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A THE VILLAGE OF UNIONVILLE City of Markham MAIN STREET UNIONVILLE torti gallas and partners michael morrissey COMMUNITY VISION PLAN VERSION 3.1 November 4, 2014. S Acknowledgements Prepared for Mayor The City of Markham Frank Scarpitti ENT Main Street Unionville Committee M Lead Consultant Masterplanner & Architects Chair Torti Gallas and Partners Regional Councillor Jim Jones GE Michael Morrissey Councillor Don Hamilton (Vice-Chair) D Committee Members Consultant Team Rob Kadlovski (UBIA) LE Ferris + Associates Landscape Architecture Brian Brewer (URA) Gibbs Planning Group Retail Consultant W Ann Laxton (UHS) Arup (Parking) Charlie Deacon (UVA) Nelson Nygaard Traffic Engineer David Nesbitt (Heritage Markham) no Daywriter Communications & Editor Paul Vasilkovsky (UBIA) Seamless Collaborative Retail Consulting Robert Fleischaker (UVA & UVC) David Johnston Village Architect Jeff Morris (URA) CK Adam Cook Editor Larry Mariani (UBIA) A George Illopoulos (UBIA) Charrette Team June 4-9, 2013. Mark Smith (Alternate-UBIA) Crosby Community Arena Charrette Team : Town Development Services Commission Staff Robert Goodill David Johnston Michael Morrissey Roy Chan Commissioner of Development Services Daniel Ashtary Ken Tai Jim Baird Eric Aulestia Commissioner of Community Services Laurence Brady Brenda Librecz and Staff Chiawat Polanin Organization Team : Director of Planning and Urban Design Atul Sharma Judi McIntyre Rino Mostacci and Staff Paul Ferris UBIA members Senior Development Manager Kay Laidlaw Bob Evans Biju Karumanchery Ted Merrick Mary Creighton Hilary Holden Francine Perinet Manager of Heritage Planning & Staff Annika Hui Rob Kadlovski Regan Hutcheson, Study Project Manager Christie Day Sandra Tam George Duncan, Senior Heritage Planner Robert Hyland Mary Pan Peter Wokval, Heritage Planner © Original photographs by Michael Morrissey and Robert Hyland are the property of each photogra- 2 pher and may not be used for any other purpose without written permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE TO THE VISION 4 A Brief History 6 A Year in the Village 8 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 14 I. THE GROUND WORK 22 Vision Plan Overview 24 Public Process 30 Urban Retail 32 Challenges and Opportunities 36 Precedent Villages 46 II. THE PLAN 58 Vision Plan Focus Areas 64 Highway 7 Gateway 66 Stiver Mill Area 76 Main Street Village Core 86 West Side South 90 West Side North 96 East Side 108 Village Square 118 Crosby Community Centre and Park 122 Toogood Pond Park and Amphitheatre 132 Additional Concepts 140 Streetscape Strategy 142 Main Street Program & Parking 144 Environmental Sustainability 148 Rouge River Walk 152 III. THE WAY FORWARD 154 Transformation - Conclusion 156 Recommendations 160 Community 164 3 ION S E TO THE VI E TO C PREFA CITY OF MARKHAM torti gallas and partners 4 michael morrissey © Torti Gallas and Partners, Inc. | Spring Street, th floor, Silver Spring, Maryland | .. PREFACE TO THE VISION elcome to the heritage village of crossing the street now and then and taking WUnionville, Ontario – and to a vision of short side trips to explore key details. how this extraordinary community can prosper well into the future. Our purpose is to learn what has been put in Historically rich and visually stunning, place over time, observe what is true today, and Unionville faces considerable challenges if it envision what could be for tomorrow. is to remain vibrant over the long term. This document evaluates those challenges in detail, identifies opportunities for improvement, and It should be noted that this is a vision plan recommends a set of interconnected solutions and that improvements and amenities, such as that can unfold over time. streetscapes, public washrooms, facilities (such as the amphitheatre), tree planting, renovation of the recycling depot, etc. are conceptual in nature. Implementation will depend upon feasibility of Following an Executive Summary and Plan infrastructure installation, as well as available Overview and Goals, this Vision Book presents funding and resources identified in the course of concepts for enhancing the community, plan review and implementation of the Masterplan unfolding in a series of focus areas and themes. over time. Additional future studies will be required to support the Community Vision Plan : The reader is invited to imagine we are taking • Transportation and Parking Study • Environmental Site Assessment an unhurried walk up through the heart of the • Master Environmental Servicing Study village. We’ll stroll north along Main Street • Functional Servicing Report from Highway 7 all the way to Toogood Pond, • Development and Phasing Plan • Secondary Plan and Design Guidelines CITY OF MARKHAM 5 torti gallas and partners michael morrissey © Torti Gallas and Partners, Inc. | Spring Street, th floor, Silver Spring, Maryland | .. PREFACE TO THE VISION michael morrissey michael partners gallas and torti MARKHAMCITY OF 6 A BRIEF History ike all good stories, this one starts a few In time, the settlers had wheat to grind and Lcenturies ago – in 1794, to be precise. livestock to feed. By the 1840s, the community centre moved southward with the building of the Hardy families emigrating from Germany and Union Mills, including two grist mills situated Pennsylvania, led by William Berczy, took along a more protected part of the Rouge, and advantage of free land grants. They began Unionville began to take shape. working the fertile, untouched farmland several miles north of “Muddy York,” the prim ancestor of modern Toronto. The area’s rich soil was well The rest of the story unfolds on our walk through fed by a network of creeks and streams, part of the focus areas. today’s extensive Rouge River system. The first hint of a village sprouted north of present-day Unionville, up Kennedy Road above 16th Avenue. Settler Philip Eckardt allowed his log cabin to double as a church. Soon a real church was built nearby. You can still find headstones from the late 1790s and early 1800s in the Bethesda Lutheran cemetery at the top of the hill. CITY OF MARKHAM 7 torti gallas and partners michael morrissey © Torti Gallas and Partners, Inc. | Spring Street, th floor, Silver Spring, Maryland | .. A YEAR IN THE VILLAGE ION S E TO THE VI E TO C PREFA CITY OF MARKHAM torti gallas and partners 8 michael morrissey © Torti Gallas and Partners, Inc. | Spring Street, th floor, Silver Spring, Maryland | .. A YEAR IN THE VILLAGE CITY OF MARKHAM 9 torti gallas and partners michael morrissey © Torti Gallas and Partners, Inc. | Spring Street, th floor, Silver Spring, Maryland | .. A YEAR IN THE VILLAGE ION S E TO THE VI E TO C PREFA CITY OF MARKHAM torti gallas and partners 10 michael morrissey © Torti Gallas and Partners, Inc. | Spring Street, th floor, Silver Spring, Maryland | .. A YEAR IN THE VILLAGE CITY OF MARKHAM 11 torti gallas and partners michael morrissey © Torti Gallas and Partners, Inc. | Spring Street, th floor, Silver Spring, Maryland | .. A YEAR IN THE VILLAGE ION S E TO THE VI E TO C PREFA CITY OF MARKHAM torti gallas and partners 12 michael morrissey © Torti Gallas and Partners, Inc. | Spring Street, th floor, Silver Spring, Maryland | .. A YEAR IN THE VILLAGE © Robert Hyland, Markham Jazz14 CITY OF MARKHAM 13 torti gallas and partners michael morrissey © Torti Gallas and Partners, Inc. | Spring Street, th floor, Silver Spring, Maryland | .. Y Executive Summary AR and sudden turn; in either case the village What is a village? People seem to know years ago studied the villages of his home is thereby transformed into a place; a one when they see one, and residents and country at the beginning of the post-World 2 place with a way in and a way out and visitors alike flock to Main Street Unionville War II development boom . Of course, 4 MM not merely an incident on the roadside. for its heritage village character. The City Main Street Unionville is a distinctly North (Emphases in original) U of Markham, in which Unionville sits, American—a distinctly Canadian—type proclaimed Main Street Unionville one S of village, but Sharp’s assertions ring true of four Heritage Districts, with rigorous nevertheless. According to him, there are Second we must look at the buildings. Of standards in place to protect the character three principal conditions that must be met the buildings themselves, Sharp notes: “A that makes this place special1. They, in a village, and we will address them one- manor house, a group of almshouses, a alongside the residents, business owners and by-one. tithe barn, a mill, an inn, a couple of shops, admirers of Unionville realize that there is may by accident or design be so situated UTIVE no other place quite like it in the GTA. C Firstly is layout: Of the several types of E villages Sharp classifies, Unionville is most Main Street Unionville is distinctly definitely a roadside village, as it exists X Unionville : The Village Evolved different—the buildings, the street; the way along one road: Main Street Unionville. E we interact with them and with each other Founded in 1794 to the north of its present This book is the story of a village. It is a when visiting—from the predominately location, by 1840 the founding of Union story told from a different perspective post-World War II development that Mills prompted development of the modern than a history book, though many surrounds it. As Markham and the GTA settlement we know today. The road historical facts are brought in to the continue to see incredible growth and new, servicing this settlement, notably, deviated narrative. Instead, this Community modern development, these distinctions slightly west from the original north-south Vision Plan for Main Street Unionville have become ever more heightened. Again Concession Road connecting the wilderness aims to tell the story of this Ontario we must ask: What is a village? Is it merely to Lake Ontario: this was to take advantage village’s past through its present— a place that is a ‘step back in time’, a short of a slight rise over the Bruce Creek because any village as beloved by its departure on a Saturday from the modern floodplain, protecting the nascent buildings3.

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