Islington Woods

The place

From the trail along the East Humber the houses appear above the treeline on the ridge, long rooflines and chimneys, and then the forest closes in again. That is the view most people have of Islington Woods without knowing its name. From Islington Avenue it reads as a stretch of entrance pillars and wide-set driveways between Langstaff Road and Rutherford Road, with Boyd Conservation Area beyond. Woodbridge grew as a mill village on the Humber, and this is the part of it that kept the valley.

The neighbourhood is a subdivision, planned and built in phases from the 1980s, but the land beneath it was laid out by the river. The lots follow the curve of the valley rather than the grid, the streets end in courts at the top of bank, and the oldest trees on the back lots were there before any of the houses. It is a few minutes from the old Woodbridge core at Woodbridge Avenue and Market Lane, and a few more from Highway 7 and the north end of Highway 427, which is a large part of why it has kept its standing while the rest of Vaughan grew around it.

The houses

Most of the stock dates from the 1980s through the early 2000s. These are two-storey detached houses, almost all of them brick or stone, in the traditional and Mediterranean styles that Woodbridge builders and their clients favoured: hipped roofs, arched windows, double doors under a portico, a three-car garage turned to the side where the lot allowed. Interiors were built generously, with two-storey foyers and formal rooms, and many have been renovated through at least once.

On the valley courts the pattern has shifted. There the lot is worth more than the house, and over the past decade a steady run of originals have come down and been replaced with custom homes, usually larger and lower, with the main living spaces and the primary suite turned toward the trees. Transitional and modern designs now sit beside the Mediterranean originals without anyone finding that odd. A handful of low-rise condominium buildings on Islington Avenue itself serve owners who have sold a house here and wanted to stay in the neighbourhood.

Streets and lots

The streets are short, curved and quiet, and the names are a roll of Woodbridge’s building era: Woodland Trail Court, Millrun Crescent, Wycliffe Avenue and their neighbours. Frontages are wide by Vaughan standards, and the valley-backing lots are deep, often with a usable table of land before the slope begins. Interior lots are conventional in shape and easier to build on.

Any property on the valley edge is subject to Toronto and Region Conservation Authority regulation, which fixes how close a new structure, pool or retaining wall may come to the top of bank. Before pricing a rebuild, a buyer should have a current survey, a slope stability opinion where the bank is steep, and a conversation with the authority. The result is almost always a house that steps down toward the valley rather than one that towers over it, which is what owners here want anyway.

Living here

The valley is the daily amenity. Boyd Conservation Area opens off Islington Avenue south of Rutherford Road, with picnic grounds, forest and river trails, and the William Granger Greenway runs north from there to Kleinburg, roughly six kilometres through woods and meadow, passing directly behind the subdivision. Dog walkers and runners use the stretch near Rutherford Road all year.

Golf is close: the National Golf Club of Canada, a private course on Clubhouse Road, is minutes away, and Copper Creek and the courses around Kleinburg are a short drive north. For shops, the old Woodbridge core along Woodbridge Avenue has cafés, bakeries and restaurants around Market Lane, and the larger retail of Highway 7 and Weston Road is ten minutes east. Downtown Toronto is reached by Highway 427 or Highway 400 to the 401, and Pearson Airport is a direct run down the 427. Elementary-age children in much of the neighbourhood attend Pine Grove Public School. School boundaries change, so buyers should confirm designated schools with the board.

Buying and selling in Islington Woods

Houses here change hands slowly. Many owners are the original purchasers or their children, and a court may go years without a sale, so comparables are few and sometimes several years old. Pricing a property means separating the land from the building: on the valley courts a buyer is paying for the lot, the trees and the view, and the condition of a thirty-year-old house matters less than its footprint and setbacks. On interior streets the calculation is closer to a normal resale, and a well-renovated original holds its value.

Sellers of valley properties should expect interest from builders as well as end users, and should decide early whether they want a public listing or a quieter sale through the brokerage network. Both routes work here; the right one depends on the house and the owner’s timeline. Buyers should know that some of the best lots are sold before they are advertised. Tell us what you are looking for and we will send you what fits, including houses that are never advertised.

Islington Woods is Woodbridge at its most settled: a planned neighbourhood that happened to be laid on the edge of a river valley, and has spent four decades growing into it. The houses are being renewed one court at a time. The valley, protected by the conservation authority and Boyd’s boundaries, stays as it is.