an urban area. It needs to go.
3) Downsview Park is also a joke. The federal government has barely implemented any of the grand vision it outlined...at least a decade ago?
4) There are way more hospitals and other health institutions downtown.
5) There are more mixed income neighbourhoods downtown that are far more interesting and urban.
6) So what about York U? It's a giant sprawling campus that isolates itself from the areas around it. Compare that with U of T or Ryerson - it's like night and day.
7) Diverse food choices and shopping within a 15 minute drive? Yeah, that right there neatly sums up why Downsview's built form is depressing in terms of a human, urban, walkable, responsible scale.
 
Towered said:
1) That so-called ski hill is an utter joke. It's not an asset whatsoever.
2) Golf courses are an extremely inappropriate use of land within an urban area. It needs to go.
3) Downsview Park is also a joke. The federal government has barely implemented any of the grand vision it outlined...at least a decade ago?
4) There are way more hospitals and other health institutions downtown.
5) There are more mixed income neighbourhoods downtown that are far more interesting and urban.
6) So what about York U? It's a giant sprawling campus that isolates itself from the areas around it. Compare that with U of T or Ryerson - it's like night and day.
7) Diverse food choices and shopping within a 15 minute drive? Yeah, that right there neatly sums up why Downsview's built form is depressing in terms of a human, urban, walkable, responsible scale.
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You may not want to live or work in the area but plenty of people do. That's why CPPIB paid so much for the land.
 
I think the point is that it has many pluses versus a lot of other toronto suburbs. The fact that there is a GO and subway alone would make all of Scarborough jealous. Nothing is going to compare to downtown. Manag your expectations. Otherwise I might as well say that downtown Toronto is
Depressing compared to Manhatten. It's all relative.
 
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