Cornell proves density is not always ugly
Markham community shows what developers can achieve if willing to be creative
It predates Ontario’s growth plan. But Markham’s “new urbanist” Cornell community is still considered one of the Toronto region’s most attractive examples of intensified residential development.
A charming suburban fairy tale, it is a mix of single-family homes, with garages tucked back in laneways, and shop-fronted apartments built on walkable streets around a bucolic town square. Bounded by Donald Cousens Parkway, Hwy. 407, Ninth Line and Reesor Rd., Cornell puts the lie to those who believe density has to be ugly. It demonstrates what developers can do if they’re willing to be creative, said York Region chief planner Val Shuttleworth.
More than a decade since the first residents moved in, Cornell still has only about half the 40,000 population that was forecast, and there’s no timeline for building out the 10,000 housing units on the books.
But it already comes in at over 80 jobs and residents per hectare, the upgraded density targets being proposed for a provincial growth plan update expected next year.
Cornell, along with some similarly dense developments in Vaughan, Markham and East Gwillimbury, are flourishing because York foresaw the need for intensification before the province forced it on the region, said Shuttleworth. “Long before the province brought in the growth plan (in 2006) we were working on intensification, we were working on more compact communities in our urban expansion areas,” she said.
Ultimately, intensification should put people closer to jobs, but Shuttleworth admits that, even in Cornell, employment lags residential development.
“It doesn’t matter what politicians and planners do, the jobs always lag behind the residents. It takes patient money, patient developers to achieve the jobs,” said Shuttleworth.
Land has been reserved along Hwy. 7 for future office and commercial employment. Developers would like municipalities to convert employment lands to residential so they can realize a quicker return. Markham has been subject to several such applications.
There is some small commercial employment and some work attached to the schools and long-term care facilities in Cornell.
But staff at nearby Markham-Stouffville hospital aren’t included in the 80 jobs and hectares there, because it’s such an atypical land use.
Shuttleworth thinks those jobs won’t come until Viva Rapid Transit runs dedicated bus lanes there and the Pickering Airport is built.
Although a Viva bus terminal is planned for next year at Hwy. 7 and Ninth Line, south of the hospital, the bus lanes have a projected completion date of 2026 and aren’t yet funded.