Exhibition Lands Redevelopment | ?m | ?s | City of Edmonton

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https://twitter.com/x/status/2002061602359546200
 
Sounds interesting, is there any more details on this specific part of the project? Also, so I don't know if it's already been discussed but what is going to happen to our yearly exhibition? If the entire area is going to be surrounded by residential and other stuff I don't see where there's going to be room for a yearly exhibition/ kdays.
 
Coming to Urban Planning Committee on April 21:

Exhibition Lands Update - Explore Edmonton Land Needs Assessment

Three big takeaways are:

1. The 15 hectares allocated to Explore Edmonton in the long term are not sufficient to host K-Days, which requires at least 21 hectares.
2. A third-party analysis (attachment 3) found that allocating 21 hectares to Explore Edmonton instead of 15, and cutting back the number of residential units or anchor tenants accordingly, would give the city a larger return on investment.
3. The city and provincial funding for coliseum demolition/site redevelopment will be put toward the demolition and conversion of the property into a temporary event space for Explore Edmonton to use until it is developed in around 20 years. "A strategy for Capital Profile CM-99-9000 - Infrastructure Delivery - Growth will be developed as part of the 2027-2030 budget cycle. Options for the funding could include the rehabilitation or replacement of the existing Coliseum LRT Station, the development of the new South Transit Village Station or another capital project within the plan area."
 
EtoV said:
I mean if that's the consideration, then we also shouldn't allow suburban development til those are built out haha
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I agree. I don't think they are in such close proximity or so similar that one affects the others. Rossdale hasn't been developed for 50 years and may not be for another 50 at this rate, so it should not hold up other things.

However, I do agree it is important to have sufficient space for the exhibition. That should have been obvious from the beginning.
 
For me it is more about the loss of a major exhibition grounds, racetrack/facility and economic driver; I know that Explore Edmonton and others have concerns about this.

The last thing that we need right now is yet another significant residential redevelopment site like this.

Maybe let's finish Blatchford (and the Quarters) first?
 
IanO said:
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Is the City abandoning the plan to return 118th to at grade? You would think that would be an important consideration in this discussion, because their proposed long term solution of using the Coliseum lands for KDays would then require KDays attendees to exit the lands, wait to cross 118th, and then go through re-entry. And what programming are they expecting to use for the Coliseum lands besides KDays when there won't be simple, easy access between the event lands and the EXPO Centre?

Beyond that, won't that mean that the Coliseum lands are essentially empty and vacant for 95%+ of the time? Isn't that exactly what the neighbouring communities did not want with the demolition and redevelopment of the Coliseum lands?

Feels like the City is creating their own problems and then pursuing the most convoluted solutions to resolve them. Plan for residential and/or commercial on the Coliseum lands and retain the required existing space for KDays/other events that's actually adjacent to the EXPO Centre. What am I missing here?
 
northlands said:
Is the City abandoning the plan to return 118th to at grade? You would think that would be an important consideration in this discussion, because their proposed long term solution of using the Coliseum lands for KDays would then require KDays attendees to exit the lands, wait to cross 118th, and then go through re-entry. And what programming are they expecting to use for the Coliseum lands besides KDays when there won't be simple, easy access between the event lands and the EXPO Centre?
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I hope they keep 118th Ave below-grade, not just to maintain uninterrupted access between the Coliseum grounds and the current exhibition grounds, but also because what’s the point of adding an at-grade LRT crossing to a busy east-west roadway? Especially on a railway ROW with the space for a potential regional rail/Via Rail spur to Downtown? I also really want them to essentially move almost all the main programming of K-Days (the rides, food, games, concerts and exhibitions) to the old Coliseum lands, with some stuff on the lot north of the Expo Centre. That way, most of the event is facing the nicer front side of the Expo and it’s way closer to the train station. Obviously, you have to keep that pedway above 118th Ave for this. Not sure how you tie in Klondike Park with the rest of the fair in this scenario, but at least now you can open up the bulk of land south of the Expo for contiguous development.

northlands said:
Beyond that, won't that mean that the Coliseum lands are essentially empty and vacant for 95%+ of the time? Isn't that exactly what the neighbouring communities did not want with the demolition and redevelopment of the Coliseum lands?
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We could move the Expo parking lot up to the old Coliseum lands as the south parking lot along Wayne Gretzky Drive get redeveloped. The Expo still gets events throughout the year that would make good use of it. The only con is during the 10 days of K-Days itself, you lose almost all the parking, but the LRT access is great, and as the system expands, there will be plenty of new park'n'rides (Lewis Farms, Heritage Valley). Speaking of park'n'rides, in the 95% of the year when K-Days isn't on, we're left with a giant asphalt lot by an LRT station and close to a major regional highway. I think we have a good idea of what it could be used for...
 
IanO said:
For me it is more about the loss of a major exhibition grounds, racetrack/facility and economic driver; I know that Explore Edmonton and others have concerns about this.

The last thing that we need right now is yet another significant residential redevelopment site like this.

Maybe let's finish Blatchford (and the Quarters) first?
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The horseracing ship sailed when Northlands went under and Century Mile was built at EIA, so I'm not sad at all that the spectrum and racetrack are going away. We do need to continue to have space for KDays though.
 
Not every empty piece of land near transit needs to turn into housing. With how close this is to the LRT, it feels like a missed opportunity not to keep some of it for bigger recreational space too. Just look at what Coronation Park has become, there’s clearly value in that kind of thing. You could have a mix of tennis courts, basketball courts, soccer fields, baseball diamonds, even ice rinks, all building off what’s already at Borden Park. It could really connect the whole stretch from Commonwealth to the Coliseum into something more cohesive. with the rec centre already there too you could create this into an athletic hub for casual to professional play. Imagine even a recreational lake for rowing etc... (what blatchford was supposed to have...) I'd like to see housing compliment a broader vision rather than be the main objective.

I guess to put shortly: i'd like to see more vision and imagination behind these things, with a broader look at the whole city and what latent potentials that might exist instead of suffocating every opportunity with ugly low rises and calling it a day.
 
They should have reserved sufficient hard and soft surfaces area immediately south of the Expo Centre to host K-Days and it should also be visually accessible from the LRT to try and entice people to attend (and to use transit to and from)..

Outside of K-Days, that space could host the exterior component for conventions that need exterior show spaces as well as indoor meeting spaces - Peterbilt, Kenworth, Massey-Fergusson, Caterpillar, Bombardier, Siemens, John Deere, etc. These groups all have annual conventions and trade shows that are now all held at the same relatively limited locations year after year because few cities can give them that exterior component. More localized events like motorsport gymkhanas or annual winter driving skill courses or tire testing could also take place along with smaller scale outdoor concerts (if the noise could be managed)...

All of these events would support local retail as those components get added to the area and all of them could use downtown hotels and amenities with LRT and event shuttles connecting things (as they do in Vegas and Miami etc.).
 
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