Richmond Hill Yonge Line 1 North Subway Extension | ?m | ?s | Metrolinx

[Northern Light]

In respect of Line 2, running north of Danforth; I could find only 2 locations in which buildings existing over top:

High level aerial:

Here:

And here:

 

[Northern Light]

Line 1 in downtown runs under Yonge directly from just north of Front to 2 blocks north of college.

High level aerial:

Buildings it passes under:

Tea House Condos (formerly a 1-storey strip plaza)

15 Dundonald (apartment, above ground parking, amenities on top) at Wellesley Station:

Then the Charles-Hayden Green P garage (formerly a surface lot)
Followed by 33 Bloor East
Then Hudson's Bay Centre:

 

[innsertnamehere]

Most of the Bloor Danforth Subway was not rebuilt over. Just look at Google Earth. It's mostly streets, lanes, parking and parkettes, with some commercial buildings but few houses.

Between Dawes and Victoria Park there are a bunch of rebuilt houses if you look closely, it's just hard to tell. You can track a "line" through the neighbourhood of 60's walkup properties and townhouses which closely follow the alignment of the subway underneath. These 3 houses sit directly atop the subway, for example. Same with these semis. Further east, these semis are atop the subway.

 

[TJ O'Pootertoot]

200 people, some honking and some local news coverage. It's heating up in Thornhill!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1401243236891561985

 

[allengeorge]

I…wow, it’s been a while since I’ve been up there. I cannot believe that part of Yonge is getting a subway. Literally looks like there’s a single house there.

 

[Undead]

Quick clip of the shenanigans involving various morons:

 

[TJ O'Pootertoot]

I…wow, it’s been a while since I’ve been up there. I cannot believe that part of Yonge is getting a subway. Literally looks like there’s a single house there.

Well:
-They're standing at Royal Orchard which is a borderline location for a station, at best.
-If you turn the camera around, there are multiple apartment buildings and a townhouse complex behind them which ain't exactly downtown Toronto, granted, but it's also not one house

-I could waste everyone's time posting pictures of Yonge/York Mills, Yonge/Summerhill, and a bunch of other stations that make them look like poor locations for a subway if you don't know the context and then I could waste more time by posting pictures of what Yonge/Finch and Yonge/Sheppard looked like in 1970, before the subway came
-As we all already know, this is the least dense segment of the YNSE, where they are standing. Yonge/Steeles already has multiple 50+-storey tower applications. The first towers at Yonge/7, which are up in the same range, are in the final stages of approval.
-The plaza pictured above also has an application in (excessive, I'd argue!) for multiple towers, as high as 60 storeys.

So, granting that the video does not show the corridor at its best, there's plenty more than a single house there and 10s of 1000s in the pipeline.

 

[EnviroTO]

At the depth they would be tunneling they would likely hear a faint rumble that seems to be coming from the pipes or the basement for a few weeks as the TBM passes and nothing after that. I support a route running under Yonge to have a well situated station at Royal Orchard, but really the concern around the tunneling is about as much an issue as the tracking devices in the vaccines.

 

[afransen]

I know it wouldn't be popular with this crowd either, but having a portal at the south bank of the Don and going elevated up to Langstaff would work, too, and probably save enough for both the missing stations to be added in.

 

[TJ O'Pootertoot]

Serious question - how is Option 3 impacting the historic village?
The heritage district does come as far north as Royal Orchard but the route and station location don't affect it all. Ah, well - these subway debates aren't known for nailing all the fine points.

 

[Transportfan]

Serious question - how is Option 3 impacting the historic village?

Remember, this is in York Region. Any suburban area within 10 km of an historic village is considered within said village...

IMO, it's debatable whether old Thornhill even qualifies as an historic village as it has no streetwall or on-street parking. There's some old buildings along Yonge, but nothing really resembling an actual village. Looks like an older suburban area basically.

 

[afransen]

I'm not a resident, but I don't see what is so precious about Thornhill. I'm not saying level it, but I'm dubious it warrants billions in extra costs to avoid disrupting the character area. No one is worrying about that in Thorncliffe Park.

 

[TJ O'Pootertoot]

Remember, this is in York Region. Any suburban area within 10 km of an historic village is considered within said village...

IMO, it's debatable whether old Thornhill even qualifies as an historic village as it has no streetwall or on-street parking. There's some old buildings along Yonge, but nothing really resembling an actual village. Looks like an older suburban area basically.

There are literally buildings dating to the early 1800s, less than a block from Yonge.
The early 1800s!
There are buildings right on Yonge from before the Civil War! Painters from the Group of 7 lived in the area.
I mean... what more do you want? Are there buildings even half that old in Thorncliffe Park?
What do you have to do to qualify? Have on-street parking???
Here, take a walk around..

Walking Tour of Historic Thornhill - Introduction

www.thornhillhistoric.org

There's a whole sub-debate here about heritage but I'll simply say this, based on your criteria: you seem to think "Heritage Village" = Unionville or Niagara-on-the-Lake. Unionville (Newmarket is another good example) have preserved cores largely because they are off the main artery. Thornhill is right on Yonge and so is Richmond Hill, which is slightly better preserved, in terms of the streetwall. So, unquestionably heritage has been lost over the years. But the idea that it's not enough to justify preservation is mind-blowing (but very TORONTO!) to me.
So, Immagonnasay that having dozens of houses from the early 19th century on either side of Yonge is a far better gauge of heritage significance than, um, on-street parking. Pretty sure the Ontario Heritage Act backs me up on this and that's more important than what any given individual thinks is "special."

Any-who, Markham Council has now explicitly passed a motion against the Option 3 alignment. Vaughan may have too; or maybe it's on their agenda? Either way, it's an uprising. (And, to the original point, aside from 3 or 4 buildings on Yonge, nothing in the Royal Orchard area - the area the tunnel would go under - has any heritage significance. That area is just a subdivision, but there are a couple of old houses (now housing businesses) directly on Yonge. but they'd be fine so...shrug.)

[EDIT - just to add I'm still facepalming over the idea that a heritage area is defined by "on-street parking." WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?
Does that mean Yonge and Lawrence is a Heritage Village?? Yikes,]

 

[Transportfan]

[EDIT - just to add I'm still facepalming over the idea that a heritage area is defined by "on-street parking." WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?
Does that mean Yonge and Lawrence is a Heritage Village?? Yikes,]

Just relax and think for a second. On-street parking means there's a distinct village with storefronts. Thornhill lacks that. I just said that it lacks the overall impression of a substantial village while passing through it. And I never said anything about not preserving heritage buildings. No need to bite my head off especially since I quoted your comment in agreement with how crazy these protesters are.

 

[TJ O'Pootertoot]

Just relax and think for a second. On-street parking means there's a distinct village with storefronts. Thornhill lacks that. I just said that it lacks the overall impression of a substantial village while passing through it. And I never said anything about not preserving heritage buildings. No need to bite my head off especially since I quoted your comment in agreement with how crazy these protesters are.

Apologies for overstating and for any head-biting, but there have been a few "Meh, it's a suburb - what heritage is there?" posts over the months and years.
It's a designated Heritage Conservation District and I think most people only see the Yonge streetscape and the post-war suburbs (like Royal Orchard) and don't appreciate the character of the neighbourhood and why a station makes sense here but not there.

So anyway, we agree that the Royal Orchard hood, which is what is at issue here, does not qualify (the HCD only goes just to Royal Orchard, to include a few heritage buildings directly on Yonge). We'll see where this all ends up...