Even the far fringes of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) are not immune to the region's onslaught of vertical intensification, as a new proposal aims to bring a pair of tall towers to the very edge of Markham's urban sprawl.

The proposal at 9900 Markham Road, known as Markham Gold, calls for two condo towers and four blocks of stacked townhomes on an approximately 1.8-hectare (4.3-acre) plot of undeveloped land, detailed in a late 2022 development application filed with the City of Markham.

The site is a somewhat weird spot in that it is located just a few blocks north of Mount Joy GO station on a stretch primed for transit-oriented intensification, but is also situated just south of protected Greenbelt lands and pastoral farmscapes.

Only a few hundred metres north of where these towers would rise, you can still find farmlands where crops are grown.

Despite the nearby rural landscape, provincial planning policy dictates that density should, and almost certainly will, be built along this major road served by a GO station.

In place of the current vacant lot, developer Sunny Communities intends to build a pair of apartment towers with heights of 27 and 21 storeys, designed by Wallman Architects, along with townhome blocks designed by Guthrie Muscovitch Architects.

Designed as a series of stacked boxes with tapered rear elevations, the towers transition their bulk down to meet the smaller scale of the planned townhomes and existing subdivisions to the west, and retail to the south.

The taller of the pair would be built along the east edge of the property against Markham Road, rising 27 storeys and containing 374 units.

The shorter tower would rise 21 storeys and contain an additional 276 apartments.

Combined with the 112 stacked townhomes planned to the west, the complex would inject 762 residential units concentrated into a compact site, in an area currently dominated by sprawling suburban subdivisions.