My point about p2g UGC density targets was simple: VMC is the only one with a subway and a 200 ppl/jobs per ha target; every other one is 400 (RHC-LG can be counted as two or one, but I digress).
And I explained why that makes no sense, despite the (still non-existent) subway.
RHC-LG is in 2 municipalities but it's a single mobility hub, a single UGC and planning was co-ordinated by York Region, so I count it as one. But I think RH was well above the 200 too, though I forget the exact numbers now.
EDIT: went and dug it up. The density planned for RHC - not counting Langstaff - is 450 people/jobs per hectare. Bully for them! Langstaff, of course, is about 1,000; downtown levels. VMC is only 200 and, yes, that's lower than it should be - but I suspect you also think those RHC/LG number are rather ambitious, yes?
Really though that's besides the point, because we're talking about them reaching 200, and whether they can build a high-density downtown (a plan which predates p2g by ~five years, and a promise which allowed them to piggyback onto the RTES of extending the subway to York U).
True. on all counts.
You argue Vaughan has done absolutely everything in their power to make VMC grow into a downtown. That they've planted the seeds, watered it, and that we should merely sit back and watch as "the market" does its magic. I say otherwise.
Everything in their power?? I said no such thing. I totally agreed with you - REPEATEDLY - that they should have set the bar higher, that they shouldn't have jumped to open new greenfield lands etc. Yeesh. I probably did it twice on this page of the forum alone! 3 times now!
"The market" implies I have some faith in the development industry to do the right thing; that's not the case. I merely think that the policies in place and the demographic/market shifts we've already seen in the GTA mean it won't take much effort or TOOOOO much time to get something perhaps akin to North York Centre going on there.
I have no delusions about Vaughan qua Vaughan.
Re: a Line 1 extn to Wonderland. We're not talking about some vague reference from their OP, but specifically to a 2013 decision by Vaughan's council to have Mlinx ID more hubs and make a subway extension a major priority.
Sigh. It's meaningless. Councils pass resolutions asking governments for this and that all the time. They probably also declared one day a year Filipino Heritage Day but that doesn't matter either. The OP is far more significant than some resolution asking Metrolinx to please water their gardens or whatever.
Is the council dumb? Maybe. Mostly, probably.
Are they in thrall to developers who own land up in Vaughan Mills but not VMC and is the motion you refer to aimed at benefiting certain landowners? Wouldn't surprise me a bit.
Will it change anything? NO!
Will Metrolinx designate more hubs based on this request? Almost certainly not!
Is a subway to Wonderland happening in my lifetime? Unlikely!
Even though Vaughan council said pretty please? Even so!
Should the council be voted out? Most of em, yeah.
Can Vaughan do better with VMC? Most certainly.
Should they open more whitebelt lands? Maybe in the long run, but not yet.
Did they anyway? Of course!
How much of this affects the potential for high-density, walkable, TOD in VMC? Not too much.
(That said - I haven't seen this 2013 resolution; you have a link?)
It comes as no surprise that you'd consider this 'admirable'. I'd wager that if any other city tried to do something like that, you'd have a lot to say on the matter about where their head's are at, or their competency
I think BMO did a fine job addressing this. You wanna talk COMPETENCY? For all their plethora of faults, the transit planning and intensification plans in York Region and Vaughan make what Toronto has done in the past decade look like child's play. Because it is.
Call me when they've actually built something with the money they were given in 2007. I may be on a bus on a 5-year-old rapidway by then, but I'll take your call.
Or maybe you're talking about Brampton? Or Mississauga? York Region has schooled ALL of them, period.
But when it comes to a city of 300k wanting to prioritize a subway as a replacement for a bus route that would be the equivalent of Toronto's 150th busiest, you're surprisingly mum on the matter.
you lost me here. I don't feel very MUM.
Do you mean the TYSSE? Has anyone ever suggested its function is to replace a bus route? Its function, at least north of Steeles, is to promote intensification. Maybe it won't - but you don't know that yet and neither do I.
If Vaughan decides to plan/develop new centres, neglect to add ingredients commonplace in successful centres, to expand their urban boundary, and try to prioritize astronomically-priced projects that come out of left field - then it's quite possible they're compromising the public's previous investments, and the integrity of regional planning.
Fine, yes - it's POSSIBLE. you're implying it's probable or even certain. It's not either. but I'll agree with you on POSSIBLE.
