Northern Light
Superstar
On the agenda of the most recent TRCA Executive Ctte was a report recommending the TRCA proceed to look at feasible development concepts for the parking lot at Pioneer Village and do so with CreateTO.
From the above:
Aerial Pic:
Parking lot outlined in blue above, PV visitors centre just at top/north-west of the lot, with the Village to the north thereof, and the valley lands to the west. Across Murray Ross is York University.
Site size: ~25000m2/ 2.5ha / 6.25ac
Comments: I'm loathe to ever oppose getting rid of a parking lot, but somewhat leary about what might be envisioned here. Anything tall will detract from the sense of 'the village' when you're in it. Being south of the Village and much of the valley, height would also create a shadow impact.
The site is institutional in its surroundings, and seems an unlikely candidate for residential. I'm not sure what one might consider in the alternative though. York U still has ample vacant real estate and parking lots of its own to develop, so what other logical public/commercial function would be economical here, assuming there would be a requirement to replace most of the parking for PV with a new underground facility? Hmmm
Aside from some type of constraint on height, particularly at the north end; I'd like to see a dedicated new strip of parkland abutting the valley, a 35M wide strip would allow for multi-use path skirting the PV parking lot and then following Murray Ross to Steeles, while providing an important ecological buffer for the valley lands.
From the above:
Aerial Pic:
Parking lot outlined in blue above, PV visitors centre just at top/north-west of the lot, with the Village to the north thereof, and the valley lands to the west. Across Murray Ross is York University.
Site size: ~25000m2/ 2.5ha / 6.25ac
Comments: I'm loathe to ever oppose getting rid of a parking lot, but somewhat leary about what might be envisioned here. Anything tall will detract from the sense of 'the village' when you're in it. Being south of the Village and much of the valley, height would also create a shadow impact.
The site is institutional in its surroundings, and seems an unlikely candidate for residential. I'm not sure what one might consider in the alternative though. York U still has ample vacant real estate and parking lots of its own to develop, so what other logical public/commercial function would be economical here, assuming there would be a requirement to replace most of the parking for PV with a new underground facility? Hmmm
Aside from some type of constraint on height, particularly at the north end; I'd like to see a dedicated new strip of parkland abutting the valley, a 35M wide strip would allow for multi-use path skirting the PV parking lot and then following Murray Ross to Steeles, while providing an important ecological buffer for the valley lands.