Are Be
January 8th, 2005, 06:15 PM
Jan. 8, 2005. 01:00 AM
Transportation reporter Kevin McGran wants to hear what you think on this subject and any transportation related issues. You can send him your thoughts via our Talk to us about transportation page.
Transit key to York vision
KEVIN MCGRAN
TRANSPORTATION REPORTER
When you drive on Highway 7 in York Region, it's hard to tell where you are or where you're going. The plazas, the strip malls, the big-box centres all look the same. There are no highrises or landmarks to distinguish Richmond Hill from Markham from Vaughan.
That's beginning to change. York Region has recognized the economic, social and environmental benefits of the "transit village" — a new urban philosophy that is finding converts among city planners across North America.
With a burgeoning population, explosive employment growth and cars that go nowhere in rush hour, York is embracing transit, and building four regional downtowns where people can live, work, shop, dine and play without getting into a car:
Vaughan Corporate Centre, a 50-hectare site centred at Jane St. and Highway 7 that hopes to draw corporations that want to be near Toronto by promoting easy access via the highway and proximity to the airport. More than 5,000 will call it home; 10,000 will work there.
Markham City Centre, near Warden Ave. and Highway 7, which will be home to 25,000 new residents and 17,000 employees supporting the area's burgeoning high-tech industry.
Newmarket Regional Centre, the northernmost hub at Yonge St. and Davis Dr. that will take in about 20,000 new residents but remain largely a bedroom community, albeit better connected by bus and with increased density.
Langstaff Gateway, the central interconnecting hub at Langstaff Rd. E. and Yonge St., linking with Vaughan and Markham on Highway 7 and Newmarket and Toronto through Yonge St. Increased density is already there, mostly homes supporting the Beaver Creek business district to the east.
Officials are quick to say these downtowns won't form overnight and could take up to 20 years to evolve. But the region has changed how subdivisions are built — no more ugly fences lining major streets. Markham's plan is already under way. Vaughan has protected some land for higher density, refusing — believe it or not — to give into big-box retailers in the Jane/Highway 7 area. Some of Langstaff's infrastructure plans are under environmental review.
The idea is to create "downtowns" where people live and work without needing a car, heretofore unheard of among the movers and shakers of the 905 — office buildings and condominiums linked by sidewalks, bike paths and a rapid transit network that could include Toronto's subway.
If there was a catalyst for the vision, it was the adoption in 2002 of the region's transportation master plan, which calls for higher densities to support a shift away from the car and on to transit. But it goes beyond the car-bus debate, integrating wider sidewalks, bike paths, and stores, restaurants and office buildings close to home.
"Think about the best cities in the world that you go visit and what ... you love about them: It's the inner town and walking around. It's vibrant and alive and people are walking and it's wonderful," says Mary-Frances Turner, the former Markham planner who is spearheading the transformation of the region's move toward rapid transit.
And where you see Highway 7, think "Boulevard 7" or "Seventh Avenue" — tree-lined, with wide sidewalks, frequent bus shelters and other pedestrian-friendly amenities.
In these 905 downtowns:
Parking will move underground, or to meters, and there will be less of it than traditionally would be expected in the suburbs.
Parks won't be hidden at the back of subdivisions, but brought to the fore.
The tall office buildings and condos will give motorists a point in the horizon to aim for, rather than kilometre upon kilometre of the same low-rise, low-density big-box commercial.
Homes will be built facing the street, not with their backs to it and blocked off by fences that in 10 years fall into disrepair.
The four centres will be linked to each other and to Toronto by Viva, a rapid bus system that begins next fall along Highway 7 and Yonge St.
The region calls the service "rapid" because buses will be have a priority at traffic lights along Highway 7 and Yonge. The stops will have a digital readout of when the next bus will arrive, based on a global positioning satellite system.
Of all the initiatives, this is the most controversial. The region used taxpayer money to buy 77 high-end buses from a Belgian firm, angering Canadian-based busmakers like Orion and New Flyer. The region also is involved in a public-private partnership to bring light rail rapid transit to Highway 7 and Yonge St .
Turner is the vice-president of the York Region Rapid Transit Corp. and the region is the sole shareholder. The private companies provide personnel but also get paid for their advice and down the line may capitalize on commercial development.
Opposition within York is nearly non-existent, largely because the populace — 873,000 currently and growing to 1.2 million by 2026 — recognizes transit and density as a solution to gridlock.
"The genesis of this is gridlock," says Turner. "Our quality of life is being threatened by gridlock. Survey after survey tells us gridlock is the number one issue in the region.
"You can build an eight-lane road and fill it. You can widen it to 10 lanes or 12 lanes and fill it. The bottom line is: What do you want to look like when you grow up?"
And York Region is growing up, adding 40,000 new residents and 20,000 new jobs each year. More than 400,000 work in the region, about the same number that work in Toronto's central business district. More than 700,000 workers are expected by 2026.
Planners are trying to reverse 40 years of sprawl. To succeed, they have to break the suburban mould. Over time, people like Turner realized that planners, engineers and builders could no longer work in isolation, but had to work together and had to change the way they think.
"Well, 10 years ago we set out with a vision and said: `This is what it should be,'" says Turner. "Some told us: `This will never happen.' We said it will because we are driven. We said no to intrusive types of applications that wanted to go there, car lots, big box, and that takes huge political will and a sustained vision.
"It's exciting because it can happen, but you have to mix it and bake it over a long period of time."
For example, the Jane St./Highway 7 area has one nine-storey bank building and a lot of vacant space and autobody shops. In 10 or 15 years, Mayor Michael Di Biase says it will be Vaughan's downtown.
"We have resisted fast-food outlets, box stores (in that area)," Di Biase says.
"We said, no, we'd rather have nothing for now and bring the higher density, the office towers, the residential highrises. It's a vision that's going to develop over the next 10, 15 years. We just resisted all applications for warehouse outlets. We don't need any more."
The term "transit village" has taken root in the lexicon of planners, who are trying to bring an urban vitality to the suburbs while dealing with the gridlock induced by sprawl.
The politicians bought into it. Engineers and planners work in integrated pods rather than independently when building roads and planning subdivisions; developers are warming up to the mixed-used and high-density possibilities. Politicians acknowledge that developers could challenge the region at the Ontario Municipal Board, but say they realize if they want to get building permits quickly, they'll go along with the plan.
In the suburbs around San Francisco, St. Louis, Philadelphia and elsewhere in the United States, new homes, shopping centres and offices are being built around transit stations that traditionally feed the downtown core. Planners are feeding a new market: Young singles and couples shying away from single-family detached homes.
One need only look at development in Scarborough, along the SRT, or at many of the intersections along the Yonge subway to see what York Region has in mind.
University of Toronto transit expert Eric Miller applauds the philosophy.
"You don't need skyscrapers. What you need is reasonable density," says Miller. "Density and taking design seriously on the ground, in terms of: can people walk from here to there? Can they easily access a bus? Is there a store within walking distance?
"I don't think it's rocket science ... If they're truly going to try to change things, I think that's great. It will take 20 years. You don't build cities or towns overnight."
The concept has already taken root at Markham Centre, near Warden and Highway 7. It is perhaps the furthest along of the four centres. Tridel sold all 900 condos in an under-construction 14-storey complex within two days, showing planners there is a demand for urban living in a suburban environment.
The complex is within walking distance of city hall, regional theatre and IBM's software lab. Just south, Motorola has set up shop near vacant land about to be developed around the Unionville GO train station, which will act as a hub. The region's Viva rapid transit network will connect with GO along Enterprise Dr., a new east-west artery under construction.
"We will have high densities, unlike anything you've seen in Markham before," says Markham Mayor Don Cousens.
"In the 10 years I've been mayor, it used to be that the traffic all headed out of Markham, down the DVP to the city. What you're seeing now is almost as much coming north into our community as (going) south.
"Now we have such a large base of corporations and business ... we've grown and that growth now fuels the way of getting people around."
Its proximity to Highways 407 and 404, along with another GO line and the intersection of York Region's two main Viva lines make Langstaff Gateway, at the corner of Yonge St. and Highway 7, a natural as a transit hub.
Big-box centres — the "wrong" kind of development — are already in place in Langstaff Gateway, the corner of Yonge and Highway 7. Planners expect those to fall to the pressure of redevelopment as the transit hub grows, and future development will be high density.
"It is the future hub for transportation for York Region and maybe beyond," says Richmond Hill Mayor Bill Bell. "It could be the convergence of the subway coming from Toronto, GO Trains heading north and south, and the east-west will start with the Viva. Within time, it will become light rail transit. Langstaff will be in the centre of all that."
There always will be folks drawn to the suburbs for big lots and two-car garages. Those options will be available, particularly in Newmarket, which doesn't have the employment base of the other areas. But the development in Vaughan, Langstaff and Markham promises urban living in a suburban setting.
The Langstaff and Vaughan centres hang their dreams on a subway, the idea that eventually the Spadina subway will extend into Vaughan and the Yonge line into Richmond Hill.
Rumours are swirling in transit circles that the provincial Liberals will make a subway announcement in support of York University in 2005, with the Spadina and Yonge lines extending into York Region.
GO Transit is in the middle of environmental assessments to double the capacity of its lines running through the region.
But even if subway expansion doesn't happen, the region's Viva program begins in less than a year, featuring 77 high-quality low-floor buses moving along Yonge St. and Highway 7. Initially, they will move in mixed traffic with cars, but will get head starts through intersections.
If York Region gets federal and provincial funding, the plan is to run light rail down the centres of Highway 7 and Yonge St. and a couple of offshoots, notably to York University and to Don Mills subway station, at a cost of $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion.
Cousens says rapid transit is essential.
"We were never going to build enough roads to handle the number of people who are moving into York Region," the Markham mayor says.
"I hate to say it, but probably transportation won't ever be better than it is today. But it's going to get worse unless we get people into public transit.
"Over the next 20 years, you're going to see $2 billion invested in the project. The concept is right because we've got it linked east and west from Durham through to Peel and north-south from York Region into Toronto in three different routes. We know it works. We know it's solid. We will begin to deal with the gridlock that will only get worse if we don't deal with it."
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Jan. 8, 2005. 01:00 AM
Parks will no longer be hidden, like they were in the '60s, '70s and '80s.
....
Unlocking gridlock in suburbia
York Region is planning a series of `transit villages' — four regional downtown centres where people can live, work, shop, dine and play
— without ever getting into a car
CHRISTOPHER HUME
Welcome to downtown suburbia!
The words have a heavily oxymoronic ring, but if York Region officials get their way, it's only a matter of time before they come true.
Seems that the promise of the `burbs — all that space so close to the city but far enough away to be safe and separate — is being crushed beneath the weight of gridlock.
The car, which made the suburbs possible, will also be their downfall. The result is a forward-looking region-wide plan to create a string of "transit villages" — formerly known as downtowns — that will enable residents to get out of their cars and use public transit.
Of course, public transit and suburbia are not normally mentioned in the same breath; they are polar opposites, an either/or kind of thing.
But in the 21st century, it's becoming clearer than ever that the suburbs must change. Planners realize they won't get everyone out of their cars, but, they argue, that's not necessary. Even 10 or 15 per cent can make a dramatic difference. A drop of 30 per cent, which is what York Region officials are hoping for, would have a profound impact.
However, getting people out of their cars is only a start. At the same time, a pedestrian precinct must be created. Given what's taken place in the suburbs already, that's easier said than done.
York Region is extraordinarily lucky in that there are vast swaths of vacant land in strategic locations. These are left over from a provincial initiative back in the 1970s to establish a green belt around the Greater Toronto Area.
Sound familiar? It should. Though developing these lands was never the intention, that's what will happen during the next 20 years as York remakes itself.
"Built-up demand and land values have combined to make York Region viable for high-density development," argues Mary-Frances Turner, vice-president of York Region Rapid Transit Corp. "We need to give development a vision to direct it."
Turner likes to talk about "the migration of built form," which means the arrival of street-related development in suburbia.
That translates into buildings that are aligned with the sidewalk, that are closer together and that create a genuine sense of connectivity.
It also means urban-level densities, the kind never found in the suburbs, where there are as few as 10 to 20 houses per hectare. In the city, those densities can be anywhere up to 1,200 to 1,500 per hectare.
The differences in car ownership are also dramatic: more than two cars per household in York Region versus less than one in downtown Toronto.
Trying to turn this around may sound futile as well as heretical — people who live in suburbia chose to escape these densities — but Turner insists it's going to happen.
"Density," she intones, "is the solution, not the problem."
Though this flies in the face of decades of zoning regulations, contemporary planners have done a complete shift. However, the spread-and-separate school of development has more than 50 years of history behind it; changing people's minds won't be easy.
"Here, nobody wants density," confirms Markham town architect David Clark. "But we're trying to make that change now. The question is how do you deliver streetscapes and then parks? In the '60s, '70s and '80s we hid parks. They weren't really community building blocks. Now it's all about compression; how do you bring things down to a street level? When you're in a downtown, the streetscape — the benches, lighting and so on — is consistent."
But as Clark also makes clear, one of the battlegrounds of suburbia's newfound urbanity lies in its approach to parking. Even today, suburbanites consider parking a right, not a privilege. Not only do they want lots of it, they expect it should be free.
Though architects and planners don't always acknowledge it, parking exerts enormous influence over the built form. Canada's newest mall, Vaughan Mills, for example, opened in November with parking for 6,000 cars. Within weeks, it was clear that even that wasn't enough. Similarly, oceans of asphalt surround suburban office towers and apartment buildings.
The typical suburban single-family dwelling also comes with its two-car garage, which makes many subdivisions look more like life-support systems for automobiles than human residences.
If anything emerges from all this talk about transit villages and high-density suburbs, it is that future suburbanites will be as different from their predecessors as are the communities they inhabit.
In other words, the target market will no longer be two-car, two-kid families; instead it will be young singles and professionals who can't afford to buy downtown but who want to be part of the city.
"There's a pent-up demand for density in the suburbs," Turner says. "It's commercial that's the problem." Developers will be forced to construct parking garages or dig underground lots, freeing up vast amounts of land for building. This more efficient approach to planning will also include mixed-use zoning, which leads to urban-style variety and inclusivity.
Highway 7, that most suburban of arteries, is already being recast as Avenue 7, or even Boulevard 7. Right now, it is simply a paved strip of roadway used to get from one point to another.
In the future, those stretches that run through transit villages will be lined with buildings, not strip malls and parking lots, and brought down to human scale with wider sidewalks and street furniture.
Trees would be planted, benches installed and accessibility ensured. There would also be bicycle paths, bus shelters and an enhanced architectural environment.
Remaking the suburbs is the great challenge facing architects, planners, politicians and residents in the decades to come. Resistance will be intense, but ultimately futile. What's at stake is the continued viability of an urban region (the GTA) that has failed to control growth and allowed itself to lapse into sprawl instead.
Turner and her colleagues talk longingly now about the day when the subway will be extended to Highway, er, Avenue 7. No one's holding his breath, and given the pared-down aspirations of the 21st century, buses will do.
In either case, the lesson is coming through loud and clear; build smart or die dumb. That message may not be new, but the messenger is. Now it's the suburbs themselves that want to come in from the cold.
Additional articles by Christopher Hume
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Legal Notice: Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Distribution, transmission or republication of any material from www.thestar.com is strictly prohibited without the prior written permission of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. For information please contact us using our webmaster form. www.thestar.com online since 1996.
Transportation reporter Kevin McGran wants to hear what you think on this subject and any transportation related issues. You can send him your thoughts via our Talk to us about transportation page.
Transit key to York vision
KEVIN MCGRAN
TRANSPORTATION REPORTER
When you drive on Highway 7 in York Region, it's hard to tell where you are or where you're going. The plazas, the strip malls, the big-box centres all look the same. There are no highrises or landmarks to distinguish Richmond Hill from Markham from Vaughan.
That's beginning to change. York Region has recognized the economic, social and environmental benefits of the "transit village" — a new urban philosophy that is finding converts among city planners across North America.
With a burgeoning population, explosive employment growth and cars that go nowhere in rush hour, York is embracing transit, and building four regional downtowns where people can live, work, shop, dine and play without getting into a car:
Vaughan Corporate Centre, a 50-hectare site centred at Jane St. and Highway 7 that hopes to draw corporations that want to be near Toronto by promoting easy access via the highway and proximity to the airport. More than 5,000 will call it home; 10,000 will work there.
Markham City Centre, near Warden Ave. and Highway 7, which will be home to 25,000 new residents and 17,000 employees supporting the area's burgeoning high-tech industry.
Newmarket Regional Centre, the northernmost hub at Yonge St. and Davis Dr. that will take in about 20,000 new residents but remain largely a bedroom community, albeit better connected by bus and with increased density.
Langstaff Gateway, the central interconnecting hub at Langstaff Rd. E. and Yonge St., linking with Vaughan and Markham on Highway 7 and Newmarket and Toronto through Yonge St. Increased density is already there, mostly homes supporting the Beaver Creek business district to the east.
Officials are quick to say these downtowns won't form overnight and could take up to 20 years to evolve. But the region has changed how subdivisions are built — no more ugly fences lining major streets. Markham's plan is already under way. Vaughan has protected some land for higher density, refusing — believe it or not — to give into big-box retailers in the Jane/Highway 7 area. Some of Langstaff's infrastructure plans are under environmental review.
The idea is to create "downtowns" where people live and work without needing a car, heretofore unheard of among the movers and shakers of the 905 — office buildings and condominiums linked by sidewalks, bike paths and a rapid transit network that could include Toronto's subway.
If there was a catalyst for the vision, it was the adoption in 2002 of the region's transportation master plan, which calls for higher densities to support a shift away from the car and on to transit. But it goes beyond the car-bus debate, integrating wider sidewalks, bike paths, and stores, restaurants and office buildings close to home.
"Think about the best cities in the world that you go visit and what ... you love about them: It's the inner town and walking around. It's vibrant and alive and people are walking and it's wonderful," says Mary-Frances Turner, the former Markham planner who is spearheading the transformation of the region's move toward rapid transit.
And where you see Highway 7, think "Boulevard 7" or "Seventh Avenue" — tree-lined, with wide sidewalks, frequent bus shelters and other pedestrian-friendly amenities.
In these 905 downtowns:
Parking will move underground, or to meters, and there will be less of it than traditionally would be expected in the suburbs.
Parks won't be hidden at the back of subdivisions, but brought to the fore.
The tall office buildings and condos will give motorists a point in the horizon to aim for, rather than kilometre upon kilometre of the same low-rise, low-density big-box commercial.
Homes will be built facing the street, not with their backs to it and blocked off by fences that in 10 years fall into disrepair.
The four centres will be linked to each other and to Toronto by Viva, a rapid bus system that begins next fall along Highway 7 and Yonge St.
The region calls the service "rapid" because buses will be have a priority at traffic lights along Highway 7 and Yonge. The stops will have a digital readout of when the next bus will arrive, based on a global positioning satellite system.
Of all the initiatives, this is the most controversial. The region used taxpayer money to buy 77 high-end buses from a Belgian firm, angering Canadian-based busmakers like Orion and New Flyer. The region also is involved in a public-private partnership to bring light rail rapid transit to Highway 7 and Yonge St .
Turner is the vice-president of the York Region Rapid Transit Corp. and the region is the sole shareholder. The private companies provide personnel but also get paid for their advice and down the line may capitalize on commercial development.
Opposition within York is nearly non-existent, largely because the populace — 873,000 currently and growing to 1.2 million by 2026 — recognizes transit and density as a solution to gridlock.
"The genesis of this is gridlock," says Turner. "Our quality of life is being threatened by gridlock. Survey after survey tells us gridlock is the number one issue in the region.
"You can build an eight-lane road and fill it. You can widen it to 10 lanes or 12 lanes and fill it. The bottom line is: What do you want to look like when you grow up?"
And York Region is growing up, adding 40,000 new residents and 20,000 new jobs each year. More than 400,000 work in the region, about the same number that work in Toronto's central business district. More than 700,000 workers are expected by 2026.
Planners are trying to reverse 40 years of sprawl. To succeed, they have to break the suburban mould. Over time, people like Turner realized that planners, engineers and builders could no longer work in isolation, but had to work together and had to change the way they think.
"Well, 10 years ago we set out with a vision and said: `This is what it should be,'" says Turner. "Some told us: `This will never happen.' We said it will because we are driven. We said no to intrusive types of applications that wanted to go there, car lots, big box, and that takes huge political will and a sustained vision.
"It's exciting because it can happen, but you have to mix it and bake it over a long period of time."
For example, the Jane St./Highway 7 area has one nine-storey bank building and a lot of vacant space and autobody shops. In 10 or 15 years, Mayor Michael Di Biase says it will be Vaughan's downtown.
"We have resisted fast-food outlets, box stores (in that area)," Di Biase says.
"We said, no, we'd rather have nothing for now and bring the higher density, the office towers, the residential highrises. It's a vision that's going to develop over the next 10, 15 years. We just resisted all applications for warehouse outlets. We don't need any more."
The term "transit village" has taken root in the lexicon of planners, who are trying to bring an urban vitality to the suburbs while dealing with the gridlock induced by sprawl.
The politicians bought into it. Engineers and planners work in integrated pods rather than independently when building roads and planning subdivisions; developers are warming up to the mixed-used and high-density possibilities. Politicians acknowledge that developers could challenge the region at the Ontario Municipal Board, but say they realize if they want to get building permits quickly, they'll go along with the plan.
In the suburbs around San Francisco, St. Louis, Philadelphia and elsewhere in the United States, new homes, shopping centres and offices are being built around transit stations that traditionally feed the downtown core. Planners are feeding a new market: Young singles and couples shying away from single-family detached homes.
One need only look at development in Scarborough, along the SRT, or at many of the intersections along the Yonge subway to see what York Region has in mind.
University of Toronto transit expert Eric Miller applauds the philosophy.
"You don't need skyscrapers. What you need is reasonable density," says Miller. "Density and taking design seriously on the ground, in terms of: can people walk from here to there? Can they easily access a bus? Is there a store within walking distance?
"I don't think it's rocket science ... If they're truly going to try to change things, I think that's great. It will take 20 years. You don't build cities or towns overnight."
The concept has already taken root at Markham Centre, near Warden and Highway 7. It is perhaps the furthest along of the four centres. Tridel sold all 900 condos in an under-construction 14-storey complex within two days, showing planners there is a demand for urban living in a suburban environment.
The complex is within walking distance of city hall, regional theatre and IBM's software lab. Just south, Motorola has set up shop near vacant land about to be developed around the Unionville GO train station, which will act as a hub. The region's Viva rapid transit network will connect with GO along Enterprise Dr., a new east-west artery under construction.
"We will have high densities, unlike anything you've seen in Markham before," says Markham Mayor Don Cousens.
"In the 10 years I've been mayor, it used to be that the traffic all headed out of Markham, down the DVP to the city. What you're seeing now is almost as much coming north into our community as (going) south.
"Now we have such a large base of corporations and business ... we've grown and that growth now fuels the way of getting people around."
Its proximity to Highways 407 and 404, along with another GO line and the intersection of York Region's two main Viva lines make Langstaff Gateway, at the corner of Yonge St. and Highway 7, a natural as a transit hub.
Big-box centres — the "wrong" kind of development — are already in place in Langstaff Gateway, the corner of Yonge and Highway 7. Planners expect those to fall to the pressure of redevelopment as the transit hub grows, and future development will be high density.
"It is the future hub for transportation for York Region and maybe beyond," says Richmond Hill Mayor Bill Bell. "It could be the convergence of the subway coming from Toronto, GO Trains heading north and south, and the east-west will start with the Viva. Within time, it will become light rail transit. Langstaff will be in the centre of all that."
There always will be folks drawn to the suburbs for big lots and two-car garages. Those options will be available, particularly in Newmarket, which doesn't have the employment base of the other areas. But the development in Vaughan, Langstaff and Markham promises urban living in a suburban setting.
The Langstaff and Vaughan centres hang their dreams on a subway, the idea that eventually the Spadina subway will extend into Vaughan and the Yonge line into Richmond Hill.
Rumours are swirling in transit circles that the provincial Liberals will make a subway announcement in support of York University in 2005, with the Spadina and Yonge lines extending into York Region.
GO Transit is in the middle of environmental assessments to double the capacity of its lines running through the region.
But even if subway expansion doesn't happen, the region's Viva program begins in less than a year, featuring 77 high-quality low-floor buses moving along Yonge St. and Highway 7. Initially, they will move in mixed traffic with cars, but will get head starts through intersections.
If York Region gets federal and provincial funding, the plan is to run light rail down the centres of Highway 7 and Yonge St. and a couple of offshoots, notably to York University and to Don Mills subway station, at a cost of $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion.
Cousens says rapid transit is essential.
"We were never going to build enough roads to handle the number of people who are moving into York Region," the Markham mayor says.
"I hate to say it, but probably transportation won't ever be better than it is today. But it's going to get worse unless we get people into public transit.
"Over the next 20 years, you're going to see $2 billion invested in the project. The concept is right because we've got it linked east and west from Durham through to Peel and north-south from York Region into Toronto in three different routes. We know it works. We know it's solid. We will begin to deal with the gridlock that will only get worse if we don't deal with it."
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Home| GTA| Business| Waymoresports| A&E| Life
Legal Notice: Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Distribution, transmission or republication of any material from www.thestar.com is strictly prohibited without the prior written permission of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. For information please contact us using our webmaster form. www.thestar.com online since 1996.
Jan. 8, 2005. 01:00 AM
Parks will no longer be hidden, like they were in the '60s, '70s and '80s.
....
Unlocking gridlock in suburbia
York Region is planning a series of `transit villages' — four regional downtown centres where people can live, work, shop, dine and play
— without ever getting into a car
CHRISTOPHER HUME
Welcome to downtown suburbia!
The words have a heavily oxymoronic ring, but if York Region officials get their way, it's only a matter of time before they come true.
Seems that the promise of the `burbs — all that space so close to the city but far enough away to be safe and separate — is being crushed beneath the weight of gridlock.
The car, which made the suburbs possible, will also be their downfall. The result is a forward-looking region-wide plan to create a string of "transit villages" — formerly known as downtowns — that will enable residents to get out of their cars and use public transit.
Of course, public transit and suburbia are not normally mentioned in the same breath; they are polar opposites, an either/or kind of thing.
But in the 21st century, it's becoming clearer than ever that the suburbs must change. Planners realize they won't get everyone out of their cars, but, they argue, that's not necessary. Even 10 or 15 per cent can make a dramatic difference. A drop of 30 per cent, which is what York Region officials are hoping for, would have a profound impact.
However, getting people out of their cars is only a start. At the same time, a pedestrian precinct must be created. Given what's taken place in the suburbs already, that's easier said than done.
York Region is extraordinarily lucky in that there are vast swaths of vacant land in strategic locations. These are left over from a provincial initiative back in the 1970s to establish a green belt around the Greater Toronto Area.
Sound familiar? It should. Though developing these lands was never the intention, that's what will happen during the next 20 years as York remakes itself.
"Built-up demand and land values have combined to make York Region viable for high-density development," argues Mary-Frances Turner, vice-president of York Region Rapid Transit Corp. "We need to give development a vision to direct it."
Turner likes to talk about "the migration of built form," which means the arrival of street-related development in suburbia.
That translates into buildings that are aligned with the sidewalk, that are closer together and that create a genuine sense of connectivity.
It also means urban-level densities, the kind never found in the suburbs, where there are as few as 10 to 20 houses per hectare. In the city, those densities can be anywhere up to 1,200 to 1,500 per hectare.
The differences in car ownership are also dramatic: more than two cars per household in York Region versus less than one in downtown Toronto.
Trying to turn this around may sound futile as well as heretical — people who live in suburbia chose to escape these densities — but Turner insists it's going to happen.
"Density," she intones, "is the solution, not the problem."
Though this flies in the face of decades of zoning regulations, contemporary planners have done a complete shift. However, the spread-and-separate school of development has more than 50 years of history behind it; changing people's minds won't be easy.
"Here, nobody wants density," confirms Markham town architect David Clark. "But we're trying to make that change now. The question is how do you deliver streetscapes and then parks? In the '60s, '70s and '80s we hid parks. They weren't really community building blocks. Now it's all about compression; how do you bring things down to a street level? When you're in a downtown, the streetscape — the benches, lighting and so on — is consistent."
But as Clark also makes clear, one of the battlegrounds of suburbia's newfound urbanity lies in its approach to parking. Even today, suburbanites consider parking a right, not a privilege. Not only do they want lots of it, they expect it should be free.
Though architects and planners don't always acknowledge it, parking exerts enormous influence over the built form. Canada's newest mall, Vaughan Mills, for example, opened in November with parking for 6,000 cars. Within weeks, it was clear that even that wasn't enough. Similarly, oceans of asphalt surround suburban office towers and apartment buildings.
The typical suburban single-family dwelling also comes with its two-car garage, which makes many subdivisions look more like life-support systems for automobiles than human residences.
If anything emerges from all this talk about transit villages and high-density suburbs, it is that future suburbanites will be as different from their predecessors as are the communities they inhabit.
In other words, the target market will no longer be two-car, two-kid families; instead it will be young singles and professionals who can't afford to buy downtown but who want to be part of the city.
"There's a pent-up demand for density in the suburbs," Turner says. "It's commercial that's the problem." Developers will be forced to construct parking garages or dig underground lots, freeing up vast amounts of land for building. This more efficient approach to planning will also include mixed-use zoning, which leads to urban-style variety and inclusivity.
Highway 7, that most suburban of arteries, is already being recast as Avenue 7, or even Boulevard 7. Right now, it is simply a paved strip of roadway used to get from one point to another.
In the future, those stretches that run through transit villages will be lined with buildings, not strip malls and parking lots, and brought down to human scale with wider sidewalks and street furniture.
Trees would be planted, benches installed and accessibility ensured. There would also be bicycle paths, bus shelters and an enhanced architectural environment.
Remaking the suburbs is the great challenge facing architects, planners, politicians and residents in the decades to come. Resistance will be intense, but ultimately futile. What's at stake is the continued viability of an urban region (the GTA) that has failed to control growth and allowed itself to lapse into sprawl instead.
Turner and her colleagues talk longingly now about the day when the subway will be extended to Highway, er, Avenue 7. No one's holding his breath, and given the pared-down aspirations of the 21st century, buses will do.
In either case, the lesson is coming through loud and clear; build smart or die dumb. That message may not be new, but the messenger is. Now it's the suburbs themselves that want to come in from the cold.
Additional articles by Christopher Hume
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