Technically, there is no public alleyway on this block in Marda Loop, as can be seen from the City's GIS maps:
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That said, it does seem like this was considered, and built as part of the original 6 storey development witht he shoppers in it, as there is very cleary what looks like a standard alleyway spec built behind it, leading right to this parcel:
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I don't know if there was any legal easements put on this laneway to allow others to access it. The plans for the Martel block that are supposed to go up on 2040 34th Ave SW may include vehicle access from here, but I am not sure, I haven't seen the site plan. When you look at the "My Property" map, it does look like there is some kind of easement though on this alleyway:
View attachment 377231
Infiniti Marday Loop had to cut in their own vehicle access in off of 19th Street, as can be seen in the airphoto.
Perhaps when the formal application is submitted, this will be sorted and vehicle access can come from the alleyway, with the easement (if that is in fact what it is) being extended to this property.
Thanks for the details here. I appreciate that the original sin was to not have an alley right-of-way on this block way in the first place, but it seems like another classic example of Calgary's endless public realm frustrations when we do and say everything we can to support public and pedestrian realms.... unless it compromises vehicle circulation.
Because each parcel develops separately over time, for no single project is it ever possible to resolve the foundational issue of having no alley. So the result is piecemeal approach that forever perpetuates the status-quo of car-orientation of everything. All the more frustrating as this is the prime block of one of the most promising pedestrian main streets of the future.
Here's a better angle from google. Red arrows are current driveways, blue is future as proposed. Added the dotted blue line for a hypothetical alley.
I suspect the Shoppers building faced the same problem in the mid-2000s - how are cars and garbage trucks going to be able to get out because the alley isn't finished? The solution was the same - build an access driveway off 33rd Ave (which is immediately adjacent to this parcel). Not perfect, but best we came up with because the cars must flow.
20 years later this application comes along. Same problem, same solution. No alley, so an additional 33rd driveway must be created, extending the existing alley a block further to connect. But even with a new duplicate driveway access, the 33rd Ave Shoppers driveway isn't being removed, nor has any real feasible way to redevelop it in isolation. What was an original compromise is now calcified, just like this driveway to 33rd will be.
If this pattern keeps up, each piecemeal development along 33rd for that block will propose something similar, creating or maintaining yet another drive-way until the full lane is finished. Only then will redevelopment be able to remove all these duplicative, half-solutions with a true pedestrian main street frontage and no driveways. If all goes well, perhaps in another 100 years that could happen? And because it was piecemeal, even if we get an alley one day, we still have a duplicative car access highlighted in green above.
Despite all the main street investment and policy changes to improve pedestrians spaces in recent years, in practice all we will get is a slow, expensive way to keep the same number of driveways on 33rd, but with new and shiny buildings all around them.
Of course, there's many of cities that still have cars and garbage trucks, don't always have alleys, but also don't have driveways. How?
- Remove parking requirements everywhere so we don't force a small site to use 75% of their ground-level for vehicular circulation instead of more productive uses.
- If a site wants parking, and an alley exists, any parking must use alley access. No exceptions.
- If you don't have an alley, but still want parking, feel free to negotiate access with the building next door to figure it out. No driveway exceptions because it's not the public's problem - no one is forcing a development to have parking. Why should the public compromise it's own public realm assets for your car?
- Allow garbage and recycling pickup from the main street. Require any storage bins to be hidden either behind a gate or underground. A few minutes, in the middle of the night, twice a week for a truck to access a hidden dumpster is far less disruptive than a permanent driveway to the sidewalk.
Are these rules are too harsh and not realistically feasible in our context? Perhaps. Then only prioritize these rules to areas where pedestrian circulation is the highest. Like our main streets.... like exactly right here.
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