Cornell, Markham

Cornell
Planned Community
"New urbanism" storefronts in Cornell
Cornell within Markham
Coordinates: 43°53′30″N 79°13′30″W / 43.89167°N 79.22500°W / 43.89167; -79.22500
Country	Canada
Province	Ontario
Regional municipality	York
City	Markham
Established	1997
Government
• MP	Helena Jaczek Markham—Stouffville)
• MPP	Paul Calandra (Markham—Stouffville)
• Councillors	Andrew Keyes (Ward 5)
Population  (2011)
• Total	9,880

Cornell is a neighbourhood in northeast Markham, Ontario and bounded by Highway 407, 16th Avenue, Ninth Line, and the Donald Cousens Parkway. The 2011 population of this area was 9,880. Adding Cornell North's 2,178 (from 16th Avenue to Donald Cousens Parkway) it has 12,058 residents.^[1]

One of the original settlers in the area that is today Cornell was Christian Reesor, who settled there with his family. Their original homestead was on Reesor Road. The name 'Cornell' derives from the maiden name of the wife of Christian Reesor's youngest son, who continued to live at the family homestead.^[2]

The area had initially been settled by Peter Reesor, who is credited as the founder of Markham, but many other properties would be owned by Reesors' as well into the mid to late mid 19th century.^[3] Cornell's name was selected in 1999, and is named for the Cornell family, headed by William C. Cornell (1766-1860), which came to Canada from Rhode Island in 1799, and eventually settled in Markham.^[4]

Cornell was conceived in the early 1990s planning process by the town of Markham. Unlike other Markham neighbourhoods, Cornell is a specially-designed planned community. US firm Duany Plater-Zyberk and Associates worked on designing Cornell as a new urbanist community in 1994, as a departure from conventional subdivision design; with a grid street pattern with an on-street retail corridor (more detail below). Development began in 1997.^[5]

Most of the houses are townhomes, semi-detached, or detached houses with garages at the rear. The communities are built with central amenities in order to contain suburban sprawl. Cornell was seen by then-Markham Town Council as a way to deter the ongoing sprawl by encouraging residential density. The community, particularly Cornell Village, is designed as a walkable neighbourhood with a variety of housing types and retail. Cornell Village, between Highway 7 and 16th Avenue, is fully populated with medium density residential. The southern section of Cornell (south of Highway 7), however, is not fully populated, and remained as a wild field and a farm east of Bur Oak, but began re-developed as South Cornell in 2022.^[6] In 2012, the City of Markham completed Fire Station 99 to serve the area.

Cornell Terminal serves Cornell with several York Region Transit, VIVA, and GO Transit routes:

YRT/Viva:

• Route 1 Highway 7
• Route 2 Milliken (weekends only)
• Route 9 Ninth Line
• Route 14 14th Avenue
• Route 16 16th Avenue
• Route 18 Bur Oak
• Route 25 Major Mackenzie
• Route 522 Markham Community
• Viva Purple

GO Transit:

• Route 52 Oshawa - Hwy 407 Bus Terminal
• Route 56 Oshawa - Oakville

The plans for the new terminal include connections with Durham Region Transit.

YRT Route 303 Bur Oak Express also provides an express service connecting Cornell to Finch Bus Terminal, bypassing Cornell Terminal.

Major roads and highways in the community include:

• Highway 7 (York Regional Road 7 runs east-west that runs through the centre of Cornell from Donald Cousens Parkway to Ninth Line. Formerly provincial Highway 7, it was downloaded to York Region.
• 16th Avenue (York Regional Road 73) runs east-west on the north side of Cornell.
• 9th Line (York Regional Road 69) runs north-south on the west side of Cornell.
• Donald Cousens Parkway (York Regional Road 48) runs north-south on the east side of Cornell.

Cornell Centre Boulevard is a collector road in the east side of Cornell that runs north-south from Highway 7 to 16th Avenue.^[7] The section north of Cornell Community Park to 16th Avenue was formerly part of the original Markham By-pass to divert traffic from Markham Village before the present Donald Cousens Parkway was constructed, with the section south of it built as a new road diverging to the southwest (This severed the bypass, with the southern section becoming part of William Forster Road, leaving part of its former right-of-way passing through the present park.).^[8][9]

Bur Oak Avenue is a secondary road in the north side of Cornell mainly north-south and curves around north of 16th Avenue to Ninth Line.

• Highway 407 is an east-west highway on the southern boundary of Cornell with two exits (Donald Cousens and Ninth Line)

Cornell Community Centre features a library, community rooms and an indoor swimming pool

There are also a number of city-owned parks, including:

• Cornell Community Park is a large sports park containing two baseball diamonds, two soccer fields, and six pickleball courts
• Cornell Village Park is community park located next to Cornell Village Public School
• Donald Cousens Parkway North Berm and Flatlands - naturalized area on the northeast corner of Ninth Line and Donald Cousens Parkway in Upper Cornell
• Grand Cornell Park - features clock tower and bell commemorating the Reesor settlers in the area; park is unfinished due to stoppage of development east of the Little Rouge Creek
• Oakmoor Pond - manmade marshes that drains Little Rouge River
• New Union Park - renamed and signs installed after local veteran McCowan Freeman in 2017
• Burkholder Parkette
• Shania Johnstone Parkette

• Cornell Village P.S: accepts students mostly from Cornell.
• Little Rouge P.S: located in Cornell North. Students living in Grand Cornell, Cornell Rouge, Cornell and Upper Cornell and students from the rural areas to the north and east attend Little Rouge Public School.
• Black Walnut P.S: The significance of the school's name is from the fact that Black Walnut trees grow best in deep, fertile soil. When settlers came to Markham, more than two centuries ago, they saw Black Walnut trees growing. They knew this was a good sign that they had found an area that would be good for farming. More than 65 German Pennsylvanian families, many of them Mennonites, came to Southern York Region because of, indirectly, the Black Walnut.^[2]
• St. Joseph C.E.S. - opened in 2014
• Bill Hogarth Secondary School - opened in September 2017 with a secondary French Immersion program serving east Markham and Whitchurch-Stouffville, located on Bur Oak Avenue near Cornell Community Centre.^[10]
• The York Region Catholic School Board had a site reserved for a secondary school on the east side of Bur Oak Avenue facing the Cornell library.
  • This site has now been proposed to be redeveloped for two 13 story mixed residential and commercial buildings, and other residential developments.^[11]
• YRDSB has a site on the future extension of Bur Oak Avenue south of Highway 7.

• Thomson Memorial Park - home to Charles Cornell House built by Charles Cornell, a descendant of William Cornell in 1858 (relocated from Markham Road)