lead82
Senior Member
I work in Markham and Downtown Markham is a jumbled mess and very poorly planned. The developer Remington is just awful and while the potential is there the layout and connectivity of the area is centred on the car. While there is some activity, it feels more like a drive to destination rather than a walking or transit destination. The details as Northern Light points out are just out of whack. For example, why were the office buildings built so far from transit, when we know employment is a huge trip generator. Why are the office buildings surrounded by oceans of parking, instead of having some underground or shared with a condo/retail/office/retail complex? There is very poor transit to the area, which is why Aviva has it’s own shuttle services to Finch and Square One - surely YRT could extend the business express or Viva Pink to ‘Downtown Markham’. Viva’s current route that comes every 15 mins - which has awkwardly placed stops (e.g. why no Birchmount stop but it’s 2 blocks east of the actual intersection). Another example is the GO station. Why does Metrolink/GO not have an exit from the station to the WEST to service Downtown Markham. Instead the only way out is to go through the parking lot east and then double back west on Enterprise. Which city planner designed this road? The connectivity is broken here. Instead of making the GO Unionville a viable connection to the employment node, it heavily discourages it with a 20min+ walk which is unpleasant - failing the last mile test. The result is that almost everyone drives to this Downtown Markham development as transit is pretty useless except for a small minority.
I too am surprised that the development seems to have halted mid-way and not much has been built in the last 10 years, while VMC has grown like weeds and seems to be much better thought out with better connectivity and useful transportation links. I’m saddened by the wasted opportunity here. The potential is there but the execution is just awful.
I too am surprised that the development seems to have halted mid-way and not much has been built in the last 10 years, while VMC has grown like weeds and seems to be much better thought out with better connectivity and useful transportation links. I’m saddened by the wasted opportunity here. The potential is there but the execution is just awful.
