Quote:
Originally Posted by whatnext
You're ignoring the fact that the residential sprawls for a couple kilometres along an arterial. Not walkable. They should have set Alderbridge as the nothern boundary for residential highrise and created a truly compact downtown. Then they could have made No 3 Rd between Alderbridge and Bridgeport light industrial, instead of barfing out business parks in east Richmond that are really only accessible by car.
If anyone wants to see future ghettos, check out the townhouse sprawl east of Garden City. Truly dreary neighbourhoods with no focal point.
|
I don't think that I'm ignoring the distance, I've just come to a different conclusion. From Sea Island Way (Wall Centre Richmond, Yuanheng's big
No. 3 Road & Capstan Way mixed use development, and MYIE's large
International Trade Centre at Versante) to Granville Avenue is 3.4km, approximately the same as Cambie Street from Broadway to 41st Avenue. That's quite a hike by anyone's measure. However, much like Cambie Street, there are public transit options: 3 current Canada Line stations (with a fourth, Capstan Way, planned) and a local bus (the 403) for the whole length, plus the frequent 410 from Cambie Rd south to Granville. There's no need to walk from end to end.
As for the business parks, the businesses that got into those are highly unlikely to go into a CBD-like environment. Many are actually in 'flex' units that combine office with warehouse/loading dock/workshop space. With that said, I hope that office is a significant component of the larger mixed-use projects, though we all know that Concord and Pinnacle are allergic to that use, so the likelihood of that being in the vicinity of Capstan Way station will be low.
As for the 'future ghetto' townhouse neighbourhood east of Garden City, I doubt it will become that. The absence of a focal point is precisely what is attractive to a lot of home buyers, regardless of city. With that said, the City of Richmond will be transforming the Garden City Lands into a major city park, which strikes me as a focal point.