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

[SarcasticMarmot]

Except that these exact units and layouts are selling out easily in new suburbs.

It's all about context.

In the suburbs a small 1/2 bedroom townhome is a value proposition. A small, one level place is more affordable than the 3 story places nearby. If you are looking for the suburban life but don't need much house its a good deal.

But near the center you have a plethora of options for a small place, nice condos or small older homes for half the price of these townhomes. They are the expensive option in this context.

 

[SMayo]

Except that these exact units and layouts are selling out easily in new suburbs.

There’s definitely a difference between what people want in the inner city versus out in the suburbs, but the decent success of the more expensive and more traditional townhomes in Blatchford sort of suggests it’s the design of streetside rather than the neighbourhood itself.
If Blatchford is meant to be attracting people looking for an urban inner city style neighborhood then it makes some sense that a suburban style “artificial” townhome development might struggle.

 

[chrisvazquez7]

I would also echo what somebody posited before that the Streetside townhomes are in direct competition with the NX development across the street. We bought into NX after looking at Streetside because it’s just a far superior product for a similar price point. The Streetside units are very small too. With only a 1-car garage. I’m sure that will turn off many people that have two cars.

 

[HappyJazzz]

Why would a notional at best project that's unlikely to turn into anything tangible within the next 20 years justify putting the "brakes" on Blatchford?

Because quite frankly, blatchford development is completely unnecessary at this time, and is likely just slowing down infill of other core neighborhoods.

The old airport lands have enormous potential, but there wasn't any need to hastily develop a new suburban neighborhood there just for the sake of it.

As for the rail, I don't agree with your time estimates. I can see Calgary's Banff train being under construction, if not complete by the end of the decade.

If Edmonton is going to get some me too money, there had best be a plan...

 

[CplKlinger]

The old airport lands have enormous potential, but there wasn't any need to hastily develop a new suburban neighborhood there just for the sake of it.

It's not hasty; they've been planning it for more than a decade. It's not suburban-style; it's three times more dense than a typical suburban neighbourhood and very central. And I'd argue that it has an important role aside from housing people: it's giving private industry invaluable experience with green tech, high efficiency builds, etc. Obviously these aren't new concepts for them, but it's different when they're building this stuff at scale. For example, one reason Blatchford had a slow start was that many builders refused to work with the geothermal energy centre; it was new tech for them, and that brought too much uncertainty. A few years later, and we have a proven large-scale geothermal centre that even the likes of Qualico are getting experience with. The more people and companies have hands-on, first-hand experience with geothermal, heat pumps, high efficiency homes, etc., the better, because it can lead to more options in other communities too.

 

[HappyJazzz]

It's not hasty; they've been planning it for more than a decade. It's not suburban-style; it's three times more dense than a typical suburban neighbourhood and very central. And I'd argue that it has an important role aside from housing people: it's giving private industry invaluable experience with green tech, high efficiency builds, etc. Obviously these aren't new concepts for them, but it's different when they're building this stuff at scale. For example, one reason Blatchford had a slow start was that many builders refused to work with the geothermal energy centre; it was new tech for them, and that brought too much uncertainty. A few years later, and we have a proven large-scale geothermal centre that even the likes of Qualico are getting experience with. The more people and companies have hands-on, first-hand experience with geothermal, heat pumps, high efficiency homes, etc., the better, because it can lead to more options in other communities too.

By hasty I mean they rushed to get something, anything.. going there without thinking of big picture uses. Much like the city did with the old DT railyards and not preserving a row for future commuter rail use.

As for the district energy stuff, don't really think its the city's job to subsidize experimental techniques like that, especially not when we're in the heartland of cheap clean gas energy.

How many kms of new bike lanes could we have gotten instead of that geothermal energy center?

 

[Coprolite]

Because quite frankly, blatchford development is completely unnecessary at this time, and is likely just slowing down infill of other core neighborhoods.

The old airport lands have enormous potential, but there wasn't any need to hastily develop a new suburban neighborhood there just for the sake of it.

As for the rail, I don't agree with your time estimates. I can see Calgary's Banff train being under construction, if not complete by the end of the decade.

If Edmonton is going to get some me too money, there had best be a plan...

Of all of the criticisms one could level against Blatchford, "hasty" is the exact opposite of how things actually happened. Planning started well over a decade ago.

Also, we're not Calgary or Banff where the planning also started years ago. The completion of it has absolutely no bearing upon the timeframes of Calgary-Edmonton. Or Edmonton-anywhere else, because there are NO plans for anything that would improve east-west rail. There is not even anything which would constitute lip service.

By hasty I mean they rushed to get something, anything.. going there without thinking of big picture uses. Much like the city did with the old DT railyards and not preserving a row for future commuter rail use.

That doesn't resemble anything that actually happened either. Blatchford was not rushed. There was well over a decade of planning and preparation before anything was built and it was heavy on big picture including LRT connections.. When it was built it was not just BUILD ANYTHING, otherwise they wouldn't have held to their energy standards, spent all of that time building district energy infrastructure, held to their construction standards, their design guidelines, or their no single detached housing vision. Nor would actual construction have started on such a small, tentative scale and only just now be ramping up years later.

Your story of the downtown rail yards is also far from what actually happened. It was not the city's land at all. CN had discretion for how to dispose of its land, and the city was not in great shape to acquire it when the disposal actually occurred. It's also pretty doubtful that they should have since MacEwan's downtown campus is overwhelmingly the most revitalization downtown has ever seen since its industrial decline started in the 1960s. Nor would it even have been particularly good to hold onto a commuter rail corridor given that the LRT already went through downtown under Jasper Avenue and getting south was going to take the next 30 years.

 

[Coprolite]

Except that these exact units and layouts are selling out easily in new suburbs.

Yeah, I can see how they would do better if they were surrounded by single detached houses instead of better townhouses with legal secondary suites.