Village at York

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Village at York is a residential neighbourhood located in northwest Toronto, Canada, within the city's York University Heights demographic area.

The Village is one of the last major new-home developments within the City of Toronto including condominium townhouses, semi-detached and detached homes. First residents moved into the first phase of approximately 550 homes in the summer of 2005 and some homes have not yet been occupied by their first owners. A second phase was recently announced and will add about 300 more homes.

There are a few interesting characteristics of the Village:

• It sits on land purchased from York University, within the boundaries of the city's secondary plan for York, and in some ways is still considered part of the university community. First-time buyers were given no-cost memberships to York's athletic facilities and privileges at its libraries. Many residents of the Village are York students and staff.
• The development's design is based on what is called "new urbanism", the features of which include high density, garages opening to laneways in the back, and plenty of balconies and terraces.
• By being near the university it's very well served by public transit, including a Toronto transit express bus between the university and the Downsview subway station, and a large regional terminal for GO Transit, York Region Transit and Viva . There is significant movement towards bringing the subway to York, which would result in having a station (Keele-Finch) within 500m of the Village. But that won't happen until 2013 at the earliest.

The Village is served by a residents' group representing both renters and homeowners, which was incorporated in mid-2006. The Village at York Residents Association Inc. maintains its own website, containing news and local business listings.