Urban Design Guidelines - Employment Areas - Town of Ajax

EMPLOYMENT AREAS URBAN DESIGN GUIDELINESsame vein, buildings proposed on sites adjacent toHighway 401 shall be designed so that they front onthe Highway and exemplify high quality designfeatures including built form, landscaping, andsignage – in other words, treatment that is equal, ifnot superior, to that intended for prestigedevelopment where building façade(s) andlandscaping has frontal exposure to an arterialroad.”Buildings with exposure to streets on two or threesides will consider the priority of street frontages inthe quality of their appearance. Highway 401 willhave first priority followed by arterials, then localroads.Where natural/ existing grades may effectivelyscreen parking, servicing, or storage areas fromview, they may be located flexibly on a site.The Highway 401 corridor is a special opportunity forseveral reasons:• Highway 401 is one of the primary routes linkingAjax to the GTA and points beyond.• Employment lands flanking Highway 401 cancreate a positive and unique image for Ajaxwithin the GTA.• Employment lands exist at the east and westgateways to Ajax along Highway 401.• The railway is located immediately south ofHighway 401, and is actively used both forfreight and passenger purposes. The GO TrainStation is located along Highway 401.o Active freight trains may create animage of ‘Ajax at work’.o There is an opportunity to create apositive impression and interestingexperience for passengers of GO orVIA.Priority of frontages for locating high qualitydesign features, as well as parking, servicingand storage areas.It is important that the treatment of the Highway 401corridor positively reinforce its many roles as agateway or first impression of Ajax. It goes beyondthe employment lands themselves. The imageestablished along Highway 401 is a critical townwidecomponent of defining the Town. That is, theexperience of the Highway 401 corridor is key tocommunicate a clear civic identity, and thus is to betreated with care.• Provide a landscape treatment that can beperceived while traveling at high speed. Thismay involve large, simple, repetitive and/or boldforms.JULY 2006 57