Southwest Transportation Improvements

[The_Cat]

I think south will be the most popular direction for Edmonton’s expansion. CFB Edmonton and St. Albert are on the North boundary, Parkland County and the Enoch First Nation are to the west, Sherwood Park and Strathcona County are to the east. I’m guessing that serious consideration will be given to expanding the LRT even further south and extending Terwillegar even further south as part of another access to the QEII.

 

[Windermere]

Yet, people still buy new houses there for some odd reason. I have yet to see the appeal of the SW over other areas of the city.

I live in a highrise condo in Windermere. I am less than 5 minutes from the Henday, I have a Safeway across the street, I can walk to restaurants, the movie theatre, the river valley. I fail to see how any central neighborhood is more convenient than what I have.

 

[Airboy]

Out cycling to the SW and you realize how far the city has developed southwest. Devon is in view now. Not to long before the land near Rabbit hill is serviced. I expect to see( Not in my life time), another Traffic river crossing between the Henday and the highway 60 bridge.

 

[Avenuer]

I live in a highrise condo in Windermere. I am less than 5 minutes from the Henday, I have a Safeway across the street, I can walk to restaurants, the movie theatre, the river valley. I fail to see how any central neighborhood is more convenient than what I have.

I'm in Alberta Ave and can walk to the LRT (Stadium Station), river valley (Dawson Park) & Kinnaird Ravine, Commonwealth Stadium & Rec Centre, 2 full service grocers (Italian Centre & Save On Foods), countless small businesses on 118 Ave and 95 Street. For biking, I can get to Chinatown in 5 minutes, Kingsway Mall in under 10 minutes, Downtown in under 15 minutes and Old Strathcona in under a half hour. Driving is very convenient as well, as both the Yellowhead and Wayne Gretzky Drive/75 Street are both 5 minute drives away.

I get that you live in the 'core' of Windermere, which is very walkable for a suburban location, but the vast majority of the SW was not developed that way. Central neighbourhoods will always be more inherently walkable/bikeable than most suburban areas due to their older development patterns.

 

[EdmTrekker]

I'm in Alberta Ave and can walk to the LRT (Stadium Station), river valley (Dawson Park) & Kinnaird Ravine, Commonwealth Stadium & Rec Centre, 2 full service grocers (Italian Centre & Save On Foods), countless small businesses on 118 Ave and 95 Street. For biking, I can get to Chinatown in 5 minutes, Kingsway Mall in under 10 minutes, Downtown in under 15 minutes and Old Strathcona in under a half hour. Driving is very convenient as well, as both the Yellowhead and Wayne Gretzky Drive/75 Street are both 5 minute drives away.

I get that you live in the 'core' of Windermere, which is very walkable for a suburban location, but the vast majority of the SW was not developed that way. Central neighbourhoods will always be more inherently walkable/bikeable than most suburban areas due to their older development patterns.

I would consider living near the Italian Centre ... just to shop every day. I love the place.

 

[_urbanite]

I live in a highrise condo in Windermere. I am less than 5 minutes from the Henday, I have a Safeway across the street, I can walk to restaurants, the movie theatre, the river valley. I fail to see how any central neighborhood is more convenient than what I have.

I live in Oliver and aside from the theater (which I could care less about) I'm within a 5-10 min walk for all of those things. You must never leave Windermere if you actually think it's more walkable and accessible to amenities than a neighbourhood like Oliver.

My gf has owns a condo not far from Windermere but lives in Oliver because it's more walkable. Windermere is newer and "nicer", but it's just another soulless subburb to me

 

[Windermere]

I live in Oliver and aside from the theater (which I could care less about) I'm within a 5-10 min walk for all of those things. You must never leave Windermere if you actually think it's more walkable and accessible to amenities than a neighbourhood like Oliver.

My gf has owns a condo not far from Windermere but lives in Oliver because it's more walkable. Windermere is newer and "nicer", but it's just another soulless subburb to me

No where did I say Windermere is more walkable than any other neighborhood. I was talking about convenience which includes proximity to the Henday, which I need to commute to work. That plus the added benefit of being able to walk to buy virtually anything I need, makes Windermere the most convenient neighborhood for me.

 

[ChazYEG]

I live in a highrise condo in Windermere. I am less than 5 minutes from the Henday, I have a Safeway across the street, I can walk to restaurants, the movie theatre, the river valley. I fail to see how any central neighborhood is more convenient than what I have.

The point in question is that, on average, central neighborhoods will be more convenient for more people.

I'm in the far west of Oliver and I understand that it might not be the most convenient place for someone who works in the industrial areas, especially outside the Henday, but for the most part, the daily activities are probably easier for me to do without taking my car out of the garage and/or going out of my way, than for someone who lives in any given cul-de-sac in Windermere, especially in winter. Add in bike and transit infrastructure and I could even give up owning a car if I wanted, especially after the Valley Line West is operational.

Personally, I hate the suburbs, with every fibre of my being. I find them boring, souless, deprived of anything that would ever attract me. I loathe the idea of living in a house and I hope to live the rest of my days in a high-rise with a killer view (maybe Manhattan when I retire), but if I ever wanted a house, it would be in a mature, nore central neighborhood like Westmount, Old Strathcona, Inglewood.

Please, don't take this personally. I'm not trying to convince you of anything, but I just wanted to point out the reason why so many people fail to understand why the SW (and south in general) of the city has been seeing so many developments. (In my first paragraph... The second was just a little rant, haha).

 

[ntt1]

I think south will be the most popular direction for Edmonton’s expansion. CFB Edmonton and St. Albert are on the North boundary, Parkland County and the Enoch First Nation are to the west, Sherwood Park and Strathcona County are to the east. I’m guessing that serious consideration will be given to expanding the LRT even further south and extending Terwillegar even further south as part of another access to the QEII.

If I recall correctly (can't find the plans offhand), the eventual plan for Terwillegar/170 St is to become another freeway to the airport/QEII, no?

On a completely unrelated note with regard to cycling infrastructure in the SW, it will sure be nice when the last section Ellerslie Road over the creek near the eco station is twinned which should allow the multiuse path to continue westward towards the river valley/Windermere area.

 

[Avenuer]

If I recall correctly (can't find the plans offhand), the eventual plan for Terwillegar/170 St is to become another freeway to the airport/QEII, no?

On a completely unrelated note with regard to cycling infrastructure in the SW, it will sure be nice when the last section Ellerslie Road over the creek near the eco station is twinned which should allow the multiuse path to continue westward towards the river valley/Windermere area.

Yes, the plan is for 170 Street to be extended south as an expressway to Highway 19 and eventually meet Highway 2. You can see the alignment of 170 Street currently allows for future diamond interchanges in the future.

 

[thommyjo]

The core of windermere was done better than many suburbs. But its not convenient for anyone more than 750m away. My parents live just off the terwillegar, but walking to the currents shopping center is still 20minutes, multiple large roads to cross, and countless parking lots to cross through.

And I'd say its not just about walkability, but about sustainability.

Our city has built infastructure that is underutilized inside the henday. To spend billions to keep building outside of it is inefficient. There are schools, police stations, rec centers, roads, and transit we need to up the usage on.

Our city will grow to the airport one day. Its enviable. But let's not do it this decade or next. Let's save the land for when we truly need it. There's lots of space to develop within the city still.

 

[EdmTrekker]

The core of windermere was done better than many suburbs. But its not convenient for anyone more than 750m away. My parents live just off the terwillegar, but walking to the currents shopping center is still 20minutes, multiple large roads to cross, and countless parking lots to cross through.

And I'd say its not just about walkability, but about sustainability.

Our city has built infastructure that is underutilized inside the henday. To spend billions to keep building outside of it is inefficient. There are schools, police stations, rec centers, roads, and transit we need to up the usage on.

Our city will grow to the airport one day. Its enviable. But let's not do it this decade or next. Let's save the land for when we truly need it. There's lots of space to develop within the city still.

It is important for the city to grow as quickly as possible to EIA and with the growth the LRT and high speed bus services. EIA and the area around is crucial to Edmonton's strategic growth. That means to push growth south along QE2 and the new hospital site.

 

[ChazYEG]

It is important for the city to grow as quickly as possible to EIA and with the growth the LRT and high speed bus services. EIA and the area around is crucial to Edmonton's strategic growth. That means to push growth south along QE2 and the new hospital site.

I don't quite agree. We need to densify and stop suburban sprawl. It's bad for the city, from a financial perspective (greenfield development is essentially a Ponzi Scheme) and from a transit/traffic perspective, because IT WILL create more congestion in QEII, it will increase the number of accidents, increase the area to be covered by ETS without increasing the ridership significantly (suburbs are not generally walkable, meaning people will still move around majorly by car, even if there's an LRT stop around). It's also terrible for the environment and hurts our mature neighborhoods and our Downtown, makes it harder for transit to effectively improve and be efficient... There's no clear, big advantage in keeping the sprawl and pushing it to the airport, other than it being easy for people who live close to the airport to get to the airport. There's a lot of infill development that can be made, including A LOT of single family housing redevelopment in mature neighborhoods, that would be more than enough to house all of the people buying houses in these new suburban developments.
Nor to mention that the land between the city and the airport is one of the most fertile farmland in the continent, and greenfield development is effectively killing it to put in more cookie cutter houses, strip malls, cars and congestion.

 

[EdmTrekker]

MANY young families want to be in new communities with lots of children in the immediate neighbourhood and not in a renovated or new home in central Edmonton. Fortunately they will have the opportunity here in Edmonton to choose newly developed communities or an infill home in the centre of the city if they choose. Nothing is stopping infill projects to occur in the city. What would really piss me off is a City Council that tried to shut down growth of new communities in Edmonton - as people would continue to flock to the suburbs outside of Edmonton.

 

[ChazYEG]

MANY young families want to be in new communities with lots of children in the immediate neighbourhood and not in a renovated or new home in central Edmonton. Fortunately they will have the opportunity here in Edmonton to choose newly developed communities or an infill home in the centre of the city if they choose. Nothing is stopping infill projects to occur in the city. What would really piss me off is a City Council that tried to shut down growth of new communities in Edmonton - as people would continue to flock to the suburbs outside of Edmonton.

This widespread wish to live in new communities is simply a fruit of social conditioning, nothing else.
As for nothing stopping infill, legally and formally, in there isn't anything stopping it from happening, but greenfield development is cheaper, easier and mote lucrative in the short term, for both the city's coffers and the developers, albeit extremely damaging for the city, overall, in the long term. Continue to allow unchecked greenfield development and suburban sprawl is going to break the city's finances, worsen our transit, increase congestion and the need for investment in car infrastructure, etc...
And there's no way back from this if we reach a certain threshold, it just becomes a snowball rolling forever down the hill. The city doesn't need to forbid or make it impossible to develop new neighborhoods, but it could very well start by rebalancing property taxes, so that new suburban developments are not a burden for the entire city. It's ridiculous that people living in central neighborhoods have to subsidize the suburban sprawl with property taxes.