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Urban Development and Proposals Discussion
- Thread starter Surrealplaces
- Start date
MichaelS
Senior Member
I think the Kerby Centre tried to purchase it about 6-7 years ago, to move to that location and develop a seniors living highrise as well, but the City didn't approve the sale for some reason.
Calgcouver
Active Member
Ah, widening a “Main Street” to 11 lanes wide. That seems to be right in line with our current main streets policy, the City shouldn’t work on improving that.
ByeByeBaby
Active Member
Why have a stuffy old Main Street like this:
When for only hundreds of millions of dollars you can have a new, vital, climate-emergency-friendly Main Street like this:
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MissingMiddle
Active Member
I might be missing something, but this doesn't make sense to me. Heritage Dr isn't high flow, and there's lighted intersections both north & south of here. I would think that MacLeod would want to be more of a boulevard and less of a stroad - this interchange would move in the opposite direction.
haltcatchfire
Senior Member
Roads Dept: “Quick!! He’s onto us! Shut him down!”
KrisYYC
New Member
I live in Haysboro and would love to see some improvements to the area around Macleod and Heritage. I feel bad for those who bought in the London buildings thinking the other two towers would be built and the area around be redeveloped. Horton Rd. is nasty. If this project at Heritage Plaza goes ahead hopefully it'll spur some other improvements around here. Though I'm not sure a big interchange will help. Instead of an interchange could they have Heritage go under the tracks on the west side of MacLeod?
I don't think they could. Heritage still needs to connect to Macleod, which means ramps and that awful mess we see in the diagram above. And, there's the additional challenge that Heritage goes up a hill to the east. This is why I think putting the tracks in a trench is the best solution.
DougB
Senior Member
Macleod is a lost cause as it is too vital a commuter route and is already suburban strip mall hell. The primary benefits of the Heritage interchange would be grade separation from the LRT and CPKC freight rail, and improved access to Horton Road which could potentially enable TOD. Carrying Heritage over Macleod is likely of small incremental cost and may be the only feasible option given the grades.
CBBarnett
Senior Member
Some form of grade separation might make sense as part of the transit-grade separation project - but if it's hard today for the area to be attractive to TOD, imagine trying to locate next to an elevated free-flow traffic circle with swooping curves and a 50km/h minimum design speed, 10m above the ground out everyone's 3rd and 4th floor windows. At the very least, reduce the footprint and design speeds of everything in the interchange to tighten stuff up.
TOD is about championing land development potential and pedestrian connections near transit - the current and proposed future state are not anywhere close to achieving this. MacLeod is hardly a lost cause - TOD can be successful on big, loud roads too - but not when 40% of the land is taken up with a design like this.
KrisYYC
New Member
Would that mean a complete redesign and do-over to Heritage station? I assume so as Heritage Dr. is right next to the station.
I know nothing about urban planning or design but I always thought if money was no issue it would be cool to put the LRT underground from Heritage Station north with Chinook station being right underneath Chinook mall. But we gotta work with what we got.
Yeah, they would need to move or rebuild Heritage station. But I don't think any land would need to be purchased.
DougB
Senior Member
The TOD potential is mostly on the west side of Macleod, mainly along Horton Road
CalgaryTiger
Senior Member
IMO there's an easy and exciting solution here...
The city can put in their traffic circle for people entering/exiting Macloed but it will feel much different to the TOD as from the surface what you see is a traffic circle. You lose the ability to make this section of Macleod a Mainstreet but the trade-offs of a walkable, green, interchange that makes TOD here a pretty intriguing proposition.
Who says no?
- Build an interchange where Macleod runs as it is, Heritage goes over Macleod and the tracks
- Backfill the Northeast, Southeast, and Southwest corners of the interchange
- Stop Horton Road at the bottle depot and turn it into a cul-de-sac, it can be accessed by the very capable Macleod and 86 Ave intersection
- Cap/cover over Macleod from the edge of the Minit Lube to the access road to the Spirit Halloween big/small box store strip mall thing in the Northeast corner. I mean just look at this:
The city can put in their traffic circle for people entering/exiting Macloed but it will feel much different to the TOD as from the surface what you see is a traffic circle. You lose the ability to make this section of Macleod a Mainstreet but the trade-offs of a walkable, green, interchange that makes TOD here a pretty intriguing proposition.
Who says no?
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outoftheice
Active Member
What is the deal with those 2 London towers that were never completed? Did the developer turn the land over to the condo corporation? Do they still own it and could they build? Is this potentially a good candidate for a few rental towers to round out the development? It seems weird to me that the footprint is there and nothing further has happened in years