06-25-2021, 06:43 PM
(06-25-2021, 05:32 PM)KevinL Wrote: Boxed in by an expressway and industrial land. I appreciate it's mixed use, but will they really get people to live here?
On top of that, the Ion is 'in walking distance' but that's over the expressway bridge...
Honestly, like all our developments, we could do so much more with it. I mean, it's a big site, they could easily build an inner urban plaza, with ground floor retail all around, larger apartments above, with towers for residential and commercial. Then connect the site better to surrounding amenities, they could easily connect it to the LRT station by tunneling or bridging 85 (and connecting to Dutton Dr. while they're at it). With some creativity, they should be able to connect to Conestoga Mall. A parkland dedication would be nice, but there's actually a huge amount of empty land around there that could also be converted into amenity space.
Instead we get a tiny commercial area, surrounded by giant car oriented towers, a sea of parking, and no place any human being would ever want to be in. With office separated from everyone by a sea of parking, encouraging officer workers to drive to Conestoga mall instead of browse along an urban plaza.
Yes, this is outside the box thinking, but frankly, I don't really care, it's what they *SHOULD* be doing. The density is not a problem to me. It's the pathetic, business as usual, car dependent and otherwise dead development that bugs me. The fact that they are not working to make this development integrate with it's (admittedly limited) surroundings, and not planning for it to be a livable space is the fundamental problem in our city/province/country/continent.