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Roads: GTA West Corridor—Highway 413

afransen said:
I question how much high rise condos can really address the affordability crisis. Condos take a lot of time and resources to construct. I think relaxing zoning rules in low density residential could have more of an impact in the medium run if it allows small developers to start building low-rise multi-unit residential in established neighbourhoods. Those types of projects can be completed in 2-3 years, whereas the condo pipeline takes almost a decade.

Maybe if there was more of a missing middle supply, the people who would prefer not to live in high rise condos would have options other than SFHs that would satisfy their needs without being quite so expensive.
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That's part of the problem. The bigger issue however is the fact that the current state of real estate in the GTHA is its a completely unambiguous seller's market. Whatever the cost of the condo is relative to how expensive it was to build, that number is vastly inflated simply due to the demand. There simply isn't enough houses going around so prices are insanely high. The only 2 ways to solve this issue is A) Increase the Supply, or B) Decrease the demand. Decreasing the demand would involve reducing the number of immigrants we accept, or trying to push them to cities other than Toronto, but that just shifts the problem somewhere else. So our only realistic solution is increasing the supply, and at this point any solution that increases densities is a good solution. Missing middle are also good and also should probably done, however Condos are still an extremely strong option. Of course this also assumes that we introduce foreign buying laws which... ya, doesn't look like there's pressure to actually happen.
 
People want SFH because of space, and modern condos don't build spacious units in large numbers anymore. Space is important and people will pay for it, and that doesn't necessarily include things like having yards or driveways that they have to pay to maintain. I can guarantee we'd see more people want to raise families in urban condos or apartments instead of SFH if developers would build a greater amount of bigger 2-bed and 3-bed units. I rarely see anything getting built in the GTA/Kitchener these days with 2-bed or 3-bed units greater than 1200 sqft, and even still, a majority of the units in these buildings are small 1-bedroom units anyway, not something that families will be looking for. Condos/apartments can address the affordability crisis, developers just need to build bigger units that offer a similar floor space to detached homes instead of trying to cram the maximum amount of units possible into a building.
 
ericmacm said:
I can guarantee we'd see more people want to raise families in urban condos or apartments instead of SFH if developers would build a greater amount of bigger 2-bed and 3-bed units. I rarely see anything getting built in the GTA/Kitchener these days with 2-bed or 3-bed units greater than 1200 sqft, and even still, a majority of the units in these buildings are small 1-bedroom units anyway, not something that families will be looking for. Condos/apartments can address the affordability crisis, developers just need to build bigger units that offer a similar floor space to detached homes instead of trying to cram the maximum amount of units possible into a building.
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I agree with you that people want space. I would also argue that Canadian builders are pretty poor at laying out small spaces.

At any rate, larger units are probably not getting built because at $1400 psf your 1200sqft condo would cost 1.7M, and any person with that kind of cash will also be looking at ground-related housing - which makes it harder to sell that condo. I can only imagine that a building with a significant portion of 1200sqft+ units would make it harder for the condo builder to get financing.
 
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www.thestar.com

Doug Ford’s government picked a route for Highway 413 its own experts said would ‘undermine the credibility’ of the project. Local residents are baffled

Internal documents show the province picked a route that avoided a development, but that has a potentially worse environmental impact.
www.thestar.com www.thestar.com

High-level notes; the governments’ consultants (WSP, Aecom) suggested that the cheapest, least-problematic route was through a proposed development in Kleinburg. Following talks with York/Vaughan officials around reducing the impact to that development, the 413 was rerouted through the Nashville Conservation Area to the North, increasing environmental impacts substantially.

The article notes that City Council as a whole didn’t support either route, and ended up pulling support for the 413 last year. It also notes that now we have a subdivision request for land along the initial route (my editorial: which pretty much guarantees we’re gonna end up with the most environmentally impactful route)
 
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allengeorge said:
I agree with you that people want space. I would also argue that Canadian builders are pretty poor at laying out small spaces.

At any rate, larger units are probably not getting built because at $1400 psf your 1200sqft condo would cost 1.7M, and any person with that kind of cash will also be looking at ground-related housing - which makes it harder to sell that condo. I can only imagine that a building with a significant portion of 1200sqft+ units would make it harder for the condo builder to get financing.
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Add to that the price the monthly maintenance charges for a family sized condo.... that's a big monthly hit for a young family.
 
allengeorge said:
www.thestar.com

Doug Ford’s government picked a route for Highway 413 its own experts said would ‘undermine the credibility’ of the project. Local residents are baffled

Internal documents show the province picked a route that avoided a development, but that has a potentially worse environmental impact.
www.thestar.com www.thestar.com

High-level notes; the governments’ consultants (WSP, Aecom) suggested that the cheapest, least-problematic route was through a proposed development in Kleinburg. Following talks with York/Vaughan officials around reducing the impact to that development, the 413 was rerouted through the Nashville Conservation Area to the North, increasing environmental impacts substantially.

The article notes that City Council as a whole didn’t support either route, and ended up pulling support for the 413 last year. It also notes that now we have a subdivision request for land along the initial route (my editorial: which pretty much guarantees we’re gonna end up with the most environmentally impactful route)
Click to expand...
I'm ready for this to really blow up in their face and hurt the PC's electability.
 
The trouble is that real estate in the GTA is at either end of the spectrum with virtually nothing in between. Either we get 30 story condo towers or SF detached homes (ok there's the odd semi detached and townhome development), but we don't see anything in between. Part of that is due to nimbyism shutting out any development period, combined with municipal building codes that focus on "avg residence per sq/ft of land".

I'd love to see some medium density low to midrise housing built along the region's main arterials but alas.
 
Woodbridge_Heights said:
The trouble is that real estate in the GTA is at either end of the spectrum with virtually nothing in between. Either we get 30 story condo towers or SF detached homes (ok there's the odd semi detached and townhome development), but we don't see anything in between. Part of that is due to nimbyism shutting out any development period, combined with municipal building codes that focus on "avg residence per sq/ft of land".

I'd love to see some medium density low to midrise housing built along the region's main arterials but alas.
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have you looked at new subdivisions lately? They are full of townhouses, semis, and apartments along main streets.

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Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.
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The singles usually get built first as there is the highest market demand for those, but the new subdivision areas are full of empty parcels along arterials designated for higher densities.
 
gpo.ca

Ontario Greens will cancel Highway 413 and create a dedicated 407 truck lane

Ontario Greens Leader Mike Schreiner was in Dufferin-Caledon today as part of his Stop the Sprawl Tour to announce his party’s commitment to cancelling Highway 413 and creating a dedicated truck lane on the 407.
gpo.ca gpo.ca

CALEDON -- Ontario Greens Leader Mike Schreiner was in Dufferin-Caledon today as part of his Stop the Sprawl Tour to announce his party’s commitment to cancelling Highway 413 and creating a dedicated truck lane on the 407.
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That's cool, but how about making it easier to get to the 407 from northern peel.
 
kamira51 said:
410 is awful Monday to Friday, and forcing trucks to be crammed on that highway is suicide. Then you have the congestion on Mayfield Road, it needs to be addressed, and yes even the parts that are widened to 6 lanes.
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There are no amount of lanes that will help the 410 given Brampton’s built form. I’ve lived through at least one widening and fairly soon after that it was as bad as it was before.

Brampton’s population has only increased since then, and all new developments are still heavily car-oriented.
 
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