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MichaelS

MichaelS

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A new proposal that is part of the Westbrook TOD, by the non-profit Closer to Home. Signage up on the site, and a project website here:

Project Background | CTH

www.closertohomeproject.com www.closertohomeproject.com

This is in the NW corner of the intersection of Bow Trail and 33rd Street. A remnant parcel from the West LRT construction, finally seeing a development on it.
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From the development and land use perspective I think this is awesome. Looks really sharp, sounds like a great purpose and offers some good amenities. Great to see this site developed.

But ...this is about as car-oriented as you can get for a transit-oriented development. 4 sides all dedicated to car-infrastructure or parking with a large amount of parking onsite. Like many things about car-orientated designs, much of this is out of the development's control. For example, for some reason there is a "need" to maintain a wide-two way access on the north side with the townhomes. I imagine fire trucks are the reason. But two-way and wide? Why? There's a hundred examples of access roads less than half this wide, in far busier areas all throughout old and new areas all over the city. The Spruce-Bow intersection is literally right there. It's a huge waste of space for very dubious benefit.

On the Bow Trail side, the same old story:
  • Bow Trail is unattractive and high-speed so naturally the building's design chooses to face away from it, is set back with few windows. Planters and gardens are put in the setback to fill the space but are destined to become dirty, overgrown and dilapidated once the shine wears off in a decade. Even if it's maintained, it's a maintenance expense generated for the owners/tenants that does little more than offer some plants for commuters to look at as they drive by and a bit of stormwater retention. No value to the users of the building for any of this.
  • The current bus bay is maintained. Bus bays are car infrastructure - they pull the bus out of traffic and prevent them from merging back in to high-speed vehicles, slowing down transit service to the benefit of drivers. Higher speed means a louder, shittier environment to wait for the bus.
  • An unnecessary slip lane from Spruce Drive to Bow Trail is hostile and dangerous to pedestrians - particularly ironic as that is the key route to the transit station only 100m away.
For a build with such a great set of uses - preschool, family housing, social and health supports on site - why do we devote greenspace and gardens to look good for drivers rather than have them actually usable for the community? If Bow Trail is a lost cause and will never be more than an arterial quasi-freeway, fine - but we don't need the setback. Remove the bus bay and push the building right to the property line. That would allow the greenspace to be reallocated to the north of the site where traffic is calmer and outdoor gardens can exist and be used by residents, meeting your stormwater requirements but actually creating outdoor space people could use.


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  • Bow Trail is unattractive and high-speed so naturally the building's design chooses to face away from it, is set back with few windows. Planters and gardens are put in the setback to fill the space but are destined to become dirty, overgrown and dilapidated once the shine wears off in a decade. Even if it's maintained, it's a maintenance expense generated for the owners/tenants that does little more than offer some plants for commuters to look at as they drive by and a bit of stormwater retention. No value to the users of the building for any of this.
  • The current bus bay is maintained. Bus bays are car infrastructure - they pull the bus out of traffic and prevent them from merging back in to high-speed vehicles, slowing down transit service to the benefit of drivers. Higher speed means a louder, shittier environment to wait for the bus.
  • An unnecessary slip lane from Spruce Drive to Bow Trail is hostile and dangerous to pedestrians - particularly ironic as that is the key route to the transit station only 100m away.
Click to expand...
I am very much in agreement that this is hostile to the pedestrian especially as a TOD. I would love to know the reasoning behind the slip lane to Bow Trail. It is very unfriendly to pedestrians and with the building in place, will create a blind spot for drivers entering Bow Trail. Not to mention that it looks to me like the sole purpose of this lane is basically a short cut for vehicular traffic.

This building itself is a great use of mixed development which I am happy to see, but Calgary really needs to work on creating better pedestrian spaces, especially around TOD's (something else that could be greatly improved).
 
This city has so many of those slip lanes that need to bee removed. I remember that one at 17th and 5th, thank god it's gone. Hopefully the next to go is Elbow and 5th, and after that hopefully this one. They are completely unnecessary in areas that are transitioning from medium to high density. Cars need to take a backseat to pedestrians always, let alone in areas like this.
 
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