Yonge Street North Planning Study (City of Toronto)

[salsa]

the bus hub at finch is under a hydro corridor, not exactly prime land for a skyscraper.

The TTC terminal could certainly be developed eventually. Most bus routes will no longer use it when the subway gets extended.

 

[jaycola]

Yonge Street North Planning Study - Community Meeting on Draft Implementation Plan - May 28th 7:00 Edithvale Community Centre

Yonge Street North Planning Study
The City is holding a Community Consultation meeting where you can learn more about a draft
implementation plan for this Study Area, ask questions and share your comments. Details are as follows:
Date: Wednesday May 28, 2014
Time: 7:00-9:00PM
Place: Edithvale Community Centre
Banquet Hall - 131 Finch Avenue West
The Yonge Street North Planning Study was initiated in 2011 in response to increasing development pressures in the Yonge Street corridor between Finch and Steeles Avenues. In consultation with the community, the Study will help set the stage for managing growth within the Yonge Street corridor, particularly in light of the planned northerly extension of the Yonge subway line and associated stations at Drewry/Cummer and Steeles Avenues.
At our last meeting in June 2013, the community provided comments on a preferred land use option and transportation alternatives. In November 2013, City Council requested staff to consult with residents on a number of matters including an implementation plan for the Yonge Street North Study area. You can view a copy of the Staff Report and Council minute at: http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgendaItemHistory.do?item=2013.NY27.28
Purpose of the Meeting
A draft implementation plan has now been completed, and the purpose of this meeting is for staff to present it and receive questions and comments from the community.
The preferred option, draft implementation plan and other Study materials will be on the City's website:
http://www.toronto.ca (search "Yonge Street North Planning Study").
This land use planning study is also being supported and guided by a Transportation Master Plan and Infrastructure Master Plan including any new roads, sewers and watermains. The Master Plans will satisfy Phases 1 and 2 of the Municipal Class Environmental Assessment (EA) process. This includes identifying the problem/opportunity to be addressed, developing and evaluating a reasonable range of alternative solutions, and providing opportunities for public input at key stages.

 

[TJ O'Pootertoot]

Thanks for the updates, Jaycola!

One point I thought I'd make: Although I know we don't want to over-encumber the Yonge line with more extensions until a DRL is built, it might be nice to extend the Yonge line just up to Steeles Ave with a terminal point under Centrepoint Mall. That mall has very large unused parking lots which could be re-purposed as a Bus Transit hub for VIVA and GO, allowing the regional bus station at Finch to potentially shut down, freeing up the more valuable Yonge/Finch land for other purposes.

Ugh. Already discussed to death on the subway thread. Pointless, counter-productive and a waste of money and effort. I'm happy it would get the buses off the road on the TORONTO side of the border, though.

Keeping Finch station as a regional transit hub is a bit... dunno... but during rush hour it's always an insane mess there.

Clearly the regional transit terminal will go once the subway is extended but, as already pointed out, it's under the hydro so there's not much you can do with it. There's no reason the TTC couldn't move operations over there a few years while they sell their patch of land on the north side of Bishop and redevelop it, perhaps putting the terminal under a building, a la York Mills. I have no idea how possible that is, really, given the existing, rather shallow infrastructure but I'm sure they'll look into it.

Centerpoint will definitely see redevelopment - the concept plan (picture above, link here) shows substantial towers there. That matches up with the work Vaughan and Markham did like 5 years ago, so good Toronto is catching on to this whole suburban transit-oriented intensification thing

 

[jaycola]

Updated attachements to the Yonge North planning study and panels from the public meeting May 28th.http://www1.toronto.ca

Hello everyone,

Thanks to all who attended and participated at the May 28th Community Consultation Meeting at Edithvale Community Centre, and also to those who have since taken the time to review and provide comments on the draft Implementation Plan.

The Study Website has now been updated to include additional materials including the draft Implementation Plan, presentation and panels.
See: http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/c...nnel=490452cc66061410VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD
(or you can search "Yonge Street North Planning Study" at http://www.toronto.ca/

As mentioned at our meeting, we'd really appreciate comments and questions about the draft Implementation Plan;
and hope you can e-mail them to me before the end of June.

Thanks for your ongoing interest in the Yonge Street North Planning Study.
Please feel free to contact me anytime you have a comment or question about it.

Rob


Robert Gibson, Senior Planner, MCIP, RPP
City Planning, North York District
City of Toronto
t.(416)395-7059
f.(416)395-7155

Like the Growth Plan, while the Big Move provides a region-wide strategic vision for transit, the actual timing of improved transit capacity remains unclear and subject to further study. Nonetheless, both the Growth Plan and Big Move indicate that improvements will be made within the 2031 planning horizon. Because the City’s land use decisions under the Planning Act are required to conform, or not conflict, with the Growth Plan, a key role of this Official Plan Amendment is to manage growth pressures in the Yonge Street North area in a way that recognizes the uncertain timing of the ultimate transit infrastructure that is necessary to support growth.

Reading the report summary a key theme is that development be phased with the timing of the subway extension. While final projections of residential gross floor area of 1,620,000 m2 of residential are permitted, only 660,000 m2 of residential development will be permitted prior to construction of the Subway extension. Further to that there appears to be similar controls in place for development pressures in York Region.

Urbanization of this stretch of Yonge as with the southern parts of Markham and Vaughan will be stifled until this extension is completed. While the development is likely inevitable for this area, it will be it will be delayed for a couple decades before fully this can happen.

 

[TJ O'Pootertoot]

Reading the report summary a key theme is that development be phased with the timing of the subway extension. While final projections of residential gross floor area of 1,620,000 m2 of residential are permitted, only 660,000 m2 of residential development will be permitted prior to construction of the Subway extension. Further to that there appears to be similar controls in place for development pressures in York Region.

Urbanization of this stretch of Yonge as with the southern parts of Markham and Vaughan will be stifled until this extension is completed. While the development is likely inevitable for this area, it will be it will be delayed for a couple decades before fully this can happen.

It's all fine and good to plan for phasing, lord knows it makes sense, but good luck holding back development once the cat is out of the bag. World on Yonge has already shown you can't hold back the wave. Yonge is Yonge.

If Hudak had been elected, I'd say the timeline for the extension is totally out the window, whereas now we're back to "when there's money, it will be one of the priority projects," even if the DRL pushes it back a bit. All that said, if Toronto thinks it can "stifle" development on Yonge, I think developers (and the OMB) will beg to differ. Thinking they can slow it on the Markham/Vaughan side, where they already have denser zoning in place, is especially naive. Those car dealerships on the Vaughan side look permanent but as soon as they know the subway is coming, the clock will be ticking loudly over there.

I'd like to think all 3 (4, if you count York Region) are co-ordinating this, but I get the sense that Toronto (as usual) is doing its own thing. That's not a recipe for success.