Infill Development Discussion

[Durchlassigkeitsbeiwert]

Long-time lurker here
I stumbled upon that looks like decent approach to managing infill footprint:
strategically placing buildings along the property perimeter on a corner lot creates a large enough courtyard to be usable, while also increasing amount of natural light getting into units. This contrasts with some other infill applications I am seeing with narrow ravine-like gaps between two parallel buildings.
Other positive elements include hail-prone? material choice and height variation.
Application link

 

[Surrealplaces]

Long-time lurker here
I stumbled upon that looks like decent approach to managing infill footprint:
strategically placing buildings along the property perimeter on a corner lot creates a large enough courtyard to be usable, while also increasing amount of natural light getting into units. This contrasts with some other infill applications I am seeing with narrow ravine-like gaps between two parallel buildings.
Other positive elements include hail-prone? material choice and height variation.
Application link

View attachment 622024

They had me at brick exterior.

 

[Spring2008]

Same project in Ramsay, I like the scale of this one with a little retail bay.

https://www.hindle-architects.com/black-white-site

Side note, is 12 street se part of the main streets program? I see the Shed project looks to be starting and then further south theres’s a lot of cool historical brick buildings. This area could be quite a nice midrise area mixing in the old brick buildings with modern and some more quirky shops/breweries.

 

[Alex_YYC]

Noticed this infill on 25th Ave NW. Garage doors are in the front, something you don’t typically see.

 

[Nimbus]

Garage doors in front? Hot garbage.

 

[MichaelS]

No lane access for this oddly shaped parcel by the looks of it:

Google Maps

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

www.google.com

 

[Surrealplaces]

Not really a fan either. I'm guessing it's because of it being on a weird angle shaped lot with no alley? If it's a one of, we won't see too many like this.

 

[Nimbus]

Should be a zero parking site, 5 garages? 5 new points of conflict right next to that odd angle intersection. Good times.

 

[badc0ffee]

To be fair those are low-traffic streets.

 

[Calgcouver]

To be fair those are low-traffic streets.

Great, look at the corner sweep there. Great place to do donuts on a residential street. Couldn’t have maxed the asphalt more

 

[Nimbus]

Probably some epic sneckdown on that intersection on snow days.

 

[CBBarnett]

Great, look at the corner sweep there. Great place to do donuts on a residential street. Couldn’t have maxed the asphalt more

Some rough math puts the useless section of this intersection at around 250 - 350 square metres, depending on how you define "useless". My math doesn't even include if you want to actually right-size the streets too. It's about equivalent to a semi-detached lot. If combined with the adjacent parcel you can probably fit a couple more units here if you were creative with the weird angles (obviously even more if it's higher density).

My favourite part is you can't even use it for parking as it's an intersection. It's all liability, no asset - non-permeable area increasing run-off, traffic safety nightmare, not useable for parking, a repaving cost every decade or two in perpetuity. Banff Trail has a dozen or more of these over-paved intersections that operate with similarly zero usefulness.

 

[Urban Outdoorsman]

So I actually grew up right in front of the aforementioned intersection. Had some fun times drifting there in highschool

But yes it ugly and a waste of space. I always thought it would have been nice just to have a little island with some trees in the middle but that seems like a pipe dream.

 

[CalgaryTiger]

I would love to know the city's process when the time comes for transportation to look at this application, do they even take a little time to think, could the street around this be better? The answer is no they likely don't, repeat this for every DP and you have where we are. There are so many fun little opportunities, I wish Community Associations were stronger and took things like this on. @Urban Outdoorsman 's tree/green island is great. It doesn't have to be some big expensive re design just something modular.

 

[MichaelS]

I would love to know the city's process when the time comes for transportation to look at this application, do they even take a little time to think, could the street around this be better? The answer is no they likely don't, repeat this for every DP and you have where we are. There are so many fun little opportunities, I wish Community Associations were stronger and took things like this on. @Urban Outdoorsman 's tree/green island is great. It doesn't have to be some big expensive re design just something modular.

The challenge is the scope/scale of the development. A smallish infill missing middle project, should it be saddled with what would likely be a high 6 figures cost to rebuild a massive intersection? Agreed the road could change, but it is not to be done on the back of a single development permit.

More detailed infrastructure designs need to accompany the Local Area Plans, for issues just like this. Then, a comprehensive list of projects can be identified to accompany all of the planned growth, and maybe even some sort of levy developed to fund such projects. Unfortunately though, our LAPs tend to have minimal engineering / infrastructure analysis in them, and prefer to have planners colouring blocks to fit certain land uses, and leave implementation for someone else to figure out.