Stantec Tower | 250.84m | 66s | ICE District Prop.

What do you think of this project?

  • Total voters
    64
Greenspace said:
The approved DC2 for Horne and Pitfield has an expanded sidewalk along 103 Avenue taking up the parking spaces for trees and street furniture.

In some places from 102 to 109 Street, 103 Avenue is 7 lanes wide with parking. That's insane. There's definitely room for expanded sidewalks with trees, which in my mind was a huge missed opportunity when they did microsurfacing of the road last year. Not asking for a full new streetscape, just wider sidewalks with some trees. All you have to do is take out the left turning lane.
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There's really only 4 is lanes and parking, but the parking spills over to the outside lanes with bigger vehicles which happens often. What turning lane? Its pretty much converted parking, you can't count it as an extra lane. The road doesn't get any wider, and often times there's really only a vehicle length or so left to the intersection due to parked vehicles to get into said turning lane. And removing lanes with out removing parking will still result in problem's for people that live on 103ave.

Like I said if the shoe was on the other foot for some of you the story would be a lot different. It's really easy to push for something when it doesn't effect you.

Horne and Pitfield was sold to Westrich, yet to see any info on their plans for the site other than ~40ish stories.

There’s a good chance to be 2 maybe three towers built at the intersection of 103ave and 104st in the next 7-10 years. I don’t doubt Westrich will build something, jury’s out on the Wexford site. Adding even more density to probably the densit residential couple blocks in the city.

And like I and others have said with the LRT running down 102nd odds are that will increase traffic on 103rd ave.

What 103rd ave really needs is street front retail or anything other than parkades. The road size suits its needs for the density when required. Just the stucco facades (except for HSBC) of the parkades and the empty lot. All there really is for street interaction is a dilapidated hotel/dive bar, crystal glass, and a couple of one story converted old warehouses to offices. That’s all there is south of the ID, some trees will just be lipstick on the farmers ugliest pig. There is already tree's along 103ave in front of the CC west parkade and accouple by the HSBC parkade, and last summer there was a planter with a tree Infront crash hotel at the corner of 103ave and 103st, in the past there has been flower beds put out as well. Don't think there was last summer due to the paving, and any existing side walk beautification has been restricted by the utilities construction for ID and the LRT. The road and side walks were tore up continuously until recently. most of the your problems are not with the road size it’s more what’s along it.

But then there’s also the problem of the amount of already empty CRUs in the core. Trying to have your cake and eat it too is hard.
 
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I do agree it is a bit barren and adding some trees and other things would help some. However, the 7 or so parkades and big events at Rogers are not going to disappear, so I don't think constricting the road much is a good idea.

I also feel we need to be smarter so we should focus the spending on such streetscape improvements on the streets downtown that have retail or more potential for that. There is not an unlimited amount of money to throw around willy nilly.
 
If we require larger sidewalks, ban street parking, establish 3 lanes with one dedicated to morning and evening rush hours going both ways using traffic lights to indicate when you are allowed double lanes like we have in the past.
 
Clearshades said:
If we require larger sidewalks, ban street parking, establish 3 lanes with one dedicated to morning and evening rush hours going both ways using traffic lights to indicate when you are allowed double lanes like we have in the past.
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The thing is there really is no set traffic direction based on time, equal traffic going east and west. The only difference is the heavier traffic heading to 109th st after Rogers events. Its one if the most dense if not the most in the city, and will add more towers along it in the next decade, restricting it would be a mistake and I doubt any city planner would give it a second thought with 102ave down to one lane.

Again there's no need to make the road smaller to make it look better the issue is what's along the south side of the road resulting in the barren look.

Living DT for the last 6 years I've never thought a street looked terrible due to the size of its side walks... Its whats on the street that makes the difference. I don't think anyone's ever walked past a crack shack and though you know if this place had wider side walks it would be a great place to hang out...
 
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I fully understand your situation, and my statement is not a black or white solution. That said, the idea definitely require proper rumination and study for a win win outcome. 102 ave did this long ago without issues. Pertaining to the arena, that too can be accommodated. Dear goodness, if you go to China and visit populated cities that had to be re-transformed, you'll understand my point; it would make this dilemma look non existent
 
Clearshades said:
I fully understand your situation, and my statement is not a black or white solution. That said, the idea definitely require proper rumination and study for a win win outcome. 102 ave did this long ago without issues. Pertaining to the arena, that too can be accommodated. Dear goodness, if you go to China and visit populated cities that had to be re-transformed, you'll understand my point; it would make this dilemma look non existent
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102 ave doesn't have as many parkades feeding directly onto it, and the planning for the LRT to run on 102 ave started in 2009. Long before a the boom of residential towers in the core. Looking at google street view 102 ave had the same size side walks back in 2007, so they were that size prior to even the Icon's construction starting. Only subtraction was the addition of the bike lane, which was probably plan in conjunction with adding the LRT. Adding mass transit like an LRT to the core, when under ground wasn't an option 102 ave was a logic choice to sacrifice.
 
Not so much that they exit onto it, but that they exit onto a side street such as Manulife, Commerce, YMCA, and oneway south is not particularly great at peak.
 
How would that affect 103ave.?

How many parkade exit traverse onto 103 ave in the direct juncture of what KreationYeg's area? CC mall and the one next to CC mall kitty corner to Stantec are what I can think of.
 
IanO said:
Not so much that they exit onto it, but that they exit onto a side street such as Manulife, Commerce, YMCA, and oneway south is not particularly great at peak.
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Yes, left turns are harder when the street is busy or congested. However its not just the issue of the number of parkades on this or the other street.

I realize the LRT had to go somewhere, so 102 Ave was chosen, which is fine, but that then puts more pressure on the adjacent streets of which 103 Ave is one.
 
^
Coun Knack has been leading initiative for city to integrate Dutch style inductive loops where traffic presence is detected to help improve flow for cars/bikes.

andrewknack.ca

Better Traffic Flow in Edmonton (January 2024) — Andrew Knack for Mayor

In early 2023 I wrote a blog post on a motion I made about how we can work to better improve traffic flow in Edmonton. You can read that post here to get caught up . In early December, the report on this motion came back to our Urban Planning Committee and it provided more details as to how we ca
andrewknack.ca andrewknack.ca

Somewhat related to no left turns, Montreal and New York are the only North American cities allowing no right turns on red. But several major US cities as well as Toronto are considering getting on board with that to reduce pedestrian injuries and fatalities.

montrealgazette.com

Josh Freed: U.S. cities helping themselves to another slice of Montreal's distinct identity

And their lobby groups have already invented a catchy short moniker to market our city's long-standing practice of no-right-turns-on-red lights: NTOR.
montrealgazette.com montrealgazette.com
 
TAS said:
^
Coun Knack has been leading initiative for city to integrate Dutch style inductive loops where traffic presence is detected to help improve flow for cars/bikes.

andrewknack.ca

Better Traffic Flow in Edmonton (January 2024) — Andrew Knack for Mayor

In early 2023 I wrote a blog post on a motion I made about how we can work to better improve traffic flow in Edmonton. You can read that post here to get caught up . In early December, the report on this motion came back to our Urban Planning Committee and it provided more details as to how we ca
andrewknack.ca andrewknack.ca
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I really hope they dial in the bike lane induction loops better though. I get really inconsistent results with my radrunner e-bike, probably because it's so much larger than a normal bike, I only properly trigger about half of the loops.
I end up having to go up on the sidewalk to hit the button half the time. It does make me long a little for the bike crossing buttons you'd see in Vancouver, where they have a second button on the street for bikes.
 
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