Weston Downs

The place

Turn west off Weston Road between Langstaff and Rutherford and the traffic falls away within a block. The streets widen, the trees are thirty years tall, and the houses sit back behind lawns deep enough to hold a circular drive. This is Weston Downs, the part of East Woodbridge that was planned as its executive neighbourhood when the fields west of Weston Road were laid out in the late 1980s, and that has stayed one ever since.

The neighbourhood occupies a rough rectangle with Weston Road on the east, Rutherford Road to the north and Langstaff Road to the south, and Velmar Drive winding through the middle of it between Rutherford and Weston. It is a few minutes from Highway 400 and Highway 407, from Vaughan Mills at Rutherford and the 400, and from the retail along Weston Road, which is a large part of its appeal: an established, quiet neighbourhood that happens to be exceptionally well connected for drivers.

The houses

The stock is of a piece. Almost everything is detached and two storeys, built by Woodbridge’s production and semi-custom builders through the late 1980s and 1990s, in brick and stone with hipped roofs, arched windows, double-door entries and often a three-car garage. Floor plans are from the period: two-storey foyers, formal living and dining rooms, a family room off the kitchen and four or five bedrooms above. Lower levels were usually finished later, and many have been turned into second kitchens, gyms or suites for parents.

Because the first owners bought as families and many stayed, a good share of houses are still in their original hands or have been through a single sale. Renovation is more common than replacement. A typical listing has had its kitchen and bathrooms redone and its exterior refreshed, and buyers expect that. On the widest lots, however, the first custom rebuilds have appeared, and a handful of lots have changed hands as vacant land for new houses. It is early in that cycle, not late.

Streets and lots

Velmar Drive is the spine, and the courts and crescents off it hold the best lots. Frontages are wide for a Vaughan subdivision and lots run deep, which gives room for a pool, a cabana and a proper lawn behind the house, and gives a rebuild room to spread sideways rather than up. The streets curve, so few houses look straight down a road, and because the neighbourhood is bounded by arterials on three sides there is almost no through traffic.

There are no ravines here. That is a distinction from Islington Woods and Kleinburg, and it cuts both ways: no conservation authority setbacks to work around, and no valley view to pay for. Lots are regular in shape, surveys are straightforward, and the constraints on a new house are Vaughan’s zoning rules on height, coverage and setbacks rather than the slope of the land.

Living here

Weston Downs Park sits inside the neighbourhood, and the streets themselves are the main amenity for walkers; most of the daily errands are a short drive. Vaughan Mills, the big-box retail along Weston Road and Highway 7, and the shops and restaurants of old Woodbridge around Market Lane are all within ten minutes. Boyd Conservation Area and the Humber trails are a little farther west along Rutherford Road.

For commuters, Highway 400 is the quickest route south to the 401 and downtown, and Highway 407 runs east across the top of the city toward Markham and the 404. Rutherford GO on the Barrie line is a short drive east. Children attend schools in the East Woodbridge area under both the public and Catholic boards. School boundaries change, so buyers should confirm designated schools with the board.

The one thing to watch is the edge. The Weston Road corridor around Highway 7, to the south, is designated by Vaughan for higher-density development, and residents have been vocal about new condominium approvals nearby. Inside the neighbourhood, the streets are protected by their own low-rise zoning and are unlikely to change.

Buying and selling in Weston Downs

This is a more liquid market than the estate areas. Houses are similar enough in age and size that comparables exist, and a well-presented renovated original attracts families trading up from the newer, tighter subdivisions to the north and east. Pricing turns on lot width, the quality and recency of renovation, and the presence of a three-car garage and a finished lower level, roughly in that order.

For owners of the widest lots, there is a second audience: builders and end users looking for land. Those properties can sell for more as sites than as houses, and the decision about how to market them, publicly or through the brokerage network first, deserves a conversation before the sign goes up. For buyers who want an established street, a large lot and no conservation constraints, this is one of the most sensible addresses in Vaughan. Tell us what you are looking for and we will let you know when a lot or a house comes up, whether or not it is ever listed.

Weston Downs is what a 1990s executive subdivision becomes when the trees mature and the owners stay. It is not an estate district and does not pretend to be. It is a quiet, well-made neighbourhood on big lots, minutes from two highways, at the moment when its first rebuilds are beginning.