Blatchford Development | ?m | ?s | City of Edmonton

There is supposed to be mid rise/ low high rise around the stations I believe. I also don't really have a problem with townhomes. They're very popular right now because they offer a lot of the things people like about suburban development (quiet, front and backyards), with less of the draw backs (less car dependent, denser, closer to parks and services and all the other nice things that come with density).
 
One nice thing about this is that they're also zoning land for a play area and park that would link the existing school (amiskwaciy academy) to the main Blatchford park where the pond is. It's good they're making improvements for the school and integrating it into the neighbourhood, rather than boxing it in with developments so that amenities like the park are only easily accessible for residents.
This is great to see! amiskwaciy is really lacking the green space that basically any other junior high/high school in the city would have. The way this plan appears to link the school more to the community and the pond is good to see as well.

Regarding Blatchford becoming a "sea of townhomes", I believe this part of Blatchford was always intended to be townhomes with the medium density closer to the LRT station. As far as I know, these rezonings are not getting away from the original density goals at all.
 
Why not?

It's good density, much needed product and would provide a much different experience.

That said, I still want some mid-rise (for density) around the LRT station.
Kind of of defeats the purpose of a dense, walkable, mixed use neighbourhood if it meets none of those things, does it not?

In today's retail landscape, mid density townhomes alone won't be enough to sustain walkable amenities in the area. A couple apartments along one street likely won't add enough density either.
 
Granted, 'brownstones of today' don't usually have someone downstairs too, but the density per/ha is pretty high still and would support a pretty urban form and neighbourhood. Add in a few mid-rise on corners and Robert is your stepdad.
 
Given the number of neighbourhoods that are a sea of houses, I would welcome a sea of townhomes here.
I think townhomes get a bad name in large part because some of the lower quality ones built years ago in some previous booms, but some of the new ones are actually quite nice.

They can be an improvement to areas where new ones are built to replace older, small, run down single family homes or fill in empty spaces.
 
I don't have an issue with townhomes and I think they're a good form of more dense family oriented housing. My issue is when all you have is townhomes and not enough amenities/commercial/higher density forms of housing to support it. We are starting to see this a lot in Vancouver suburbs like Surrey where you'll have entire neighbourhoods of townhouses, but no retail within at least a km radius. It ends up being just a more dense car oriented suburb.
 
Streetside has townhomes starting at $399k in Blatchford. That's an important price point compared to what's been selling predominantly there so far. Hope there's a few options even less expensive than that as well (though I doubt it, given it's central. Suspect most of the affordable spots will be in the larger multi-family developments)

 
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Anyone hear any rumblings about any development around the new LRT station? Seems odd that the Blatchford road network has not started to be built out around there, to encourage some developers to start building around this new station. Maybe the buildings will start to be announced once the roads are done?
 
Anyone hear any rumblings about any development around the new LRT station? Seems odd that the Blatchford road network has not started to be built out around there, to encourage some developers to start building around this new station. Maybe the buildings will start to be announced once the roads are done?
Likely they want to build the U/G utility infrastructure outward from what's already built in Blatchford, which is probably the hold up.
 
Anyone hear any rumblings about any development around the new LRT station? Seems odd that the Blatchford road network has not started to be built out around there, to encourage some developers to start building around this new station. Maybe the buildings will start to be announced once the roads are done?
They expanded the road network out toward the LRT line this fall. I imagine builders will start building out that way soon.
 

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