Infill Development Discussion

[Thrillhou]

Capitol Hill townhome infill
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Infill being built along side Confed Park
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I've always thought that the office building in Mt.Plesant could use something like this. And some retail facing 4th Street. Such a huge parking lot for what is essentially a few law offices and remax.
2322 4 St NW

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[CalgaryTiger]

Totally agree!

Also, that mechanic shop is brutal! I’m all for successful small businesses, but they take up a disproportionate amount of street parking and always have parts strewn across the sidewalk. The neighbourhood has outgrown this operation.

Its such an eyesore! Feels weird to say this because I mean good on this person for running a small business, but something needs to force this person's hand to move. Whether that's bylaw ticketing all the cars on the street longer than 72 hours (I think it is) or I don't know, what does it take to call this a unkept property?

How this business owner gets away with this property with this community association is lost on me. They put hours of work into fighting something that would benefit the community while completely missing why Marlo is a failure.

 

[Mountain Man]

I've never noticed that auto shop before, holy hell is that place a train wreck for the community. Better fight new homes though, cause who wants people when you can have a junk yard auto shop! lol

 

[lemongrab]

Email from the MLCA Director of Planning + Development on LOC2021-0129 (1734 & 1737 36th Ave SE):

“Hi Neighbors,

With your help and support, Calgary City Council heard us loud and clear today.

We won our opposition today against a developer’s proposal to up zone two side-by-side lots with bungalows through Direct Control District zoning to 22 units.

The two homes are located at 1734 and 1737 36th Ave S.W. (LOC2021-0129).

Julie Shepard and I (Brett Pearce) both appeared in person at Council Chambers and presented a slide deck that is now available @ www.mardaloopdevelopment.com

This is a tremendous victory for our community, and we couldn’t have done it without you.

Thank you for your continued support. We are stronger together.”

Presuming you copied and pasted their email correctly, they didn't even write the addresses correctly.

Maybe the developer should propose a wrecking yard that would better fit with the fabric of the community. Hell, there current use doesn't look far off https://goo.gl/maps/hhpv1aNP39GcMCZBA

 

[haltcatchfire]

Presuming you copied and pasted their email correctly, they didn't even write the addresses correctly.

Maybe the developer should propose a wrecking yard that would better fit with the fabric of the community. Hell, there current use doesn't look far off https://goo.gl/maps/hhpv1aNP39GcMCZBA

Nice catch. Probably the owner of the mechanic shop a block over using it as overflow.

 

[Surrealplaces]

I've always thought that the office building in Mt.Plesant could use something like this. And some retail facing 4th Street. Such a huge parking lot for what is essentially a few law offices and remax.
2322 4 St NW

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

maps.app.goo.gl

The huge parking lot is a massive waste. I would like to see some kind of development on the east side of the parking lot, that has retail at the street.

 

[Silence&Motion]

Totally agree!

Also, that mechanic shop is brutal! I’m all for successful small businesses, but they take up a disproportionate amount of street parking and always have parts strewn across the sidewalk. The neighbourhood has outgrown this operation.

Meh. The mechanic shop adds some variety and character to the neighbourhood. I'm all for more development in principle, but I'm personally happy it will be sticking around. It's legitimately "eyes on the street" in the Jane Jacobs sense, because they're so often working partially out on the sidewalk. It's such a rare thing in North America to have businesses spilling out into the sidewalk. The bureaucrats work very hard to keep everyone locked up in there own little space.

 

[CalgaryTiger]

Meh. The mechanic shop adds some variety and character to the neighbourhood. I'm all for more development in principle, but I'm personally happy it will be sticking around. It's legitimately "eyes on the street" in the Jane Jacobs sense, because they're so often working partially out on the sidewalk. It's such a rare thing in North America to have businesses spilling out into the sidewalk. The bureaucrats work very hard to keep everyone locked up in there own little space.

I have to respectfully disagree. I'll quote from a blog I found on google, "Jane Jacobs wrote that urban neighborhoods were safer when there were "eyes on the street": that is, residents and shopkeepers who are naturally drawn to the life of the street, and who, in the course of their activities, monitor the street."

No one loves vibrant, active streets more than me and as we're discovering downtown in this city, eyes on the street do contribute to vibrancy. But what this mechanics shop does, with all its cars spread throughout its property and adjacent streets, is actually rob the area of vibrancy. Completely counteracting any positive that it having 'eyes on the street' contributes to the area.

Janes Jacobs believed that streets and their sidewalks are framed by buildings, in this case a house and mechanics shop. These buildings provide the important thresholds between public and private spaces, these cars significantly damage that threshold. They block the surrounding streets from being vibrant public spaces. As Jacobs said, "failing to provide permeability, harmony and rhythm, the street as a public space suffers. Streets are in essence public spaces and connect diverse areas of the city, weaving the urban fabric."

This property is a microcosm for the problems that cars cause for our city's vibrancy. Sure, cars are 'eyes on the street' but they do far more harm than good when it comes to vibrancy.

 

[artvandelay]

Gotta disagree with you on that one, Tiger.

Great neighbourhoods have a variety of uses including light industrial and that auto shop provides great, affordable service to area residents. I live in the area and I've never observed any negative externality from the operation of the shop. In fact, I must've walked by on 34th hundreds of times without noticing they were there until I took my car there for a repair.

Eventually the site will be redeveloped (likely into some over-scaled stucco-clad townhomes) and unfortunately residents will lose a valuable local service.

 

[ByeByeBaby]

Great neighbourhoods have a variety of uses including light industrial and that auto shop provides great, affordable service to area residents. I live in the area and I've never observed any negative externality from the operation of the shop. In fact, I must've walked by on 34th hundreds of times without noticing they were there until I took my car there for a repair.

Exactly. How are we supposed to build environmentally sustainable, walkable communities that people can choose to live in whether or not they have a car, if the residents don't have easy access to an auto shop to handle their everyday needs? Sure, for the residents of Marda Loop who have cars, without this community business it would be an easy drive under 10 minutes to visit the many auto repair shops in Manchester instead. But if this were replaced with homes for people instead, then Marda Loop residents without cars would have to spend almost an hour walking or on transit just to take their car to get fixed. We can't keep claiming we are building communities that people can live in without needing cars if the residents will need a car just to be able to get their car fixed.

 

[Silence&Motion]

Exactly. How are we supposed to build environmentally sustainable, walkable communities that people can choose to live in whether or not they have a car, if the residents don't have easy access to an auto shop to handle their everyday needs? Sure, for the residents of Marda Loop who have cars, without this community business it would be an easy drive under 10 minutes to visit the many auto repair shops in Manchester instead. But if this were replaced with homes for people instead, then Marda Loop residents without cars would have to spend almost an hour walking or on transit just to take their car to get fixed. We can't keep claiming we are building communities that people can live in without needing cars if the residents will need a car just to be able to get their car fixed.

Actually, I'm a huge fan of a mechanic shop that I can walk home from. Either way, replacing this shop with more housing is the opposite of "mixed use". Light industrial should be mixed in with retail, residential, and institutional uses.

 

[CalgaryTiger]

Gotta disagree with you on that one, Tiger.

Great neighbourhoods have a variety of uses including light industrial and that auto shop provides great, affordable service to area residents. I live in the area and I've never observed any negative externality from the operation of the shop. In fact, I must've walked by on 34th hundreds of times without noticing they were there until I took my car there for a repair.

Eventually the site will be redeveloped (likely into some over-scaled stucco-clad townhomes) and unfortunately residents will lose a valuable local service.

Actually, I'm a huge fan of a mechanic shop that I can walk home from. Either way, replacing this shop with more housing is the opposite of "mixed use". Light industrial should be mixed in with retail, residential, and institutional uses.

I don't want my intended point to be missed. It's not that I oppose a mechanics shop in this community. My simple point is this specific shop, however affordable or convenient, (in my opinion) has created an eyesore that likely scares people away from the area. I don't know for a fact that people haven't bought near here because of that shop. I just know it would bug me and it would immediately turn me off from the Marlo development.

I love small business and I like to think of communities as little small towns within a larger city that have a variety of small businesses. I just don't think this property is well kept.

 

[adamyyc]

I don’t have any problem with the business existing in the neighbourhood. My problem is the manner in which it exists. They must do a good job because they are always busy, and I can’t fault them for that, but they have clearly exceeded the capacity of their current operations.

They are bursting at the seams and their operations have spilled out onto the public sidewalks, streets and boulevards.

There is a broken down motorcycle that has been sitting in the boulevard for months? There have been stacks of paver stones piled in the boulevard for weeks/months. There are often skids with engines and parts stacked in the boulevard/sidewalk.

A Common theme on the forum is residential street parking and how Calgarians in general seem to think it’s their right to park in front of their home. Now imagine instead of a home it’s a business, and instead of 1-2 cars it’s 10? 15? 20? cars, sometimes parked for weeks/months at a time.

 

[Silence&Motion]

I don't want my intended point to be missed. It's not that I oppose a mechanics shop in this community. My simple point is this specific shop, however affordable or convenient, (in my opinion) has created an eyesore that likely scares people away from the area. I don't know for a fact that people haven't bought near here because of that shop. I just know it would bug me and it would immediately turn me off from the Marlo development.

I love small business and I like to think of communities as little small towns within a larger city that have a variety of small businesses. I just don't think this property is well kept.

We hold different opinions over its aesthetic value. My kids and I go out of our way to walk by it on the way to the library because they love looking at all the cars and car parts.

More generally, it's literally ONE CORNER out of the roughly 250 blocks that make up the Marda Loop/Garrison/Altadore/South Calgary/Richmond/Knob Hill neighbourhood. Virtually every other corner in the neighbouhood has an EIFS-clad house, townhouse, or duplex. Why the rush to add yet another one to this corner?

 

[lemongrab]

We hold different opinions over its aesthetic value. My kids and I go out of our way to walk by it on the way to the library because they love looking at all the cars and car parts.

More generally, it's literally ONE CORNER out of the roughly 250 blocks that make up the Marda Loop/Garrison/Altadore/South Calgary/Richmond/Knob Hill neighbourhood. Virtually every other corner in the neighbouhood has an EIFS-clad house, townhouse, or duplex. Why the rush to add yet another one to this corner?

No one has argued it needs to be made into housing. It just really undercuts arguments from the community association about parking/aesthetic concerns from other new developments.