Taunton

Taunton occupies the northeast corner of urban Oshawa: Taunton Road East on the south, Conlin Road East on the north, Wilson Road North on the west and Townline Road North, the Clarington line, on the east, which is how the City's Taunton Part II Plan defines its planning area. Harmony Creek runs north to south through the middle and Harmony Road North is the spine. The TRREB map may assign the strip between Wilson and Ritson roads to Samac instead, so treat the western edge as approximate.

Housing in Taunton follows the plan's density map. Along Taunton Road East and Harmony Road North, where higher densities were steered to support transit, you find townhouse blocks, stacked towns and a few low-rise apartment buildings; behind them the streets are detached two-storeys. Pockets near Taunton Road and Wilson Road date from the late 1990s and early 2000s, with 40-foot lots, double garages and brick fronts; the streets north toward Conlin Road and east toward Grandview Street North and Townline Road were built through the 2010s with narrower lots, patterned brick, stone accents and porches set close to the sidewalk in the new-urbanist manner the City asked for. Bungalows are rare. Lots backing the Harmony Creek valley and the stormwater ponds carry the biggest premiums and the most conservation rules. A few older farmhouses survive on Conlin and Townline, and the last open parcels near Conlin are still being subdivided while the road is rebuilt.

Two PULSE lines end here: the 915 arrives along Taunton Road from Ajax GO and the 916 along Rossland Road and Harmony Road from Pickering Parkway Terminal, both terminating at Harmony and Conlin. Local routes 405, 410, 419 and 423 tie Wilson, Harmony, Grandview and Townline to the Delpark Homes Centre, Harmony Terminal and the Oshawa Centre, and weekend 407B and 407C trips reach Ritson Road. Drivers hit the Highway 407 interchange at Harmony Road within a couple of minutes, take Taunton Road east to the toll-free Highway 418, or head south on Harmony to Highway 401. Oshawa GO is about 25 minutes away by car; the planned Central Oshawa station at 500 Howard Street will be closer once the Bowmanville extension opens. Conlin Road East between Kurelo Drive and Harmony Road is under reconstruction from August 2025 to December 2026, adding sidewalks, multi-use paths and a roundabout at Grandview.

Public elementary schools in or beside the community include Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Forest View, Sherwood, Norman G. Powers and Seneca Trail, all Durham District School Board, with École Jeanne Sauvé reportedly the French immersion option; Maxwell Heights Secondary School at 1100 Coldstream Drive, opened September 2009 on a modified calendar that starts a week early, is the public high school. Durham Catholic District School Board runs St. Kateri Tekakwitha at 1425 Coldstream Drive and St. John Bosco at 1600 Clearbrook Drive, feeding Monsignor Paul Dwyer Catholic High School across town on Stevenson Road North. Kingsway College, a private Seventh-day Adventist boarding school founded in 1903, sits south on Leland Road. Attendance areas shift as new streets open, and the DDSB has been adjusting north Oshawa secondary boundaries for 2026, so ask each board which school a specific address feeds.

Harmony Valley Conservation Area is the big green space: more than 60 hectares of valley and natural trails along Harmony Creek, run by the City, with the 10-hectare Clare Ford off-leash area in its southern part. The Delpark Homes Centre, opened as the Legends Centre and later renamed for its sponsor, gives the community four ice pads, a pool, a fitness centre, an indoor walking track and the Oshawa Public Libraries branch at 1661 Harmony Road North. Neighbourhood parks and school fields are spaced through the subdivisions as the plan required, and the open-space corridors carry walking and cycling routes toward Conlin and Taunton. Shopping is car-based: the plazas around Taunton and Harmony, more along Taunton Road toward Ritson, and the Oshawa Centre about 20 minutes away. Lakeridge Health Oshawa is a similar drive south on Simcoe Street. Courtice, across Townline Road in Clarington, adds its own plazas and the Courtice Community Complex.

Taunton fits families who want a two-storey house from the last twenty-five years with a rec centre, an arena and a high school inside the community, and commuters who lean on Highway 407 and the toll-free 418 rather than the train. It works for dog owners who want Harmony Valley on foot. It is less suited to anyone who wants to walk to a coffee shop or catch frequent transit from the door: Taunton Road and Harmony Road carry the buses and the traffic, and the interior streets are quiet but far from them. Buyers wanting bungalows or older character homes should look south of Rossland.