Springbank Hill | ?m | ?s | Multiple Projects

[CBBarnett]

Drove by on the weekend and was saddened to see what that area has become. Having lived near Aspen 13 years ago I remember how bucolic the acreages in the valley were. Now they just clearcut everything and left no aspens at all. Could they not have preserved some on the fringes between developments? Also the townhomes fronting 85th St. are just weird and seem unsafe.

I grew up not far from this area, I recall the forests and narrow roads that was the 85th and 17th Avenue intersection. The thing I remember is that they were just quiet backroads with the aspen forests right next to them. Very pretty in the fall with the leaves changing, as in this aerial photo.

Here's 2003:

Here again, 2023:

Yikes ..... that's a huge amount of forest destruction, massive re-grading the natural topography in the area, now complete with a hodge-podge of car-oriented neighbourhood designs and some massive Calgary-style arterial right-of-ways (some of which is width preserved for the LRT of course). I think 17th Avenue's width went up 3 - 5 fold in 20 years?

Doubly ironically, not only is the largest intact stand of forest is the future LRT site so will also be removed one day, but that LRT site itself is inconveniently located far from the density and the main intersection of 17th Avenue and 85th Street. The best TOD location in the area unfortunately went the route that many key areas do in our burbs - storm ponds.

All that said, people got to live somewhere and the overall area along 85th Street is hitting some other good marks for density, retail and design. But some painful lessons learned here too - we should do all we can to avoid this level of natural area destruction - it was such an asset that could have been leveraged and integrated into development, not just ignored and plowed under. From that lens this area's design and trajectory has not been a win.

 

[lemongrab]

Drove by on the weekend and was saddened to see what that area has become. Having lived near Aspen 13 years ago I remember how bucolic the acreages in the valley were. Now they just clearcut everything and left no aspens at all. Could they not have preserved some on the fringes between developments? Also the townhomes fronting 85th St. are just weird and seem unsafe.

There is a 2 car garage for each unit, so you can count on plenty of cars parked on the street to help calm speeds !

It does feel a bit weird, but I wish all collector roads were narrow and windy.

 

[CBBarnett]

There is a 2 car garage for each unit, so you can count on plenty of cars parked on the street to help calm speeds !

View attachment 598501


It does feel a bit weird, but I wish all collector roads were narrow and windy.

Part of the problem on that road is it's only 75% of it's way transitioning from essentially a range road to collector. As such you have an in-ordinate amount of cut-through and speeding traffic, many drivers remember it's less populated days only a few years ago + more drivers than ever in the area.

Notably, there is zero traffic controls, stop signs or playground zones between Lower Springbank Road and 17th Ave SW, a total of 1.8km. In the land of high-end SUVs, this leads to high degree of speeding and cut-through traffic using 85th Street to skip slower routes. 69th Street SW, for comparison has 4 fully signalized intersection over that same stretch.

 

[O-tac]

Also those units stare directly at a dirt hill.

It does still feel like a country road and in addition to high speeding traffic it’s on a blind curve with a huge incline / dip. It’s especially dangerous in winter. I wouldn’t be surprised if a car flies into someone’s living room some day.

 

[lemongrab]

Also those units stare directly at a dirt hill.

It does still feel like a country road and in addition to high speeding traffic it’s on a blind curve with a huge incline / dip. It’s especially dangerous in winter. I wouldn’t be surprised if a car flies into someone’s living room some day.

I'd say it's more of a grassy knoll.

CB is right that part of the problem is the history of the road...a lot of people have muscle memory of going too fast there, even when the road was in terrible shape with a steep drop off.

Of course the google satellite is just a snapshot in time, but it really illustrates the utility of attached garage vs detached:

22 units detached garage: 20 cars on street in streetview (11 cars on satellite)
19 units attached garage: 5 cars streetview (4 cars satellite)