Quote:
Originally Posted by HRM
You think Toronto has smart growth? Mississauga isn't sprawling?
|
There is a big difference between Toronto and Mississauga - which are two seperate corporate entities. Toronto has pretty much no greenfield development since the land area that it has is built out - where as Mississauga can sprawl. So from that perspective, Toronto is doing smart growth throughout the core. Vancouver is another good example of increasing urban density - I think one of the best examples in North America.4
Quote:
Originally Posted by HRM
Williams Lake area sprawling?
|
Actually if you look at the
Regional Plan's Future Land Use Map - much of the area is designated Urban reserve; so it's already been seen as an area for urban expansion. Combine this with the fact that the transportation map identifies a high speed ferry access route to Purcell's cove - I see this area as being prime for development.
That being said - a crossing on the arm will become necessary at some point because the simple fact is that the rotary can't really deal with the volume it has now; let alone more.
That being said; I'll go back to what I've said before about trying other things first - before going to a crossing. Set up a high speed ferry, improve the road network and then look at an arm crossing as a tunnel or a bridge. Perhaps one method to improve the road network is to consider making Quinpool a reversing lane street and improve the access point at the rotary - this way it could be 3 lanes into the core and then 3 lanes out of the core during rush hours?
Ultimately as the city grows; I think we mostly agree that this crossing will become important. Where we don't agree is how it should appear and where it should connect. Ultimately, when it comes to a decision - council will think of it from a cost/impact perspective. Build it as cheaply as possible (so that tax $'s are sucked into a bottomless pit) and in a way that impacts the residents of both sides in the least negative way. Personally, I think in the end two tunnels should be built (or bridges) - that connect from Robie and from South street - because no one seems to be thinking about the growth potential of Timberlea and their needs to get onto the peninsula either.
Downtown development (development in general) is not an easy process, but as the HT becomes weaker over time (let's face it - many of them are getting older and not many younger people are joining them because they seem them as a negative); the process should become less difficult, but there will always be people not wanting things to change. It's up to people like us, who believe in growth as a good thing, becoming better organized and supporting projects and getting out there and having our opinion known.
It's also up to planners with HRM to start looking at out of the box solutions to urban living/density and start really thinking about areas of potential that could become new urban villages like the Hydrostone (which by it's own natural evolution seems to be doing it on it's own with high density), Gottingen Street (huge area of lost potential density), Agricola, the car lot on Robie Street, the Young/Windsor Area and by the Sobey's on Windsor street (as examples). If in 20 years, all these areas were to become urban villages with a number of buildings even in the 10 to 15 storey range - that will significantly bulk up downtown numbers - potentially leading to improved activity in dowtown. But it will all come down to the choice of the consumer - until we get it out of people's heads that the 'Canadian dream' is owning a house in the burbs, then urban villages will remain concepts in HRM. I'm hopeful that with the population shift coming with the boomers retiring - that will change.
But the only way to actually improve downtown 'activity' (making it a busy place to be) is to look at things in a contextual approach. It's not just about building more apartment buildings and thinking 'build it they will come', there has to be stuff to do there. This is where the business community (and community development programmers) need to look at other cities to think of activities. Calgary has a fireworks festival - perhaps finding sponsors to setup a fireworks festival over the course of several nights? The tattoo is a huge tourist draw - why not think of some other activities with it in the same way stampede does (for example: many companies do free stampede breakfasts during the weeks of stampede, perhaps doing free breakfasts or lunches where companies sponsor the event?). Things like a Christmas Park lights in the public gardens (which I've previously suggested - much like Zoo lights here in Calgary), I hate to keep using Calgary - but I can't seem to think of other examples today. But you see what I'm saying - it's about bringing people to downtown to live, but also to play and to shop - gets some interesting stores into these villages. If you did an urban village on Agricola street with 10 to 15 storey condo blocks, with commercial on the ground floor with things like the Apple store or a
Whole Foods, plus other big box retail chains in an urban context (Future Shop/Walmart etc) you would give people places to shop.
I'll stop preaching now...this was way longer of a post then I intended.
Prev
). Mississauga is sprawling, sure, but the area around Square One is (slowly) developing into a nice town centre. Anywho I am moreso talking about the general shift towards intensification taking place here and not about the mistakes made in the suburbs.
Linear Mode
