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+--- Thread: ION Phase 2 - Cambridge's Light Rail Transit (/showthread.php?tid=683)
RE: ION Phase 2 - Cambridge's Light Rail Transit - dunkalunk - 02-27-2017
Give it the 20 years for a business case to become feasible and it might actually happen.
RE: ION Phase 2 - Cambridge's Light Rail Transit - kitborn - 03-01-2017
Why not take the LRT right down King Street through Preston then along Coronation Blvd. in front of Cambridge General Hospital? Hespeler Road could have a BRT and eventually another LRT Line.
RE: ION Phase 2 - Cambridge's Light Rail Transit - Viewfromthe42 - 03-01-2017
(03-01-2017, 10:05 AM)kitborn Wrote: Why not take the LRT right down King Street through Preston then along Coronation Blvd. in front of Cambridge General Hospital? Hespeler Road could have a BRT and eventually another LRT Line.
This was suggested repeatedly, but the belief is that the most immediate intensification potential exists on Hespeler, and so any route would have to go this way so as to accommodate that.
RE: ION Phase 2 - Cambridge's Light Rail Transit - KevinL - 03-01-2017
(03-01-2017, 10:05 AM)kitborn Wrote: Why not take the LRT right down King Street through Preston then along Coronation Blvd. in front of Cambridge General Hospital? Hespeler Road could have a BRT and eventually another LRT Line.
Hespeler Road has been the only desired route by the planners for a good decade now. I don't think that has much chance to be changed.
RE: ION Phase 2 - Cambridge's Light Rail Transit - DHLawrence - 03-01-2017
There are definitely a few areas of potential development (King/Bishop, Coronation, almost anywhere in Preston south of about Dolph) but Hespeler Road is more of a clean slate. The only landmark of even the faintest sentimental or architectural merit is the rocket outside the Satellite Motel. Everything else could be bulldozed tomorrow and nobody would miss them as long as some of the more prominent buildings are rehoused.
RE: ION Phase 2 - Cambridge's Light Rail Transit - dunkalunk - 03-01-2017
(03-01-2017, 10:42 AM)KevinL Wrote:(03-01-2017, 10:05 AM)kitborn Wrote: Why not take the LRT right down King Street through Preston then along Coronation Blvd. in front of Cambridge General Hospital? Hespeler Road could have a BRT and eventually another LRT Line.
Hespeler Road has been the only desired route by the planners for a good decade now. I don't think that has much chance to be changed.
Coming from the public consultation in Preston yesterday, the direction that Hespeler Rd is the best route is coming from the politicians at the City of Cambridge and the council-approved route in 2009.
RE: ION Phase 2 - Cambridge's Light Rail Transit - darts - 03-01-2017
(03-01-2017, 12:17 PM)DHLawrence Wrote: There are definitely a few areas of potential development (King/Bishop, Coronation, almost anywhere in Preston south of about Dolph) but Hespeler Road is more of a clean slate. The only landmark of even the faintest sentimental or architectural merit is the rocket outside the Satellite Motel. Everything else could be bulldozed tomorrow and nobody would miss them as long as some of the more prominent buildings are rehoused.
I think the rocket was replaced/updated in the 90s.
[img] https://losttoronto2.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/1882091579_c2cbf30cb4.jpg[/img]
Either way Hespeler Rd has a lot more potential for redevelopment as well as the line along sameulson st and Beverly, a lot of that area is full of potential and near the end point on Beverly by Kerr St
RE: ION Phase 2 - Cambridge's Light Rail Transit - kitborn - 03-02-2017
Transit in 19th and early 20th centuries ran down King Street in Preston.
RE: ION Phase 2 - Cambridge's Light Rail Transit - kps - 03-02-2017
(click for map)
RE: ION Phase 2 - Cambridge's Light Rail Transit - Viewfromthe42 - 03-02-2017
Definitely an area fond of intensification.
RE: ION Phase 2 - Cambridge's Light Rail Transit - DHLawrence - 03-02-2017
Not many people have tried in the last few years aside from the apartments at Eagle and William and the townhouses and apartments where CanMet used to be. There are opportunities (as I've stated repeatedly in this thread) but more patchwork in nature rather than the major surgery possible on Hespeler Road.
RE: ION Phase 2 - Cambridge's Light Rail Transit - MidTowner - 03-02-2017
Viewfromthe42: That is a wonderful street wall of heritage buildings with commercial uses right against the sidewalk and apartments or other uses on the above floors. Is it some kind of a sign of a lack of progress that it hasn't been razed for- what?- tall apartment buildings with modern-day setbacks?
I agree with you, DHLawrence, there are opportunities here, but there are residents who will push back against "intensification" of a nice area like this. That's not at all the case on Hespeler Road, for good reason.
RE: ION Phase 2 - Cambridge's Light Rail Transit - DHLawrence - 03-02-2017
Plenty of opportunities to support an iXpress bus between Cambridge Centre and Preston station when the time comes, though, especially in the south end and around Eagle itself. In the downtown itself there are patches here and there, but whatever is built will have to be super-impressive to get people on board.
RE: ION Phase 2 - Cambridge's Light Rail Transit - Viewfromthe42 - 03-03-2017
(03-02-2017, 09:10 PM)MidTowner Wrote: Viewfromthe42: That is a wonderful street wall of heritage buildings with commercial uses right against the sidewalk and apartments or other uses on the above floors. Is it some kind of a sign of a lack of progress that it hasn't been razed for- what?- tall apartment buildings with modern-day setbacks?
I agree with you, DHLawrence, there are opportunities here, but there are residents who will push back against "intensification" of a nice area like this. That's not at all the case on Hespeler Road, for good reason.
I'm actually against Kitchener's TBUDG plan to have minimum setbacks of building height (e.g. 1Victoria would have to be set back equivalent to six floors). But in today's world, and our urban corridor, we need to support density along our transit spine. You're not going to have much luck building a condo or apartment building in the middle of Mary Allen neighbourhood, so your options are either to densify along the main corridor, or else push development out to greenfield. Same idea applies throughout our main cities. I don't believe we have to raze everything (see the proposal for the condos at the former Brick brewery, or the kiboshed proposal for the old-home-enclosing condo just north of the school at King and Central in Waterloo), but either we support the cores by allowing people to live and work there in decent numbers, or we support the rolling outward of strip malls, as places like the Boardwalk replace inner rings of strip malls, and that will be replaced as greenfield development pushes beyond them as well.
RE: ION Phase 2 - Cambridge's Light Rail Transit - MidTowner - 03-03-2017
Nothing in the picture kps posted should be demolished to make way for more density. That is a great street wall: I think the odds of getting something better than that would be low.
But that's not the case on King Street West and King Street South: there is no uninterrupted street wall. What's there, to a large extent, really can be torn out to allow for more density. There are enough opportunities like that along our transit corridor that there's no reason to lose buildings like those pictured in downtown Preston.