The transformation of Yonge St. looking north would create a scene like this.
Newmarket
July 22, 2008 09:40 AM
Sean Pearce, Staff Writer
York Region and the Town of Newmarket hope residents find their vision for the future of the Yonge Street and Davis Drive corridors a moving experience.
Changes — and they’re going to be big — proposed for the area will gradually transform the face of the venerable thoroughfares and leave a new Newmarket in its place, Newmarket Mayor Tony Van Bynen said.
Among the more dramatic metamorphoses planned is to create bus-only Viva rapidways up Yonge Street and across Davis Drive.
The hope, Mr. Van Bynen said, is that better transit will encourage commuters to park the car, hop on transit and help alleviate congestion, especially along Davis.
“We’re planning for the future and for years to come,” he said.
“If Davis Drive isn’t the worst when it comes to traffic congestion, than it’s one of the worst.”
It’s a real priority, he said, as more and more people will make use of Davis to get to Southlake Regional Health Centre once the regional cancer centre opens in 2009.
In the four years following, trips to the facility are expected to increase from 15,000 per year to more than 100,000, so better transit can’t wait.
“Davis Drive is already rush hour every hour and worse between 4 and 6 (p.m.),” Mr. Van Bynen said.
“If people try hard enough, they’ll find this is all about the bigger picture. We can’t let the little things get in the way.”
Vice-president of the York Region Rapid Transit Corporation, Mary Frances Turner, agreed with Mr. Van Bynen that what is being proposed for Davis and Yonge will indeed change the face of downtown Newmarket.
For starters, routes will be widened by about seven metres to accommodate the dedicated rapidways and the streets will eventually be lined with sidewalks, trees and mixed-use buildings featuring shops, cafes and restaurants on the main level and residences above.
“You can really begin to break down how people see our urban streets,” Ms Turner said. “Every merchant in between Yonge Street and the hospital will have a new living room. Businesses will be on Davis Drive because they want to be and not because they have to be.”
Both Ms Turner and Mr. Van Bynen agree improving transit along Davis and Yonge will be among the first steps toward greater intensification, as laid out in the province’s Places to Grow legislation and the town’s official plan.
It’s all about creating an experience, Ms Turner said, and making our roads more than just a means of getting some place. Davis Drive can become a destination, too.
Despite all of the benefits cited, Mr. Van Bynen said he recognized the transformation of downtown Newmarket may not be a hit with everyone.
It’s definitely a big step, he said, and a necessary one, but the changes will endeavour to preserve the character of the surrounding neighbourhoods as defined in the offical plan.
To that end, some older structures of historical value along Davis and Yonge will be moved to facilitate the widening of the roads. The plan really is to respect the past, while still creating the Newmarket of the future, Mr. Van Bynen said.
“Rather than creating problems, we’re creating solutions,” he said.
“There’s going to be some growing pains and an adjustment period, no question. But if a baby stopped trying to walk the first time he fell, then he’d still be crawling. We have to talk not about what Newmarket is, but rather about what it could be,” the mayor said.
York University professor and co-ordinator of the urban studies program, Douglas Young, said Newmarket is definitely moving in the right direction when it comes to planning its future development and transit infrastructure.
In fact, the things being proposed, he added, are actually overdue.
Putting up more houses and driving everywhere has not been sustainable for a long time, Mr. Young said. The development now being discussed will definitely help improve the quality of life in town and the rapidways — aside from helping people get around more quickly — will also send a message transit is taken seriously.
“I think transit has to be reliable, affordable and comfortable,” Mr. Young said. “I think in a place like Newmarket, the challenge is getting people who have a choice of whether to drive or not to get out of the car and onto a transit vehicle.”
The powers that be, however, are probably correct in assuming their plans will be met with some opposition, Mr. Young said. People are often skeptical of major changes and new ideas, so proper communication will be of critical importance.
“They should definitely hold public meetings so people can get information and ask questions,” Mr. Young said. “This shouldn’t just be an order handed down from city hall or the planning department. I think we really need to ask, ‘How would you like Newmarket to change and what kind of place would you like it to be?’”
Apart from getting the public on board, transforming Newmarket into a transit mecca will take some serious political will, Mr. Young said. A vision must be chosen, encouraged and, eventually, made reality. It also has to be well-planned.
“We can’t just embrace an entirely new way of doing things and then say, ‘Whoops, we made a mistake,’” Mr. Young said.
That’s one of Mr. Van Bynen’s key points when he speaks about the transformation of Newmarket.
Failure is simply not an option when future prosperity is at stake.
“We have to get it right,” he said.
And it seems as though all involved are serious about that. The plan calls for the rapidways to be built along Yonge in Newmarket, north past Davis and then on Davis from Yonge into the hospital.
Eventually, the hope is they will stretch up to Green Lane along Yonge and all the way to Hwy. 404. For now, however, Davis and the hospital will do fine.
According to Ms Turner, the political will is definitely there and a significant amount of planning, such as environmental assessments and other prerequisites, has already been done, thanks to a $100-million investment from the provincial transportation planning body, Metrolinx.
Building the rapidways will cost at least that much, but it could be completed as quickly as within the next five years if all goes well.
By 2013, transit users could get from Yonge to Southlake in just four minutes with a bus coming along the route every four minutes, as well.
As the rapidway network grows and transit becomes faster and more efficient, Newmarket and the whole region will benefit, Mr. Van Bynen said.
The time to get started is now.
“If you could step on a Viva bus and get to Finch Station in Toronto quickly and comfortably, then Newmarket becomes that much more attractive,” he said.
“We have a world-class hospital here; we need a world-class transit system.”