JasonParis
Moderator
OAKVILLE REDEVELOPMENT
GO eyes paradise from a parking lot
Feb 11, 2008 04:30 AM
TORONTO STAR
Tess Kalinowski
Transportation Reporter
Today the Oakville GO station's dominant feature is a vast expanse of paved parking.
But Oakville is already moving to transform that land into a vibrant work-live neighbourhood that could attract between 20,000 and 30,000 people to the area south of the QEW near Trafalgar Rd.
The vision for the Midtown Oakville area includes offices, light industry, homes, walking and cycling trails and, at its heart, access to local transit, GO service and bus rapid transit. Oakville is even considering relocating its town hall from the current location north of the QEW.
"The stars, the moon and the planets have all lined up on this," said Oakville Mayor Rob Burton, adding that 13 months of consultations have wrought nothing but praise for the planned development.
"This is absolutely a place that is ripe for land use and transportation," said Joe Berridge, a transportation consultant developing a business plan for Midtown.
He is the same expert who has been working with the province's transportation planning agency, Metrolinx, on a proposal to put mobility hubs across Greater Toronto. In places like Oakville, those hubs could be destinations in themselves, a neighbourhood where people work, live, meet and shop.
"Midtown has all the components of a mobility hub," Berridge told the GO board Friday. "It has the best chance of any of the urban growth centres of getting off to a strong start."
What makes Oakville's GO station so ripe for this kind of development is the vast amount of public land available there, if parking lots are replaced by structures.
GO and the town together own about 12 hectares of land in the area. Some 33 hectares are railway and hydro lands, and there's a parcel belonging to General Electric.
The Midtown development is effectively underway with the advent of GO's third track along the lakeshore and the widening of the QEW underpass, Burton said. He expects many of the homes, workplaces and amenities in the plan to be in place by 2020, with the entire vision realized within 20 years.
It will be a decade before the town outgrows its current civic headquarters, but at that point moving it would be a real possibility. Oakville is expected to grow from its current population of 166,000 to about 230,000 by 2021. "Many of us believe that to support Midtown is to take a position there," said Burton.
Midtown is one of three intensification areas already identified in the existing urban plan and the province's Places to Grow document. At least one or two more will be identified in a new official plan for the town to be released in June, according to Burton.
He's determined that Midtown won't take the "left turn" that occurred in the Uptown area of Dundas St. and Trafalgar Rd. Initially visualized as a vibrant "Manhattan style" streetscape, it became another sprawling big-box development.
The third area designated for intensification is around Dundas St. and Bronte Rd.
If the Midtown development shows signs of success, the Bronte GO station would be an obvious next target for development.
As to costs, Burton says Oakville is still trying to catch up with the current pace of growth in terms of infrastructure and services.
"I'm not the mayor who is going to subsidize growth. Growth is supposed to pay for itself," he said.
Berridge said early signals suggest a successful Midtown development could indeed pay for itself.
GO eyes paradise from a parking lot
Feb 11, 2008 04:30 AM
TORONTO STAR
Tess Kalinowski
Transportation Reporter
Today the Oakville GO station's dominant feature is a vast expanse of paved parking.
But Oakville is already moving to transform that land into a vibrant work-live neighbourhood that could attract between 20,000 and 30,000 people to the area south of the QEW near Trafalgar Rd.
The vision for the Midtown Oakville area includes offices, light industry, homes, walking and cycling trails and, at its heart, access to local transit, GO service and bus rapid transit. Oakville is even considering relocating its town hall from the current location north of the QEW.
"The stars, the moon and the planets have all lined up on this," said Oakville Mayor Rob Burton, adding that 13 months of consultations have wrought nothing but praise for the planned development.
"This is absolutely a place that is ripe for land use and transportation," said Joe Berridge, a transportation consultant developing a business plan for Midtown.
He is the same expert who has been working with the province's transportation planning agency, Metrolinx, on a proposal to put mobility hubs across Greater Toronto. In places like Oakville, those hubs could be destinations in themselves, a neighbourhood where people work, live, meet and shop.
"Midtown has all the components of a mobility hub," Berridge told the GO board Friday. "It has the best chance of any of the urban growth centres of getting off to a strong start."
What makes Oakville's GO station so ripe for this kind of development is the vast amount of public land available there, if parking lots are replaced by structures.
GO and the town together own about 12 hectares of land in the area. Some 33 hectares are railway and hydro lands, and there's a parcel belonging to General Electric.
The Midtown development is effectively underway with the advent of GO's third track along the lakeshore and the widening of the QEW underpass, Burton said. He expects many of the homes, workplaces and amenities in the plan to be in place by 2020, with the entire vision realized within 20 years.
It will be a decade before the town outgrows its current civic headquarters, but at that point moving it would be a real possibility. Oakville is expected to grow from its current population of 166,000 to about 230,000 by 2021. "Many of us believe that to support Midtown is to take a position there," said Burton.
Midtown is one of three intensification areas already identified in the existing urban plan and the province's Places to Grow document. At least one or two more will be identified in a new official plan for the town to be released in June, according to Burton.
He's determined that Midtown won't take the "left turn" that occurred in the Uptown area of Dundas St. and Trafalgar Rd. Initially visualized as a vibrant "Manhattan style" streetscape, it became another sprawling big-box development.
The third area designated for intensification is around Dundas St. and Bronte Rd.
If the Midtown development shows signs of success, the Bronte GO station would be an obvious next target for development.
As to costs, Burton says Oakville is still trying to catch up with the current pace of growth in terms of infrastructure and services.
"I'm not the mayor who is going to subsidize growth. Growth is supposed to pay for itself," he said.
Berridge said early signals suggest a successful Midtown development could indeed pay for itself.
