North Oakville

[memph]

This is a new suburban area being built between Dundas St and Highway 407 in the Toronto suburb of Oakville.

Pictures were taken during a bike ride today (Monday, March 22, 2021) between about 5pm and 6:30pm. Weather was approx. 11-14C (51-57F) and sunny.

Map of locations photographed


1) Isaac Park (attached to St Gregory the Great Catholic School)


2) Horton Parquette


3) Shops on Preserve Dr.


4) Walkway along Preserve Pond


5) Kaitting House Parkette

[memph]

6) Preserve Pond walkway as it continues between some townhouses.


7) Same walkway continuing to George Savage Pond


8) Shops along George Savage Ave


9) Bridge across Osenego Creek greenway.


10) Emily Cline Park

[memph]

11) George Savage Park (attached to Oodenawi Public School)


Tennis Courts


Playground


Skatepark & basketball court


12) Featherstone Parkette

[memph]

13) New houses along Merion Gardens Street


14) Shops along Carding Mill Trail


15) Homes along Charles Fay Pond


16) Bowbeer Park. I was surprised how every single playground in North Oakville was in use, even here, where 90% of the homes in the adjacent blocks were still under construction (also 6pm so approaching dinner time).


17) Zachary Pond

[memph]

18) Dr David R Williams Public School


19) Fowley Park



Homes overlooking Fowley Park. Most of the balconies are furnished with tables and chairs so it would be interesting to come back in the summer to see if any of them are in use.


20) Most of the larger blocks are broken up by mid-block connections like this one.

[memph]

21) Apartments at Ernest Appelbe Blvd


22) Squire Parkette


23) Small public space between apartments at Ernest Appelbe Blvd


24) William Rose Park


25) Veronica Tyrrell Parkette


26) Dundas Street, the major thoroughfare on the southern boundary of these developments. The newest homes on the north side front onto Dundas, but the oldest ones on the south side either turn their back to Dundas or front onto access roads. As the lowrise development gets built out, the next stage will be to urbanize Dundas Street, which is considered to be a priority bus corridor (potential BRT candidate at some point) with the development of midrise and highrise condos. A few have been completed already but there are many more under construction and proposed. For now though, it's mostly just a very busy, wide, and high speed automobile corridor.

[xzmattzx]

Interesting pictures. There are some decent buildings there, like the school, and the architecture of the houses individually isn't that bad, but it just seems terribly monotonous when everything was clearly built in the last 5 years. The lack of trees makes it worse. I would like to see how a place like this ages in the next 30 years and the tree cover is much better.

[memph]

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

Interesting pictures. There are some decent buildings there, like the school, and the architecture of the houses individually isn't that bad, but it just seems terribly monotonous when everything was clearly built in the last 5 years. The lack of trees makes it worse. I would like to see how a place like this ages in the next 30 years and the tree cover is much better.

These are the two other schools.
https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.47785...7i16384!8i8192
https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.47173...7i16384!8i8192

There's quite a lot of midrises and highrises going up along the main roads at the edges of the neighbourhood too.

And the good thing about the trees is that they're between the sidewalk and the road, rather than on the house side of the sidewalk, so they should eventually overhang both the street and sidewalk. So between that and the houses being built very close to the sidewalk, there should be a pretty strong sense of enclosure when the trees mature. It does look pretty bare now though, especially since winter just ended so it hasn't greened up yet.

[SlidellWx]

Wow! I won't recognize Dundas the next time we visit my brother-in-law. They live off Oakmead by Castlefield Park. Last time we were up there was in 2018. Thanks for the pictures!

[Doady]

Oakville and Markham are the two Toronto suburbs that are heavily influenced by New Urbanism and maybe you can see that in these pictures, and from quick glance at satellite image. The mayor of Ajax is a planner so maybe it has some more thoughtful design than usual as well (e.g. a continuous public waterfront).

Probably the main thing holding Oakville back is the lack of integrated local transit network. Oakville Transit is just too small. Halton and Peel (minus Caledon) should have been one region from the beginning, and with Halton-Peel Transit we could have had one "GTA West" transit system. The ridership of the Dundas Street corridor is already almost on par with Hurontario-Main, but if the service from Oakville to Mississauga to Etobicoke was integrated, they probably would be building Dundas LRT right now, not just Hurontario LRT.

I know I will be labelled as a "conspiracy theorist" for saying this, but it's just just another example how political divisions are holding the Toronto area back. You can see also the Steeles situation along the Toronto and York boundary as well, how it is killing transit ridership in York and isolating people who live near the boundary.

[memph]

Originally Posted by SlidellWx

Wow! I won't recognize Dundas the next time we visit my brother-in-law. They live off Oakmead by Castlefield Park. Last time we were up there was in 2018. Thanks for the pictures!

Yeah, and I didn't even focus on the high density development with this photoset. There's a bunch of highrises and midrises along Dundas that have been built since 2018 or are under construction.

[memph]

Originally Posted by Doady

Oakville and Markham are the two Toronto suburbs that are heavily influenced by New Urbanism and maybe you can see that in these pictures, and from quick glance at satellite image. The mayor of Ajax is a planner so maybe it has some more thoughtful design than usual as well (e.g. a continuous public waterfront).

Probably the main thing holding Oakville back is the lack of integrated local transit network. Oakville Transit is just too small. Halton and Peel (minus Caledon) should have been one region from the beginning, and with Halton-Peel Transit we could have had one "GTA West" transit system. The ridership of the Dundas Street corridor is already almost on par with Hurontario-Main, but if the service from Oakville to Mississauga to Etobicoke was integrated, they probably would be building Dundas LRT right now, not just Hurontario LRT.

I know I will be labelled as a "conspiracy theorist" for saying this, but it's just just another example how political divisions are holding the Toronto area back. You can see also the Steeles situation along the Toronto and York boundary as well, how it is killing transit ridership in York and isolating people who live near the boundary.

What's the "Steeles situation"?

Oakville is pretty affluent and low density compared to Mississauga, which I think limits transit demand, aside from the demand for commuter service into Downtown Toronto. The newer developments are more mixed income and denser though, so I think that will change over the coming decades. Trafalgar and Dundas can probably support pretty frequent bus service soon, maybe even BRT, and maybe eventually other corridors like Upper Middle, Third Line, Speers, Lakeshore and Dorval-West Oak Trails can support relative frequent transit too.

Although I agree Oakville and Markham are most heavily influenced by new urbanism, the other suburbs still have a lot of similarities. The development densities are basically the same in most new suburban areas regardless of municipality, and that's reflected in a lot of other things like distance to transit, schools and other amenities. Laneways to limit garages/driveways along more prominent streets, or for narrow lot homes (ex townhouses) are also common in a lot of Toronto suburbs. Even the live-work units can be found outside Markham/Oakville, most notably in Milton, but also Brampton, Burlington and Caledon.

[geomorph]

Originally Posted by memph

25) Veronica Tyrrell Parkette

World's ugliest street lights!

[gothamite]

my sister (much older than me) lived in Oakville when she first got married 55 years ago. She lived on Lambeth Road in a new house, which was very modest. I'm sure they paid less than 50K (if even anywhere near that) back then. She lived there only for a couple of years, but I know how affluent Oakville is now (although it was always known as an "old money" suburb, I think). Shocking prices for what look like regular middle class homes, but that's also all over the Toronto area. I know how Toronto just seems to never stop growing and they can't build these new developments fast enough, but it's sad to see the same look to all of this housing. As xzmattzx stated, "terribly monotonous."

[jdcamb]

I like it there. My Cousin Karen lives by the Pond. Its nice and quiet. Her place is comfy. Better then her place in Innisfil.