Samac

Samac is the north-central Oshawa community between Taunton Road and Conlin Road, taking in both sides of Simcoe Street North. On the City's community map it runs from the west branch of the Oshawa Creek, a few hundred metres west of Simcoe, east to Wilson Road North, with Ritson Road North and Somerville Street as the interior north-south streets. Conlin Road is the north line, so the university and college grounds at 2000 Simcoe Street North sit on the far side of it in Windfields, even though student-housing ads and some listing maps call the campus blocks Samac. Treat the Wilson Road edge as approximate, because TRREB may file the strip between Ritson and Wilson under Taunton.

Most of Samac's houses date from a building run that started west of Simcoe in the early 1980s and finished east of Ritson Road North around 2005. West of Simcoe, along Somerville Street and the courts feeding it, you find brick two-storeys with the garage tucked under a front bedroom, on frontages somewhere between 40 and 50 feet, plus a share of bungalows and back-splits from the opening phases. On the east side of Simcoe, the streets off Ormond Drive and the west end of Coldstream Drive are a decade newer, with double garages, main-floor family rooms and smaller yards. Between Ritson and Wilson the pockets nearest Taunton include rows of freehold townhouses and a handful of semis. Near Conlin Road the picture changes: low-rise and mid-rise condominium buildings, stacked townhouses and converted houses serve the campus, and several projects along Niagara Drive were designed from the outset for students. Older apartment condos from the 1980s stand near the Taunton and Simcoe corner, and the City's Samac Secondary Plan steers any further density toward Simcoe rather than the interior streets.

The 901 PULSE runs up Simcoe Street North, linking the North Campus Terminal to downtown and Lakeview Park all day, and the N2 night bus covers the same corridor after midnight. Along Taunton Road, the 915 PULSE heads for Ajax GO and the 905 for Whitby GO, while the 407 local runs up Ritson Road North and along Conlin to the terminal. From that terminal the 920 heads to Scarborough Centre at midday and the 921 does it as a peak express. Drivers reach Highway 407 at the Simcoe interchange in a few minutes and Highway 401 by dropping south on Simcoe or Ritson to the Ritson Road ramps, roughly a 15-minute run outside rush hour. Reaching Oshawa's GO station, off Bloor Street West, takes about as long. For cycling, the Joseph Kolodzie Oshawa Creek Bike Path follows the valley south from the north end of the city toward the lake, and Conlin Road's reconstruction is adding multi-use paths.

Durham District School Board's two elementaries here are Sherwood Public School at 633 Ormond Drive and Kedron Public School at 1935 Ritson Road North; Elsie MacGill on Greenhill Avenue and the French immersion centre at Jeanne Sauvé on Coldstream Drive sit a short distance east. Teenagers have gone to Maxwell Heights, the secondary school on Coldstream Drive, but a new north Oshawa high school opens in September 2026 with its own attendance area, so ask which one applies. On the Catholic side, pupils of the Durham Catholic board go to St. John Bosco Catholic School on Clearbrook Drive, reportedly within Samac, with St. Kateri Tekakwitha on Coldstream Drive nearby and Monsignor Paul Dwyer, west on Stevenson Road North, for the high school years. Viamonde and MonAvenir, the public and Catholic French-language boards, bus to their Oshawa schools. Boundaries shift, so confirm by street address before committing.

Camp Samac is private Scout land, but its wooded valley gives the community a green core, and Cedar Valley Conservation Area on the west branch of the creek adds public trails and a lookout over the ravine, with an off-leash area reportedly nearby. Kedron Dells Golf Club lies just north across Conlin on Ritson Road. The Oshawa Valley Botanical Gardens are not here; they sit downstream on Arena Street near Bond Street, a pleasant ride down the creek path. Daily errands happen at the grocery-anchored plazas around Simcoe and Taunton and along Taunton Road East, with the Oshawa Centre about 12 minutes south. The campus across Conlin works as a neighbourhood amenity: the Campus Ice Centre offers public skating, residents can reportedly buy memberships at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Centre, and the Campus Tennis Centre books courts to the public. Lakeridge Health Oshawa is a straight run down Simcoe, and north Oshawa's library branch, Northview on Beatrice Street East, is the closest for books.

Samac fits a household that wants an established house with grown trees, a public school a few streets away and frequent buses without paying for a brand-new subdivision. It works for campus staff who would rather walk to work, for parents buying a condo or stacked town for a student, and for investors who understand Oshawa's rental licensing rules. The trade-off is seasonal: the streets near Conlin fill with move-in traffic each September and empty in May, and parking and noise complaints follow. Buyers who want a five-bedroom new build should look at Windfields or Kedron, and anyone who needs to reach a GO platform on foot should look south.