Calgary SSP Development Listing

[Bigtime]

Is there any reason to protect sight-lines from the Jubilee? Plus Calgary doesn't do protected sight-lines (live Vancouver does).

[Zarley]

Looks like a nice spot for intensive development, there isn't even any adjacent single family - the site is buffered on all sides by parkland, institutional, and high rises.

I find it bizarre that people in Hillhurst/Sunnyside continually put up a stink about new development. The fact that people think they should have undue influence over someone else's property is problematic to begin with, but opposition to intensification is counter-intuitive. Higher density development brings about increased property values across the district and the fact that a developer is willing to invest capital into the neighbourhood is a great thing.

[Fuzz]

The best option(though not cheapest) would probably be to have an exit from southbound 14th to 8th, turn right on 15th, right again and a tunnel under 14th. Given the slope, it would probably not be all that bad an excavation, other than the utility lines...

[Knut]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Yup it's the new Cancer Centre, renderings popping up on twitter right now.

https://twitter.com/JamesWoodPress/s...83853594009601

I waded into the comments of a facebook announcement about the hospital and holy man. Apparently they should just give the 1B to giving Cannabis to everyone as that would solve the problem.

[NuclearFart]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

I'm not sure lights on 14th directly at the bottom of that hill is a good idea. Winter could be crashy crashy.

People already have to stop there alot due to the frequent selfish turds trying to make (illegal) left turns onto 8th.

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

This is still pretty initial, and I think I-Hate-Hulse is right in thinking the developer has gone big right now with the ability to scale down to what they ultimately envision on the site.

That seems risky to me. Once you mobilize the community against something, it's hard to de-escalate that initial reaction. I think that development next to Vendome really misjudged the extent of the community reaction and it now sounds (just what I've heard through word-of-mouth) that it's going to be pretty hard to get the community to agree to any relaxations of the ARP.

[Bigtime]

They seem to get up in arms about damn near every development, the fact is that this intensification is coming. They should take a page from Beltline and instead of knee-jerking to fight mode work with the city and the developer to get what they want out of the site too.

[temple5]

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

8th isn't even at the *bottom* of the hill, it's still still got a pronounced grade at 8th.

Link

7th might be doable but if there's any congestion (on 14th? Never!) your stopping zone becomes the 14th hill itself.

If Northwest medical properties wants to pay to re-do the entire grading of 14th street between 5th and 16th Ave...they might have a chance at their current desires...

(That and cloaking technology to make their tower invisible so as to not block sightlines from the Jubilee)

The link provided early shows the traffic options they presented to the city.

Signal at 7th is No because of the grade
Signal at 8th is a yes but would require the removal of the ped bridge which the city already had plans for (probably replacement)
Signal at 5th and 12th turning 12th into a "Street" is approved

I dont think there is any affordable housing on the site currently, just a hospice and grace hospital . Residential site is only large enough for condos, so unless some condos were "gifted" to the city to manage, I dont see how you would add affordable housing. Probably just give some money to the city in lieu of affordable housing. That way the city can build an apartment building and manage the costs appropriately. Apartments are so 2 decades ago.

Looks like Grace Hospital is staying put, only the parking parking and hospice to be removed.

With no other home owners on the block, I cant see how this wouldnt be a slam dunk approval. Traffic is the only issue and they are just going to funnel it down 7th and 5th and remove some on street parking. Probably going to have to foot the bill for a nice replacement ped crossing of 14th.

[temple5]

If lights are installed at 14th and 7th and 5th and 12th, I wonder if the City would consider closing off access on the east side of 14th and 8th completely. Close it off get the developer to pay for the removal of a 1/3 block of concrete and extend the green space.

The proposed developments arent "see a sign and stop" type places so immediate access wouldnt necessarily be needed. That would funnel everyone out of 7th and 12th. Put 3 lanes on 7th with 1 for right turns.

Take out the ped bridge, maybe even put a concrete barrier there and then put in a new ped bridge.

Any maybe put in a traffic circle at 7th and 12th - mind blown

[billybob123]

Couldn't think of where else to put this.

The South Shaganappi plan has a draft recommendation that includes stoplights at new on and off-ramps at 16 Ave N. I suspect it's similar to the above discussions about 14 St stoplights for the Grace Hospital site regarding a stop light at the bottom of a steep, south-facing slope. I don't know if this is a good idea - speeds on Shag are higher.

The change on Bowness Rd will affect me every time I drive through Montgomery (hockey and swimming for my kids are the primary reason, and Pizza 3000 is the secondary reason!) - I use the Bowness Rd East on ramp to 16 Ave and will now have to get onto 16 somewhere else, or use Memorial to 29 St to get home.

What does everyone here think?

Drawings and suggestions are below:
http://engage.calgary.ca/SouthShaganappi

Long term plan:



Short-term plan:

[Lubicon]

Not a fan of this at first glance. There is a ton of traffic that goes EB 16Ave > Memorial in the morning rush and the opposite direction in the afternoon rush. I used to drive that route every day when I worked downtown and I would argue that this is the primary traffic movement on this road, at least during these times. Now this movement becomes much more complicated and likely time consuming. I'm not sure how it will improve flow through this area.

[octothorp]

First thing that jumps out at me is that already, I think there's a significant amount of traffic that finds it easier, when going from bowness westbound onto 16 westbound, to just cut through Montgomery, taking Bowness road down to 43rd and cutting across. Both the short and long term plans may exacerbate this by adding lights that make the option of getting onto 16th before Montgomery take even longer.

It's probably the sort of situation where there isn't a perfect solution.

[Zarley]

Bizarre, there's much more traffic going Memorial >16th and vice versa than there is going to Shag.

Why is this even necessary? I drive through that stretch regularly and haven't experienced any problems.

[billybob123]

I suspect a lot of it has to do with collisions from SB Shag and EB Bowness to 16 Ave - those ramps have no acceleration lane and I often see people not yielding and getting lucky they don't hit someone coming off. Same situation on University SB from the 16 Ave E and W ramps, no yielding going on.

It does seem like a lot of $ going to be required to solve what could be solved with acceleration lanes.

[temple5]

I wonder if this has to do with missed development opportunity along the river and bowness road? It was originally a looped interchange because they thought it would cross the river. Now its just an end point of Shag to never go any farther.

My guess is the City is more then willing to sacrifice a few minutes drive of some commuters for intensification of prime river real estate.

I actually like the east west couplet preliminary idea.

[Joborule]

Originally Posted by Zarley

Bizarre, there's much more traffic going Memorial >16th and vice versa than there is going to Shag.

Why is this even necessary? I drive through that stretch regularly and haven't experienced any problems.

In the recommended plan, they could still add a EB ramp from 16th onto Bowness/Memorial Drive. But the opposite direction, you would have to deal with multiple lights on Shaganappi.

As for why they're doing it.

Originally Posted by temple5

I wonder if this has to do with missed development opportunity along the river and bowness road? It was originally a looped interchange because they thought it would cross the river. Now its just an end point of Shag to never go any farther.

My guess is the City is more then willing to sacrifice a few minutes drive of some commuters for intensification of prime river real estate.

I actually like the east west couplet preliminary idea.

Since Shaganppi is no longer an expressway, and isn't going to cross the river as originally planned, they have the opportunity to build development and better connect the communities surrounding that interchange.

I think that the amount of traffic that occurs on Memorial shouldn't be encouraged to be increased. Traffic should be encouraged to use Crowchild Trail to 16th Ave for the western commuters. With the new plans for Crowchild in making it freeflow, if 16th can have a solution that has express traffic go through Montgomery (I'm thinking tunnel, with above ground road for commercial/mixed use buildings), and build an interchange at 29 street right at the hospital, you'll have a freeflow route from west Calgary all the way to Bow Trail/Crowchild.

[calgarygeologist]

This long term plan is horrible. This will create huge backups on Shaganappi and 16th during the morning rush trying to get onto Memorial especially if they don't modify the intersection at Memorial and 37th. I used Shaganappi and Memorial daily to get from Varsity to downtown and it was frequently backed up from Market Mall to Memorial and from there to Crowchild Trail. There was always a huge backlog of traffic coming off 16th and Bowness Road as well. Feeding all those vehicles into an intersection at Shag/16th will be a nightmare. Also, the new University District is going to be adding a lot of residents and vehicles to those roadways as the area is developed over the years.

The city probably owns all that green space in the area so it should be utilized to create a fully free flowing interchange between 16th/Shaganappi/Memorial. They should also connected the northern end of 37th to West Campus Blvd/16th.

[Drummer]

Did the city sell off the land around the Westbrook LRT station? I'm surprised it is sitting empty. TOD and all that.

[powderjunkie]

Also not seeing the benefits outweighing costs on this one...seems like there are plenty of other places that should be higher priorities

[Drummer]

On Saturday evening CP Rail removed their old locomotive in front of Gulf Canada Square on 9th Ave and filled the spot in with gravel.