Northwest Ajax

Northwest Ajax takes in the post-1990s subdivisions north of Rossland Road and west of Salem Road North, running up past Taunton Road toward the Highway 407 corridor and west to the Duffins Creek ravine along the Pickering side. Its organizing streets are Westney and Harwood running north, Ravenscroft Road and Williamson Drive West. Some guides begin the community at Taunton rather than Rossland and hand the streets between them to Central or Central West, so the southern edge is approximate.

The earliest streets, just north of Rossland Road West and along the southern end of Ravenscroft Road, were built around the turn of the 2000s: two-storeys of three and four bedrooms with brick fronts, attached double garages and lots wider than the later phases. Moving north toward Williamson Drive West and Taunton Road, the mid-2000s and 2010s phases bring stone-and-brick elevations, nine-foot ceilings, larger kitchens open to a great room and lots that narrowed as land prices rose, with some houses on thirty-foot frontages sharing a driveway with a neighbour. The newest pockets north of Taunton and near the 407 include the final builder releases of the late 2010s and some townhouse-heavy blocks. Freehold townhouses line the collector roads throughout, usually three bedrooms over a single garage, and stacked or condominium rows sit at the corners near Westney, Rossland and Taunton. Basements are mostly unfinished from the builder, which is why so many carry owner-finished space and, increasingly, registered second units.

Highway 407 crosses the northern edge of the community with an interchange at Westney Road and, reportedly, one at Salem Road, which makes Markham, Vaughan and the airport corridor a toll-road drive and is the main reason many households chose the area. The 401 is reached south on Westney or Harwood, and the 412 by heading east on Taunton to Lake Ridge Road. Ajax GO is a fifteen-minute drive down Westney in normal traffic, longer at the morning peak; PULSE 915 on Westney and Taunton, PULSE 916 on Rossland and the 216 along Harwood connect the community to the station and to Oshawa, and the 216C variant reportedly runs along Williamson Drive. Within the subdivisions, multi-use paths follow the hydro corridors and stormwater ponds, and the Duffins Creek trail on the western edge gives a longer route toward Greenwood, but most errands are a drive.

Schools were built as the phases opened. The elementary schools reportedly serving the area, all Durham District School Board, include Dr. Roberta Bondar, Nottingham, Alexander Graham Bell and Da Vinci public schools, with Vimy Ridge and Lincoln Alexander reportedly covering the northern streets, and J. Clarke Richardson Collegiate, at the community's eastern edge on Harwood Avenue North, takes most public secondary students. Catholic coverage, meaning Durham Catholic District School Board sites, reportedly comes from St. Josephine Bakhita and St. Catherine of Siena Catholic schools, with Notre Dame Catholic Secondary School as the Catholic high school. French immersion sits at designated public schools that have moved as the north filled in, and the Viamonde and MonAvenir boards bus to their Pickering schools. Lines get redrawn by both boards, so check which school the exact house feeds. Half an hour east in Oshawa are Ontario Tech and the main Durham College campus.

Parks here are the newest in Ajax: neighbourhood parks with splash pads, playgrounds and basketball courts in each phase, stormwater ponds ringed by paths, and sports fields at the schools, with the Ajax Sportsplex turf fields and the Audley Recreation Centre a drive east across Harwood in Northeast Ajax rather than here. The McLean Community Centre south of Rossland on Magill Drive is the closest indoor pool and arena for most streets. Shopping sits at the main corners: grocery-anchored plazas reportedly at Westney and Rossland and at Taunton and Westney, with more along Rossland Road toward Harwood, and Costco and the rest of the Durham Centre strip fifteen minutes south on Kingston Road. West of the community, Greenwood Conservation Area and the Pickering Museum Village at Greenwood are a ten-minute drive up Westney for trails, picnics and a look at the region's past, and the Duffins Creek ravine forms the community's green edge. For hospital care, Lakeridge Health Ajax Pickering waits down Harwood below the 401.

Northwest Ajax suits families after a post-2000 house, double garage, four bedrooms, open kitchen, who accept a drive for nearly everything and who benefit from the 407 for work in York Region or Peel. It is popular with multigenerational households, since the larger plans and the finished basements accommodate them, and with buyers priced out of Pickering's newer areas. It suits poorly anyone who wants mature trees, a walkable main street, a quick hop to the GO train or a wide lot; anyone sensitive to the noise of the 407 or Taunton Road should also look at the interior streets rather than the edges.