The presentation above took place yesterday.
From that:
There appear to have been some revisions to the proposal; but these are not yet public in the AIC:
There are some new renders:
Revisions have added ~200 units
Parking is now ~1,300 spaces
Questions included - the distance to rapid transit, location of the park, compatibility with employment uses, on-site employment uses.
Comments:
- Density excessive for this footprint.
- Not compatible with surrounding employment use; not enough park, not enough of a network, issues w/wind and windscreens, not a complete community.
- Project doesn't make sense.
- Retail spaces not properly designed, appear to be leftover spaces
- Panel noted the extraordinary distance to the nearest schools.
- Not tenable, isolated, disjointed, hostile to prospective residents.
- Discussion of heavy truck traffic to/from HBC distribution centre.
- LOL, Ralph Giannone went out of his way to say that he thought high density could work in this area; that he liked the idea in theory, and then went on to say his colleagues were too polite and that the plan is utterly horrible.
He feels the only way this can be made to work is by including the properties next to Warden and the site to the south, and they need to be be planned cohesively.
- Pops are laid out illogically, criss-crossed by roads/drives/buildings/desire lines, doesn't look hospitable.
- Dead ends everywhere, retail not viable as envisioned.
My comment- I get Ralph's initial take, but the distance to higher order transit is a real problem here, and not one easily fixed.
- Renders and package not coherent, partially show initial proposal, partially show revised proposal.
- Feels like a gated community, too isolated; doesn't even work as a car-centric community.
- Park feels like an appendage
- Park dedication needs to be closer to 15% than the 9.6% proposed.
- Replacement hotel is good, seniors housing and rental could be good, on the former, the community doesn't seem designed to support that use.
******
Oh wow, the panel just ripped this proposal into shreds.
Summation by the Chair, I've written down, "completely re-think, everything"
Unanimous vote of Non-Support.