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Urban Development and Proposals Discussion

JonnyCanuck said:
Re Victoria Park: inner city single family houses were a casualty in just about every city in North America. As cities grew, attracted more business & other activity, there was need for more commercial space. Also people were moving to the suburbs in the 50"s & 60's. Neighborhoods slowly disappeared. Unless you were a low rent tenant, no one wanted to live in those old Vic Park houses. Many of them looked rather sad and seedy by the end. I agree with the sentiment about tearing them down to put up parking lots for decades to come. What was the point?
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Few people thought it would take decades for Stampede Park to expand to its north. The same can be said for the house demolished in Eau Claire. The massive Eau Claire estates development was supposed to build out by the late 80's.
 
JonnyCanuck said:
Re Victoria Park: inner city single family houses were a casualty in just about every city in North America. As cities grew, attracted more business & other activity, there was need for more commercial space. Also people were moving to the suburbs in the 50"s & 60's. Neighborhoods slowly disappeared. Unless you were a low rent tenant, no one wanted to live in those old Vic Park houses. Many of them looked rather sad and seedy by the end. I agree with the sentiment about tearing them down to put up parking lots for decades to come. What was the point?
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Parking revenue for events, remember when people would be parking as many cars as they could fit in the backyards?
 
I think in the case of Stampede Park the original plan was to develop the northern part of the park but when the Flames started talking about building a new arena in the mid 2000s the Stampede delayed their plan. After all, that land north of the Saddledome would be a perfect place to build a new arena and the Stampede would be one of the benefactors to having a major arena in their backyard. I'm sure they were also well aware that the Saddledome's days were numbered if a new arena was built. Of course this only explains for the parking lots between the Saddledome and 12th Ave.
 
If memory serves the Stampede's original master plan was to expand north all the way to the CPR tracks. It was this looming expansion that hastened Victoria Park's decline as land owners knew the Stampede board wanted their land but weren't sure exactly when but nobody wanted to invest money into their property.

Finally in the early 2000s (maybe late 90s?) when the Stampede officially acquired all the land north to 12th Ave part of the deal was they officially set 12th Ave as the northern limit to the Stampede's expansion. With peace of mind, developers were willing to sink money into the land north of 12th but by then it was too late to save any of the neighbourhood character or homes.
 
Duck Lightning said:
I think in the case of Stampede Park the original plan was to develop the northern part of the park but when the Flames started talking about building a new arena in the mid 2000s the Stampede delayed their plan. After all, that land north of the Saddledome would be a perfect place to build a new arena and the Stampede would be one of the benefactors to having a major arena in their backyard. I'm sure they were also well aware that the Saddledome's days were numbered if a new arena was built. Of course this only explains for the parking lots between the Saddledome and 12th Ave.
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Victoria Park's history is defined through two politically-connected, tax-payer supported groups of local business elites jockeying for position for decades. The most material result of this form of city building is the total destruction of a low-income neighbourhood and two taxpayer funded arenas in 40 years.

Even if someone doesn't care too much about the equity and fairness of such things, the neighbourhood's vacant wasteland speaks for itself on if this is an approach to city building we should trust to create good places or not.
 
Mountain Man said:
Imagine if the Stampede actually went right to the tracks, with their brutal planning it would have entirely cut Victoria Park off from the River and Ramsay.
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...and be a dead zone most of the year. I still think the entire Stampede riverfront should be redeveloped, including the Grandstand. The land is too desirable to only be used 10 days per year
 
DougB said:
...and be a dead zone most of the year. I still think the entire Stampede riverfront should be redeveloped, including the Grandstand. The land is too desirable to only be used 10 days per year
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Couldn't agree more. The area that I think is critical in connecting our urban fabric and currently is a major gap everything between Erlton Station and future Crossroads LRT station. Ramsay Exchange died ages ago, but these lands have never really had a cohesive plan and it is a critical connection from the SW to SE inner city. Ramsay and Mission/Erlton are very close but feel so far away due to how terribly disconnected they are.
These parcels really need to be addressed and intensified and enhanced pedestrian and cycling connections need to be made. Not to mention we need to reclaim the riverfront from being horse barn parking lots that are used two weeks of the year.
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Calgcouver said:
Couldn't agree more. The area that I think is critical in connecting our urban fabric and currently is a major gap everything between Erlton Station and future Crossroads LRT station. Ramsay Exchange died ages ago, but these lands have never really had a cohesive plan and it is a critical connection from the SW to SE inner city. Ramsay and Mission/Erlton are very close but feel so far away due to how terribly disconnected they are.
These parcels really need to be addressed and intensified and enhanced pedestrian and cycling connections need to be made. Not to mention we need to reclaim the riverfront from being horse barn parking lots that are used two weeks of the year.
View attachment 302983
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I'm pretty sure you are only dealing with a single landowner here too - the city owns most/all of that land.

I think the Stampede uses most of the highlighted section and a bunch on the eastern section is probably floating along as a classic interchange land dedication zombie project, from a plan from 50 years ago to connect 25 Ave and Blackfoot that won't ever see the light of day as it's never a priority but won't be sold off either. If you aggregated all the land that has been dedicated for interchanges that don't exist currently - and won't or shouldn't exist in the future - I wonder how much tax revenue the city has forgone for the 50+ years of holding onto some of these sites.
 
Mountain Man said:
Why did they get rid of horse racing at Stampede Park? the park would be better off if they used it more often...
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Horse Racing Alberta thought it was getting a bad deal and could make more money with independent racing tracks with casinos attached to them. The provincial government, enthralled by the horse racing lobby at the time let them. And encouraged them to punish the big cities by building mega malls, race tracks and casinos outside of city limits.
 
I don't believe I've seen this mentioned here before but here another mass mixed use development for W 16th Ave just South of Valley Ridge & East of Crestmont. I initially just thought it was Greenwich, but its not. This one is WEST by SHAPE. The stand out feature for me was the pedestrian mall through the middle of the development.

West Mixed Use Development

Highstreet Calgary is a regional shopping centre development in West Calgary with close to 1,400 feet of frontage along the Trans-Canada Highway. The mixed-use open air regional shopping centre will include 650,000 sq ft of retail and some 800-1000 on site residences.
majorprojects.alberta.ca majorprojects.alberta.ca

West | SHAPE

[...]Read More...
shapeproperties.com shapeproperties.com

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hero-desktop-west.jpg
 
JonnyCanuck said:
I thought there already was a DP application for the above. Shape is a Vancouver based developer
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It has been around for at least 5 years, but I think it was put on hold until the West Ring Road was well underway, which it is now. The greatly improved interchange and access at the Crestmont / Valley Ridge access will be what makes this project viable now I think.

Shape is also the company that redeveloped the Deerfoot City Mall at Deerfoot and 64th Ave NE.
 
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