1198 Fischer Hallman Rd | 14 & 22 | Proposed

[cherrypark]

Being opposed to this while approving the tower at the corner boggles the mind.

[sluismcfc]

Being opposed to this while approving the tower at the corner boggles the mind.

The tower at the corner is a total anomaly. It required no public process other than a parking variance. It has legacy Convenience Commercial zoning with no height restrictions, no max FSR, no setbacks related to height. I'll be shocked if it ever gets built.

[ZEBuilder]

Being opposed to this while approving the tower at the corner boggles the mind.

Staff is not opposed to it it is solely Singh. He's opposed to it because its too close to the existing low rise yet he had no issues approving similarly tall buildings in the city close to existing low rise development. He supported Lancaster on the Grand with no problem which is across the street from low rise just like this so it's definitely a case of him wanting to appease his constituents. I truly hope Activa comes back to the next council meeting without changing anything because the development had support of staff. In the meeting you could tell staff was quite taken aback by the opposition considering they supported the development in its current form. Singh is also one of the people who consistently supports Davey's desire for more density so its surely peculiar to see.

One of Singh's suggestions to make the development "fit in" better is to decrease the 14 floor building to 8 floors, and add the removed floors onto the 22 floor building so it would then be 28 floors, I personally wouldn't mind that kind of height, but the rest of the neighbourhood would through a fit and a half. The only potentially nice thing is if that sets the height precedent for the Fischer Hallman corridor since a lot of it is zoned similarly to this property.

[cherrypark]

Being opposed to this while approving the tower at the corner boggles the mind.

The tower at the corner is a total anomaly. It required no public process other than a parking variance. It has legacy Convenience Commercial zoning with no height restrictions, no max FSR, no setbacks related to height. I'll be shocked if it ever gets built.

Ah, that's my ignorance. I assumed it as being reviewed for height/FSR as well. Regardless, I would rather see more 14 story towers in more places than relying on the extra tall condos in areas like this that need to grow into some mid-scale development with time.

[ZEBuilder]

This went back to council tonight, Councillor Singh was definitely hoping for changes to be made but Activa did not make any changes to the design, some of the issues that Singh had were related to the set up of phase 1 which is already site plan approved so it cannot be changed. Regardless of Councillor Singh's overall dislike in the project he did ultimately support it. So it has now been approved without any changes.

Ultimately I hope this starts to set the precedent for height outside of the core, while 22 floors obviously isn't suitable everywhere 14 certainly is more realistic. I also hope that this might be the new precedent along Fischer Hallman since much of the corridor in the Rosenburg Secondary Plan is zoned identical or very similar.

[neonjoe]

This was approved.
https://archive.li/9e7Su

[ZEBuilder]

Last spring they cleared all the trees on the site, They got the demolition permits for the existing structures last week, this weekend as I passed by there was equipment on site so demolition works should be completed rather quick. If I recall what was said in the planning meeting they wanted to start earth works and servicing for the townhome portion of the site this spring, so there might be some more action soon.

[ZEBuilder]

There has now been substantial earth works on this site now. Soon after the Kieswetter mobilized their demolition equipment VanRooyen Earthmoving mobilized theirs. So over the past three weeks they've stripped all the topsoil, they have a giant pile left to be removed from the site (large pile on the left in the image), all the existing fill that was on the site has been used up so they have been trucking the rest of the fill in from another location. Now they only have to fill section along Bleams and most of the area fronting Fischer-Hallman

On most days they have had 3 machines operating (a bulldozer, a roller and an excavator), the past week or so they have also had 2 rock trucks and a second bulldozer on site. There is also a few other people on site who are supervisors/engineers who come and go throughout the day.

Presumably once they are done all the grading works Activa will move ahead with site servicing works for the townhomes so they can start selling them for construction next year.

   

[cherrypark]

Dump truck traffic coming out of there has been a major disruption cycling by on the daily. Drivers absolutely cannot seem to stop on a stop line, even with 10'+ of visual clearance... Can't wait unit this phase is wrapped.

[ZEBuilder]

Dump truck traffic coming out of there has been a major disruption cycling by on the daily. Drivers absolutely cannot seem to stop on a stop line, even with 10'+ of visual clearance... Can't wait unit this phase is wrapped.

At least you haven't seen the case where the dump truck pulls out and blocks northbound Fischer-Hallman traffic as it waits for a gap in southbound. As insane as it sounds that happens multiple times a day.

This phase shouldn't be going on for much longer,  in terms of grading they only have the storm water pond left and another foot or two along Fischer-Hallman. They've been having about 150-250 trucks a day coming into there so it really shouldn't be that much longer. They still have to build some retaining walls after the grading but that shouldn't involve anywhere near as many dump trucks.

The one issue thats gonna be a problem for this site for awhile is the dust. The entire site is sand (the fill they're trucking in is sandy as well) so when its windy like today its just a dust cloud,  it was bad enough that people in the neighborhood were driving by, stopping and then finding people on site to complain to.

[nms]

What's the point of removing all the top soil?

[ZEBuilder]

What's the point of removing all the top soil?

Topsoil isn't adequate to use as a structural fill material due to the organic nature of it. As the organic matter decomposes it results in settlement, when a foundation is built on topsoil or any inadequate fill for that matter the structure will sink. Hence topsoil is removed so grading activities can occur on the native soil, if there is not enough native soil to properly grade the site, like this site, clean fill is brought in which is the native soil from another location which still has the desired properties. Once the structures are complete the topsoil is then brought back onto the site.

[cherrypark]

Dump truck traffic coming out of there has been a major disruption cycling by on the daily. Drivers absolutely cannot seem to stop on a stop line, even with 10'+ of visual clearance... Can't wait unit this phase is wrapped.

At least you haven't seen the case where the dump truck pulls out and blocks northbound Fischer-Hallman traffic as it waits for a gap in southbound. As insane as it sounds that happens multiple times a day.

This phase shouldn't be going on for much longer,  in terms of grading they only have the storm water pond left and another foot or two along Fischer-Hallman. They've been having about 150-250 trucks a day coming into there so it really shouldn't be that much longer. They still have to build some retaining walls after the grading but that shouldn't involve anywhere near as many dump trucks.

The one issue thats gonna be a problem for this site for awhile is the dust. The entire site is sand (the fill they're trucking in is sandy as well) so when its windy like today its just a dust cloud,  it was bad enough that people in the neighborhood were driving by, stopping and then finding people on site to complain to.

Yeah saw one of those block half the road moves on the way in the morning, albeit driving today. Its wild to me that with that many trucks they weren't required to have some traffic controls added.

[ZEBuilder]

The VanRooyen Earthmoving crew finished up the majority of the grading on this site at the end of May. The only portion they still had to complete was some additional grading along the 1200 Fischer Hallman Rd property but because of how much fill has to go there (upwards of 4 meters in places) it required permission to go onto 1200 Fischer Hallman, once this was gained VanRooyen came back moved the silt fence back and completed the last bit of grading so the retaining walls can be built.

In the middle of June In4Structure mobilized to start the site servicing works, since they've been on site they have completed all of the watermain (except the final tie in to the municipal system) and the vast majority of the water services (marked with blue 2x4s), they still have a building or two to complete. They have also completed all of the sanitary sewer, including all of the individual services (marked with green 2x4s). All that is left on the site in terms of servicing is to complete the storm water pipes and related infrastructure such as infiltration galleries. They've had two crews on the site for the last two weeks, one crew came from the 525 Erinbrook site (Erinbrook Towns) once they completed the work on it. With two crews on the site one has been doing the servicing while the other has been focusing on the infiltration gallery installations.

Picture of servicing for townhomes along future Scherlwood Dr:
   

Picture of servicing for townhomes along future Ridgewater Trail: 
   

What is left of the storm water pond after the rain and manhole installation (it will be regraded once all the work is completed in the pond):
   

[ZEBuilder]

The site now has all of its wet servicing work completed with dry servicing now occurring (Enova/Telecom). The final pipe was placed August 12th, at that point all the Storm, Sanitary, Watermain, and Infiltration Galleries were completed. Last week the storm pond was regraded and topsoil was placed, all the pond grading was completely destroyed during the servicing of the site since the storm and sanitary for the site connect to the municipal network at the pond (lowest point of the site), the pond also has a very large infiltration gallery beneath it which required destroying much of the grading.

The road base for the site is also down and complete, they aren't planning on paving until after all the dry utilities are fully complete so they don't need to rip up any of the new curbs/asphalt. They also have to complete the large retaining wall along the 1200 Fischer Hallman Rd property before they can put the curbs and asphalt down as the road is right on top of that wall (the manhole is practically touching the wall), they're still waiting for the permit but all the pieces for the wall are on site so once they get it they should mobilize to complete it as the original plan was to have all the curbs and asphalt along the roads complete by the end of the year, parking areas wouldn't happen until construction of units is completed.

The contractor that was doing the work for servicing/road base is In4structure, they are effectively Activa's go to. All of Activa's sites that are doing servicing this year has been them (two different stages at Harvest Park in Doon, Erinbrook Towns, this site) but they have an Instagram page so they've posted some progress updates of the site as it has occurred.

IN4Structure Ltd (@in4structure_ltd) • Instagram photos and videos (Giant Infiltration Gallery below the pond)
IN4Structure Ltd (@in4structure_ltd) • Instagram photos and videos (Storm Sewer by the municipal tie in at the pond)
IN4Structure Ltd (@in4structure_ltd) • Instagram photos and videos (Infiltration Gallery below parking along the road accessing Bleams)
IN4Structure Ltd (@in4structure_ltd) • Instagram photos and videos (Water services at Block B (First two Pictures) and Block I or J (last picture))

Then a picture that I took from the top of the completed retaining wall next to the existing residential: