The hierarchy that will matter is the transition down to single family houses, which could really come back to bite Bazis if the secondary plan and other precedents around North York Centre are interpreted/followed literally. There's going to at least one person who will have an absolute cow about the prospect of 30 storeys adjacent to 2-3 storeys, as if 18 or 20 storeys next to 2-3 storeys is *so* much better.
The lack of any residential towers in the SW speaks to the flaws and arbitrariness in the secondary plan. There clearly should be more development in the SW, but since the secondary plan boundaries were practically formed on a house by house basis, the service road is stuck going where it is and nothing much else aside from Bazis will be permitted in the SW.
I disagree,... the lack of any residential tower in the SW isn't because of "flaws and arbitrariness in the secondary plan." North of Sheppard along Yonge, its more commercial plaza retail lots which are easier to acquire for redevelopment. South of Sheppard along Yonge it's more single residential houses which are harder to acquire all the desired lots for redevelopment. That said, it's really a question of why the east side of Yonge south of Sheppard to 401 is much more developed with offices and condos than the west side of Yonge. On the west side of Yonge between Avondale and 401 is old Maclean Hunter huge lot which was snapped up by many condo developers in mid 90's when that lot became available,.. today there's about 10 condo towers with townhouses on that site. The East side of Yonge street in downtown North York is much more desirable because it's in a much better school zone,... ie Earl Haig Secondary School.
What's on the West side of Yonge between Sheppard and 401? With Yonge Street frontage,... Take a look,... at the south-west corner of Yonge & Poyntz Avenue is Shell gas station,... on Yonge between Johnston Avenue and Florence Avenue is Esso gas station,... south-west corner of Yonge and Cameron Avenue is Petro Canada gas station. Think about,... southbound Yonge Street, world's longest street and Toronto's main street,... just before it meets 401, North America's busiest highway,.... can you say Gas Station Ka-Ching money machine. And there is no way in hell any of these three big gas companies would give up their gas station at these sites.
The old City of North York had plans to extend the western Service Ring Road (Beecroft Road) south of current Poyntz Avenue ending to Franklin Avenue (right at the mouth of 401 westbound on ramps). After amalgamation, those plans died,.... city of Toronto have no plans to extend the Beecroft Road (service ring road) any further south. One city planner I spoke to says the city doesn't want to disrupt established neighbourhoods,.... gee, I guess when they extend this service ring road northward to Finch towards Drewry Ave & Cummer Ave,... I guess those neighbourhoods are not considered established enough,... tsk, tsk. What about when they extend the eastern service ring road south of Sheppard to Avondale Avenue? Isn't the existing residential neighbourhood on the east side of Yonge as established as the west side?
It really doesn't take a genius to figure out why the western service ring road ends at Poyntz and won't go further south to Franklin Avenue at the mouth of the 401 on ramps,.... the city of Toronto doesn't want to divert southbound Yonge Street traffic off Yonge between Poyntz Avenue and Franklin Avenue,... and piss off the big gas station companies.
There's one house nestled right up against the 401 - it has several acres of land and would be a great site for a few condos...the views over the 401/valley/golf course would be wonderful.
Yeah,... great if you're deaf!
Nestled right up against North America's busiest highway,... the good thing is, its so congested during most of the day, cars don't make much sound when they zoom by at 40km per hour.
Just a stone throw west of that house you're talking about is an former convent or something like that for old catholic nuns to retire at,... that was sold to developer about 7 years ago,... developer wanted to originally build low rise condos there,... then after they acquired the land, changed their minds and wanted to build huge condos there,.... neighbourhood NIMBYs rejected it, city rejected it, OMB rejected it,... so city of Toronto brought the land from developer and will be building much needed catholic elementary school at that site.
Hell, even a "401 station" on the Yonge subway wouldn't be an outrageous idea if anything else was redeveloped...
North-east of Yonge & 401 is a almost a dozen condos plus townhouses on old Maclean-Hunter site,... and more new condos coming.
TTC will never build 401 subway station for a number of reason,... one Sheppard-Yonge station runs from Sheppard to Poyntz Avenue,.... and 401 is only 400-500m away from Poyntz Ave. so its way too close. TTC like at least 1.6km apart,.... too many stations will delay overall travel time. Another major reason, existing subway tracks under 401 slopes down Yonge Street to Hogg's Hollow (York Mills Rd - Wilson Avenue),... hard enough stopping a subway train on level track,... good luck stopping on slopping track. Another major reason, it's extremely complicated to add new subway station to an existing subway line,.... basically impossible,... tunnel boring was used to create that stretch of subway tunnel, you can't just add a new station there.
NOTE: Yonge subway line between Sheppard-Yonge and Finch was completed in 1974,... but when they built the subway tunnels between Sheppard and Finch they created a box structure for a subway station at North York City Centre,... so that a future subway station can be added later,... North York City Centre station was added in 1987 and today it's the busiest subway station without a feeder bus or streetcar service, 26,070 daily boardings a day,... and that's all walk in passenger traffic! Just from surrounding neighbourhood, condos and office buildings. How's that for ubanization! For comparison sake Dufferin Station has 28,270 daily boardings a day and it's serviced by the 29 Dufferin bus,... the busiest TTC bus route in the system.
