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Infill Development Discussion

If it were off of a private laneway, similar to some of the recent townhome developments around town, it would be okay. See these examples:

But, as this one appears to have the garage access the street, it really prevents a nice streetscape from forming. There is zero interaction with the public street (a blank wall for a ground floor), plus the inherent increased danger of numerous conflict points between vehicles backing out of garages across the pedestrian realm. Not to mention the need for greater impermeable surfaces for the driveways prevents more robust landscaping from forming.

So.... in summary, when directly accessed from the street.... not a fan.
Funny enough weren't both of those developments done by Brookfield? I might be mistaken. Also pretty sure they both required a DC to be able to build these with front setbacks that make sense for rowhomes/townhomes.
 
Big infills in Crescent Road

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It really is not an optimal solution at all in my opinion. There are other ways of reorganizing smaller slab-on-grade townhomes so that they don't produce this excessively hardscaped, car-dominated public realm experience. Limiting this to one curb cut and having the garages off of the rear with a narrow strata road would produce a much nicer public realm with these buildings. I think the reason that they organize the buildings this way is to maintain the required larger front setback. If the builder was allowed to push the building closer to the front property line and sidewalk, they could add the parking in the rear or centre of the site via a strata road.
Here is another bad Calgary example in Crescent Heights.
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This development and many others in Calgary have excessive hardscaping, no landscaping and a poor interaction with the street. This is because it is not a laned parcel, but there are still ways to organize that don't have excessively large, automobile dominated front setback areas.
Here are a few examples of slab-on-grade townhomes on laneless parcels in the Capitol Hill neighbourhood of Seattle. They keep access to one curb cut that has a centralized strata road so that the public realm allows for interaction with the street and landscaping.
Heres the first:

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Number 2:
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Number 3:
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There appears to be a critical mass (minimum 8 units) to allow necessary radius.

I just can't believe that there is a front setback MINIMUM in 2021
 

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