Vaughan RioCan Colossus Centre Redevelopment | ?m | 55s | RioCan | Hariri Pontarini

christiesplits said:
I'm concerned this is going to be a very car-dependent community. Contrary to the renders, I don't believe we'll see a lot of pedestrian life, especially with cars zooming in and off the highways and the Costco lot.
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Well I’ll save you one worry. There won’t be a Cosco lot.

I know torontonians make fun of these pop up urban centres. I can’t say I see a bunch of Mississauga people walking around Mississauga in general. But there is a decent amount of pedestrians walking all around the new condos beside square one. So it can happen. Will never be yonge street. But it isn’t really trying to be either.
 
tstormers said:
Not sure what kind of transit would even work to fix/help VMC areas. With only the one subway station and the E/W BRT. Since this is mostly Residential the office locations people are going to work are located far away.
My first thought was a loop LRT that crosses the new bridge here and the more recent one to the north of Hwy 7 and loop through all the areas and next to the subway, but would that really help? Just spit balling ideas to see what other options the masses have with the proposed density. (Would love to hear ideas with what is currently proposed over the reduction of density as that isn't what they seem to be doing.)
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I think this would be a good place to copy Singapore's "LRT" (but not actually LRT) elevated people movers to connect the whole area to 407 and VMC subway stations. Just needs to be bidirectional like Singapore and unlike Detroit's one way loop.

The whole area's road network probably also needs fixing. There's too many barriers (400, 407, CN line and MacMillan Yard, and the Woodbridge area) that make the road network super disjointed. In the immediate VMC area N-S routes are particularly lacking as there are no routes crossing the 407 and CN line other than Jane and Weston. Further out, E-W routes become the major problem due to the discontinuity of Langstaff both to the east and west, causing a complete lack of E-W routes between Rutherford and Hwy 7.
 
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sche said:
I think this would be a good place to copy Singapore's "LRT" (but not actually LRT) elevated people movers to connect the whole area to 407 and VMC subway stations. Just needs to be bidirectional like Singapore and unlike Detroit's one way loop.

The whole area's road network probably also needs fixing. There's too many barriers (400, 407, CN line and MacMillan Yard, and the Woodbridge area) that make the road network super disjointed. In the immediate VMC area N-S routes are particularly lacking as there are no routes crossing the 407 and CN line other than Jane and Weston. Further out, E-W routes become the major problem due to the discontinuity of Langstaff both to the east and west, causing a complete lack of E-W routes between Rutherford and Hwy 7.
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The Langstaff EA was recently finalized but theres no funding plan and its still 10+ years away. This is obviously a key route as you've noted so it's a shame its not being considered immediately. One of the provincial party's should pick it up as a key investment in the Thornhill/Vaughan riding.

Langstaff Road

Municipal Class Environmental Assessment Study of Langstaff Road in the City of Vaughan The Regional Municipality of York is beginning a Schedule C Environmental Assessment (EA) Study for the proposed improvements to Langstaff Road from Weston Road to Highway 7, including a possible connection...
www.york.ca www.york.ca
 
Have been following the Smart Centres/Menkes developments for quite some time now. I personally enjoy these new developments coming to Vaughan as it is an extremely car-dependent city. While it is sad to see the theatre be demolished I think that this project will benefit the city in the long run.
What needs to be done to make this successful is to create a good connection between the RioCan development and the Smart Centres/Menkes development. It looks like the rendering includes a bridge of some sort so that will be helpful. I hope this project goes through and gets started soon so I can see and experience this future downtown in Vaughan!
 
We have a front page story up now for this proposal with quite a bit more detail and direction. Check it out here!

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My take on the walkability concerns: I can't see how at least a pedestrian bridge won't be built across that skinny part of the interchange which you can see on Google Maps (roughly from the Costco to the Courtyard) which would hopefully encourage people to walk instead of drive. But my main point here is that although these kinds of places are designed for walkability, true walkability (and willingness to walk) comes later. We're seeing it starting in the Humber Bay area, and we're seeing it in Mississauga as mentioned here:
sixrings said:
Well I’ll save you one worry. There won’t be a Cosco lot.

I know torontonians make fun of these pop up urban centres. I can’t say I see a bunch of Mississauga people walking around Mississauga in general. But there is a decent amount of pedestrians walking all around the new condos beside square one. So it can happen. Will never be yonge street. But it isn’t really trying to be either.
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Communities take a long time to grow, you can do everything right when planting a tree but it can only grow so fast. When communities like this are built they have no identity in the beginning, no fabric. Identity is what creates a vibe, and a vibe is what makes people want to get out and walk around, and it takes time to build that
 
W. K. Lis said:
If they can have movie theatres at Yonge & Dundas, we can have movie theatres at the Colossus Centre.

Else put them movie theatres closer to the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre Station.
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Speaking of cinemas. What the site looked like before Colossus. I saw many films here.

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400 Drive-In in Vaughan, CA - Cinema Treasures

Cinema Treasures is the ultimate guide to movie theaters
cinematreasures.org
 
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I wonder how much these nodes will sprawl beyond the master plan area. It looks odd to have a forest of towers next to low density low rise.
 
W. K. Lis said:
If they can have movie theatres at Yonge & Dundas, we can have movie theatres at the Colossus Centre.

Else put them movie theatres closer to the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre Station.
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Meanwhile I believe there's the abandoned AMC theatre next to the IKEA.
 
I have to be honest, this is upsetting as it's really the only close theatre to me. It's a shame it's coming down.
 
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