TJ O'Pootertoot
Senior Member
What's the deal with the parking lot at the SW corner of Yonge & Sheppard?
On a related node, what's the deal with the large parking lot at the NW corner of Yonge & York Mills?
What would you like to see in these locations?
I don't know when that Sheppard lot will finally go but good timing to ask about the one at York Mills. It just sold and is set for some major redevelopment:
http://www.thestar.com/business/201...king-lot-slated-for-hotel-office-complex.html
As for Highway 7, I think the VIVA BRT was a good first step there but the design has many flaws. The bike lanes wont be use as it's far too dangerous given the 70km/hr or higher speed of traveling cars. The bike lanes should have been part of the sidewalk are and not of the main road. In terms of design, I really don't like that they kept the wooden power lines and planted trees underneath them. That's a recipe for failure and will result in ugly and pruned trees as they grow. Highway 7 is still too sparsely populated to generate much bus usage. The bus is mainly used here to get to/from work and by students without a car. However, given the low frequencies of the VIVA service, it will not attract much ridership.
These are all fair points about Viva...I think it's a nice design but arguably they should have narrowed the road or done separated lanes. The speed of the adjacent cars, I dunno - they lowered the limit from 70 to 60 though, obviously, people still go faster. I haven't biked there because I haven't had reason to but they look very well designed and there's a buffer so the speed of the cars wouldn't be a huge concern for me. I have biked in the lanes on Dufferin and I doubt people drive any slower there. (Obviously it's a lot better than most of the roads in the area which have NO bike lanes at all!) There's already some nice intensification going on east of Bayview but most of it isn't oriented towards the street; that seems to be changing in the next wave which is starting to go in now but it's never going to be quite like, say, Yonge and Empress. That will happen more around VMC and Markham Centre; or it should.
They looked at burying the hydro lines and it was a whole thing and, in short, was going to be way too expensive. I understand not sticking taxpayers with that but there is no question, if you put cost aside, you want those poles gone. But it wasn't a "design" choice, really. (Here's a news article I found on it - close to $10M/km to bury the lines, all on the property tax bill...http://www.yorkregion.com/news-story/1436323-pay-to-bury-hydro-lines-markham-told/)
I do like how the new streetlights frame the streetscape more intimately, at least. It's a subtle thing.
But, yeah, you're right - when you see people start charging for parking you'll know that the suburbanism is retreating and real urban living is sweeping into York Region.