Highbush

Highbush is the northwest residential community between Altona Road on the west and Rosebank Road on the east, with Finch Avenue running through its middle: the Altona Forest and the Highbush Trail streets lie south of Finch, and the newer streets along Altona Road toward the hydro corridor lie north of it. The Rouge valley and Rouge National Urban Park are beyond Altona Road, with the Rouge Park community along the valley edge and Rougemount to the southwest. Guides place the community's northern and southern lines differently, some starting it at Finch Avenue, so treat both as roughly drawn.

Highbush housing splits by decade. South of Finch Avenue, the 1980s and 1990s streets around Highbush Trail, Woodview Avenue and Pine Grove Avenue carry two-storey detached houses of four bedrooms with two-car garages on lots wider and more irregular than the Pickering norm, many backing onto Altona Forest, the Petticoat Creek ravines or the hydro corridor; the earliest houses near Sheppard Avenue and Twyn Rivers Drive are 1960s and 1970s bungalows and splits on deep lots, some rebuilt as large custom houses. North of Finch along Altona Road, the 2000s and 2010s subdivisions run to compact two-storey detached houses on narrower lots, freehold townhouse rows with rear garages and lanes, and a few condominium townhouse groups at the Altona Road frontage. Older estate-style lots survive on Altona Road itself and on the concession-road stubs toward the corridor. Check tree-protection rules and TRCA setbacks on forest-edge lots, and the common-elements agreements on the newer lane towns.

Highbush is the far end of Pickering for transit, so most households drive. Whites Road is the route to the Highway 401 interchange, about ten minutes, and north to the 407; Kingston Road via Altona Road or Rosebank Road is the alternative, with the 401 also reachable through the Port Union interchange on the Toronto side. GO riders split between Pickering GO on Bayly Street and Rouge Hill GO at Port Union Road in Scarborough, which is often the shorter drive from these streets. Durham Region Transit's local service along Finch Avenue and Altona Road ends at the Parkway terminal beside the enclosed GO bridge, and Kingston Road's 900 Pulse is a drive or a long walk south. Cyclists have the hydro corridor path and the Waterfront Trail via Rosebank Road, and walkers have Altona Forest's trails and the Rouge valley paths from Twyn Rivers Drive.

Public elementary students go to Altona Forest Public School or Highbush Public School according to the street, Rosebank Road Public School picks up some southern addresses, and the west end's public high school is Dunbarton, over on Sheppard Avenue; immersion students reportedly travel to Frenchman's Bay Public School. Catholic families use St. Monica Catholic School on Twyn Rivers Drive and later St. Mary, the Catholic secondary at Whites and Finch, while French-language public schooling is Viamonde's École Ronald-Marion. The nearest university is the University of Toronto Scarborough, reachable on the 900 Pulse or by car through the Rouge, with the Oshawa campuses of Durham College and Ontario Tech farther east. Boundaries here follow subdivision phases, so an address north of Finch can be assigned differently from one south of it; confirm with each board.

Altona Forest is the community's signature: a TRCA woodland between Altona Road and Rosebank Road with looping trails, the Amos Ponds wetland and the J. Murray Speirs ecological reserve named for the ornithologist who lived beside it, with entrances off the neighbourhood streets. Rouge National Urban Park lies across Altona Road, where Twyn Rivers Drive leads to the valley trails and picnic areas along the Little Rouge and the Rouge, and Petticoat Creek Conservation Area with its large outdoor pool is a short drive south. Neighbourhood parks with playgrounds and fields sit inside the older and newer subdivisions alike. Shopping is a drive: the plaza where Finch Avenue meets Whites Road and Amberlea Plaza at Strouds Lane for groceries, the Kingston Road strip from Altona Road to Whites Road for restaurants and services, and, for programs, the Petticoat Creek branch of the library inside the community centre on Kingston Road. The regional mall is fifteen minutes east and the hospital, Lakeridge Health Ajax Pickering, farther along the same road.

Highbush suits families who want a big lot with trees and a trailhead nearby, and who accept driving for everything else; it suits buyers moving out of Scarborough who want the Rouge on their doorstep and a Durham address; and it suits move-up buyers from Amberlea looking for a forest-edge house. The Altona Road towns open the door to first-time buyers on a smaller budget. It is wrong for transit commuters without a car, for anyone who wants a coffee shop within walking reach, or for buyers who dislike wildlife, since deer, coyotes and raccoons come with living beside a forest.