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GO Transit is in the throes of major expansion. Examining how the system’s stations influence their surroundings, and how this, in turn, affects the suburbs, can provide a glimpse into the future of the GTA.<\/p>\n
As an example of the potential for what GO transit could do for the suburbs, Oakville Midtown is fertile fodder for the imagination. Oakville’s midtown provides several unique and highly desirable characteristics, including a large wooded ravine, natural heritage, and large-scale public land ownership. The exciting redevelopment plan for Oakville’s midtown is an example of how enhancing the areas around GO Transit stations (an initiative central to the Ontario government’s Places to Grow Act) could help fix the suburbs while at the same time solidifying the feasibility of the region’s existing transit infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Oakville’s Midtown Core development is centred on the Oakville GO station, in the area bound by the Sixteen Mile Creek, the QEW and the Oakville rail yards. The Midtown plan calls for a redrawn street grid, new civic facilities, an educational campus, and conversion of surface parking into two large garages. The area could host upwards of 5,500 new residences and around two million new square feet of office and commercial space by 2030. Designed to create a focus for the neighbourhood, the civic centre proposal includes a new town hall, marquee arena, and public square.<\/p>\n
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Exciting proposals also include centering the GO platforms over Trafalgar Road and connecting the station with the future Trafalgar Road Bus Rapid Transit Line between Midtown Oakville and the 407. To integrate the new community into the rest of the town (the area currently follows Oakville’s tradition of isolating residential areas from the QEW\/Railway corridor) the project also calls for new road connections and new mixed use and pedestrian\/cyclist crossings over the QEW. Surface parking will be reduced to a strip along the north side of the tracks, while the former parking lot will become a new high-density residential community. Commercial interest will be focused around Trafalgar Road. The east end of the area will be allotted for educational and employment uses.<\/p>\n
Converting what is now a 2,700 space surface parking lot and derelict industrial lands into a modern new community will be driven by orientation around high-order public transit. The Oakville Midtown has potential for this as a Metrolinx Hub. Oakville’s GO station is one of the busiest in the system and is also serviced by multiple GO bus routes, Amtrak and VIA services. A new Bus Rapid Transit route along Trafalgar would further enhance its position as the existing hub of Oakville Transit.<\/p>\n
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If the plan is to be fully realized, Oakville (and the suburbs as a whole) will first have to address fundamental challenges in changing the transportation habits of its residents. Although some of the ideas in the project may never see fruition, the concept represents considerable gains for a place like Oakville. Within a sprawling bedroom community, it is certainly a bold new discourse. It seems to be a cut above other failed suburban smart-growth initiatives (such as the Wal-Mart oriented uptown core, further up Trafalgar Road); new levels of pedestrian and transit orientation, as well as a focus on interconnections, give this project great cause for hope. The redevelopment was passed into policy in June 2009 as part of the city’s new Official Plan.<\/p>\n
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