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Infill Development Discussion

I don't mind the streetscape made up of 3 storey townhouses, but I don't care for the wooden fences in front of the balconies.I get people like their privacy, but the fences would look better if shorter. I also don't like the setbacks. Why have a strip of useless grass patches? If anything you could extend the living space out a bit more, or extend some nice patios out front. I'm betting that it's not the faulty of the developer, but due to the city's setback rules.
 
I don't mind the streetscape made up of 3 storey townhouses, but I don't care for the wooden fences in front of the balconies.I get people like their privacy, but the fences would look better if shorter. I also don't like the setbacks. Why have a strip of useless grass patches? If anything you could extend the living space out a bit more, or extend some nice patios out front. I'm betting that it's not the faulty of the developer, but due to the city's setback rules.
Totally agree. I am baffled that they gave them approval for those type of basically full-size fences along a public street. Yes the setbacks are crap (and produce a shitty underwhelming streetscape) and the grass patch is useless and stupid to maintain in a strata, but the solution to fix this is so simple it hurts. On both sides of the development, run a picket fence with a gate and high-quality landscaping for screening. Why developers in this city completely seem to not understand that people in slab-on-grade townhomes want a small picket-fenced yard to be able to let a dog out into is unreal. The only development that seems to be doing this right is Goodwin by Anthem (which they just took a model they use in Surrey all day). On all the townhomes that I have ever worked on, even when they are really narrow interlocked, units, every unit gets a picket yard with a tree in it and great landscaping for screening. Having this usually leaves you with a small yard to let a dog out to pee, have some seats and a small garden, etc. which IMO makes a big difference in the livability of a townhouse.
Here is Goodwin in Belmont:
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Here are a couple examples of other ones:
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Not whatever this is:
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Found this from the Nose Creek Pathway- Cedarglen Homes The Parks of Harvest Hills. The amount of work being done for landscaping is substantial, one space seems to be cut out for a playground that the units will look onto, a family’s dream! Interesting that everything else in the neighborhood seems to have been developed 20-30 years ago.
 
Found this from the Nose Creek Pathway- Cedarglen Homes The Parks of Harvest Hills. The amount of work being done for landscaping is substantial, one space seems to be cut out for a playground that the units will look onto, a family’s dream! Interesting that everything else in the neighborhood seems to have been developed 20-30 years ago.

That would be due to the fact that the land being built on was previously the Harvest Hills golf course.
 
did some digging on the new project on 24th and 5th sw. looks like its NORR and m2sc. found a small blurb on their website. fits right in with the building directly north on 23rd. drilling is already underway. its called the beverley.

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Looks like a RNDSQR project, I think it's called West Hillhurst 19 or something like that, I love it though. I didn't realize that area had so much infill, it looks like is goes quite a way down that street.
 
Looks like a RNDSQR project, I think it's called West Hillhurst 19 or something like that, I love it though. I didn't realize that area had so much infill, it looks like is goes quite a way down that street.

Yes it’s a RNDSQR project.

The rest of the avenues in that area are quickly being eaten by the Semi-Detached virus.
 
Nothing like having a contextual setback for R-C2 and R-CG to relate to existing bungalows, when the final condition of the street is nothing like it and none of the bungalows are left. So you can build towns or semi-detached in the inner-city with a typical front setback of 7-9m, or 1m in R-G in the burbs. Why do we give more urban front setbacks in Mahogany than in West Hillhurst? Contextual setbacks are completely idiotic and produce such bad outcomes (postage stamp backyards, huge unused grass front setback areas) for inner city streets.

For example, tiny backyards, huge front lawns, one bungalow left on the street to dictate the setback (Altadore):
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"Inner City infill" Altadore:
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"Urban Infill" West Hillhurst:
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Suburban Mckenzie Towne:
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Suburban Walden:
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Even Single-family in the suburbs have more favourable interaction with the street and more reasonable setbacks:
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Contextual setbacks have ruined our ability to create more urban streetscapes in the inner-city for decades, only to appease neighbours today. Whereas it is genuinely easier to build denser more urban forms of housing in the new suburbs.
 
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