Urban Development and Proposals Discussion

[JonnyCanuck]

I don't think there is a CA that represents the core as a whole. Chinatown has their own CA and so does Eau Claire. However the balance of residential in downtown is so spread out, it does not feel like a community at all.

 

[Surrealplaces]

If they can create residential units with retail at the ground floor, that's a win. My biggest hope out of all this talk of revitalizing downtown is for more people to activate the area outside business hours. I read somewhere that there is no Community Association downtown, is that true?

It’s good to convert an office building to residential and add Art Commons, but IMO the biggest detractor to downtown is the lack of business facing the street front, and the hours the businesses keep.
The busiest streets through downtown or Center, Street through Chinatown, 1st St., South of 7th Ave., and Stephen Avenue /8th Ave as well as 8th street. Not surprising either. They are the only streets that have any kind of decent retail facing the street, and aren’t filled with large office buildings.

That said, if the city was able to convert a half dozen office buildings to residential, plus build a few new ones, the number of people in the core may help spur on the businesses.

 

[Chowda7]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/airdrie-pathway-connection-to-calgary-1.6002506

 

[Mountain Man]

Seems like a good idea to me! Cycling between Calgary and it's Suburbs should be easy given how much space there is and everyone owns a new bike now apparently lol.

 

[DougB]

It’s good to convert an office building to residential and add Art Commons, but IMO the biggest detractor to downtown is the lack of business facing the street front, and the hours the businesses keep.
The busiest streets through downtown or Center, Street through Chinatown, 1st St., South of 7th Ave., and Stephen Avenue /8th Ave as well as 8th street. Not surprising either. They are the only streets that have any kind of decent retail facing the street, and aren’t filled with large office buildings.

That said, if the city was able to convert a half dozen office buildings to residential, plus build a few new ones, the number of people in the core may help spur on the businesses.

Street front retail is a challenge as smaller CRU's aren't suited to much beyond restaurants, bars, liquor stores, personal services like hair salons. Most shoppers want selection and competitive pricing, which small stores simply can't deliver.

 

[darwink]

Street front retail is a challenge as smaller CRU's aren't suited to much beyond restaurants, bars, liquor stores, personal services like hair salons. Most shoppers want selection and competitive pricing, which small stores simply can't deliver.

Small shops don't really need much volume as long as their costs are low., and the way to keep their costs low is to provide small CRUs.

 

[Sambo]

If they don't want to trigger a new DP, then yes. These guys don't get a free pass from the development department for their new dream DQ since the first was destroyed by fire. They can rebuild exactly the same way without issue, or go through the same process everyone else in the city does if they want a new development. Rules are rules, despite Corbella's fake outrage.

Corbella: Dairy Queen development's changes vast improvement over 'like-for-like'

On Friday afternoon, after a veritable firestorm erupted over what is now being dubbed DQgate by some on social media, the City of Calgary’s Community Planning depa…

calgaryherald.com

nothing fake about this outrage.

 

[Chinook Arch]

Street front retail is a challenge as smaller CRU's aren't suited to much beyond restaurants, bars, liquor stores, personal services like hair salons. Most shoppers want selection and competitive pricing, which small stores simply can't deliver.

Virtually all of the stores inside the +15 are small CRU. The businesses facing the street would be different than most of the ones in the +15, but many could still do it, and be open later hours.

 

[DougB]

Virtually all of the stores inside the +15 are small CRU. The businesses facing the street would be different than most of the ones in the +15, but many could still do it, and be open later hours.

The +15 CRU's were struggling pre-pandemic.

 

[Atticus]

Street front retail is a challenge as smaller CRU's aren't suited to much beyond restaurants, bars, liquor stores, personal services like hair salons. Most shoppers want selection and competitive pricing, which small stores simply can't deliver.

There are lots of different types of street facing retail that can survive downtown. Before Brookfield Place, Telus Sky, and 707-5th street were built, the previous buildings all had retail bays, and they were doing fine. Mostly restaurants and small specialty stores, but they were there, and they were open beyond 5:00pm.

 

[Mountain Man]

Corbella: Dairy Queen development's changes vast improvement over 'like-for-like'

On Friday afternoon, after a veritable firestorm erupted over what is now being dubbed DQgate by some on social media, the City of Calgary’s Community Planning depa…

calgaryherald.com

nothing fake about this outrage.

Everything is fake about her outrage, she keeps leaving out critical details. Changes to the plans require a new DP, that's how it is on every project that goes into the city. If they wanted to build they should have kept it the same, and it sounds like they were informed of this more than once. Sorry, fake news!

 

[darwink]

The +15 CRU's were struggling pre-pandemic.

With their main input cost of small CRU businesses being rent, maybe the landlords could look at you know, lowering rents?

 

[Silence&Motion]

Actually, the applicants made all sorts of changes to their original plan to accommodate requests by the city and their new plan was rejected anyway because they simply don’t want a DQ built there. Those are the facts as laid out in the documents and as heard during the SDAB hearing.

Once again Corbella takes up almost all the column dishing out heaps of melodrama rather than actually getting to the heart of the issue, which she breezes past in the second last paragraph without providing any concrete details. "All sorts of changes"? What changes, exactly? You're a journalist. Do your damned job! "Simply don't want a DQ built there"? Now she's just lying. She has absolutely no evidence to back up that explosive change because she just made it up to spark culture war outrage.

 

[YYCguy]

She really is a piece of work! I’m so annoyed with her! She whipped up everyone into a frenzy and has distorted the facts that she did have and left out other facts altogether. But the average Joe or Josephine doesn’t fully understand planning matters (and it appears that she doesn’t either) so she relied on that ignorance to get everyone upset.

 

[Surrealplaces]

Wondering if anyone knows what’s going into this building in Sunnyside? It’s s cool little space.