2023 Spring Issue - 59

INFRASTRUCTURE
stake: " Given the scale of the transit investment, it
likely won't happen again. Ever. "
Put another way: if a sleepy Toronto-area suburb
has any big dreams for its future, now is the moment
to make them come true. To judge from the view
from an airplane window, they are not wasting the
opportunity.
Making the Leap
On the ground, some of these suburban high-rise
developments are desolate canyons while others
are lively cityscapes, and neither luck nor fate is to
blame. The best spaces are the result of a purposeful
leap that developers and transit builders have to
make together-from transit-oriented development
(TOD) to transit-oriented community (TOC). " TOD is a
forest of towers beside a transit station, " says Matti
Siemiatycki, a professor with Toronto Metropolitan
University's School of Cities. " TOC is exceptional
places that people want to spend time in. "
Siemiatycki says the difference can be boiled
down to three ingredients: density, diversity, and
design. " Density means it will be animated with
people at all times of the day, " he says. " Diversity
is about lots of different uses, so people have lots
of different reasons to be there. And design means
beautiful placemaking " with such elements as public
squares, parks, and promenades.
Siemiatycki's recipe makes it sound easy. In reality,
TOC is difficult to build from scratch atop suburban
brownfields or greenfields, the kinds of places
people are accustomed to driving through. One
of the region's most advanced TOC examples is in
Markham, a once-monocultural suburb 21 miles (34
km) northeast of downtown Toronto. Thirty years ago,
then-mayor Don Cousens approached the Remington
Group, a local developer of single-family detached
homes, with the idea of creating a downtown on a
243-acre (98 ha) greenfield next to a commuter
rail station.
" When our owner, Rudy Bratty, decided to go
along with it, people told him he was nuts, " says
Randy Peddigrew, Remington's executive vice president
of land development. " He got a lot of side eye at
the time. "
Today, Remington's Downtown Markham development
is home to more than 2,300 people in its mix of
mixed-use mid-rise blocks and high-rise towers amid
400,000 square feet (37,000 sq m) of retail space
and 850,000 square feet (79,000 sq m) of office
space. When the project is built out, those figures
will quadruple-and all of it will be housed in LEEDThe
Toronto region's C$60
billion (US$45 billion)
transit expansion, including
eight new subway and LRT
lines or extensions totaling
more than 125 miles (200
km) of new track, is slated
for completion in 2030.
SPRING 2023
URBAN LAND
59
COURTESY OF METROLINX

2023 Spring Issue

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of 2023 Spring Issue

2023 Spring Issue - Cover1
2023 Spring Issue - Cover2
2023 Spring Issue - 1
2023 Spring Issue - 2
2023 Spring Issue - 3
2023 Spring Issue - 4
2023 Spring Issue - 5
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2023 Spring Issue - Cover3
2023 Spring Issue - Cover4
https://www.nxtbook.com/urbanlandinstitute/UrbanLand/2024-spring-issue-of-urban-land
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https://www.nxtbook.com/urbanlandinstitute/UrbanLand/2022-winter-issue
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https://www.nxtbook.com/urbanlandinstitute/UrbanLand/2022-summer-issue
https://www.nxtbook.com/urbanlandinstitute/UrbanLand/2022-spring-issue
https://www.nxtbook.com/urbanlandinstitute/UrbanLand/ulm-winter-2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/urbanlandinstitute/UrbanLand/summer-issue-2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/urbanlandinstitute/UrbanLand/uli-spring-2021-issue
https://www.nxtbook.com/urbanlandinstitute/UrbanLand/ULIWinter2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/urbanlandinstitute/UrbanLand/URBANLANDFALL2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/urbanlandinstitute/UrbanLand/URBANLANDSUMMER2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/urbanlandinstitute/UrbanLand/URBANLANDSPRING2020
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