Quote:
Originally Posted by PeteMoss
Everyone who flips out at upzoning should go visit these neighbourhoods in the GTA.
My grandparents used to live there, when I was a kid the entire neighbourhood was old 1930s type houses with giant yards. Now every 3rd one is torn down and some new modern house is built.
There is zero neighbourhood aesthetic when you've got smaller bungelows built in the 1930s with a huge yard next to some giant double garage new build right on the road with zero yard. If you chuck some apartment building on the street - its not going to throw anything off.
Example here:
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.3959...l=en&entry=ttu |
Yeah, on my street you have basically all infills and a couple post-war bungalows that are hanging on. The post-war bungalows are falling apart and one is a literal crack house. Nothing of value is lost by upzoning that. People get paniced about parking or their sight lines, but really, a townhouse or rowhouse is not much bigger than the infill next door. It's not like you're building a 10 story apartment building in the middle of the street like some of the nimby's seem to argue.
Quote:
Originally Posted by you&me
In regards to upzoning, I think it makes sense to do it in stages, rather than a single, city-wide blanket like (I think) GGG was proposing.
Let's be realistic - it's not like Calgary has such a shortage of underused or brownfield sites that we need to start upzoning across the city so we can teardown corner lots in Edgemont or (*GASP*) Bonavista to develop 4 townhomes.
I believe the city implemented a "Main Streets" upzoning policy recently, where properties along arterial roads are upzoned... Let's work our way through that a little bit first before we get on with something like blanket 4-stories-everywhere zoning.
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This is basically what the Guidebook for Great Communities had proposed but it was made politically untenable by the nimbys. The residents of Elbow Park and the suburbs spent pretty much a whole day protesting the loss of "neighbourhood character" and "good god, everywhere in the City is going to turn into Marda Loop!!" at council.