It's perfectly fine that Beltline is primarily a young professional or retiree community. The same goes for many centres of large cities. Families can't afford it so they move just a little further out. And when you say that there are not enough perks to convince young people to live in the...

$300/ft2 buildable???? Just land costs? Man, I knew Vancouver was expensive, but that is out of this world. Also agreed on locals taking on the rowhouse and lower density stuff. The overhead from the big firms is just too big to take on four units at a time. Let the little companies do that...

Well, there are things like facilities management, which is like the development arm for things like Libraries, Fire Halls, Police Stations, Community Centres etc (I believe). They don't buy land I don't think (that is Real Estate Development Services I believe). The city uses land for all sorts...

The city does not get involved in purchase or sales of private land unless it is for express "municipal purposes"- LRT rights-of-way, utility rights-of-way, etc. For good reason. (i.e. you cannot use the city to force anyone to sell a property, or leverage them in any way). The City does...

What's "The Point"? (haha). Is that the one on 11th and 11th by Intergulf?

It may not be obvious, but I think 6th street would be a great candidate for a pedestrian link, especially though Beltline. It already has a walkway through the Lougheed house, has a view terminus of Western High School, few driveway accesses, and several park spaces adjacent. Start with...

Agreed. But I would allow a small setback for the rowhouses to allow for front porches and small planter boxes to separate the porches from the street. 10' should do it (includes the patio).

Correct. Three storey townhomes. 4 buildings. 2 face 23rd avenue, 2 face the park with an internal driveway accessing attached garages on the ground floor of each unit (the 23rd avenue units garage is below grade from the street, if that makes sense).

Arlington doesn't own the Analog building.

The idea is that those homes already paid for the infrastructure that services them, and that cost is built into the cost of the home. You can't charge someone twice for the same thing. Also, those "significant investments to support further densification" are the same investments to support...

Sorry about all the cost talk. Mostly my fault. Back to urbanism!

Don't feel like a noob, this is some pretty detailed infrastructure cost model stuff. I'll give you an example to help out. Imagine you and your friends go our for dinner. One person orders a steak ($35), another a sandwich ($15) one gets soup ($10) and another gets ribs ($20). When the bill...

If you are in commercial or industrial real estate- massively.

And by pushing prices down on inner city residential units, you shift demand to more infrastructure efficient locations. I.e. you correct for cross-subsidization and ultimately reduce costs across the board. That is a bad thing? You're going to have to explain that second part, because it makes...

A system that reflects marginal costs, by definition, eliminates distortions. That is literally the definition of marginal cost. We can discuss how to exactly calculate that, but you can't argue that a principle is achieving the opposite of what it is. The tax is lowered, not on higher value...

That is not the case at all. What needs to happen is that development levies and charges, as well as property taxes, should reflect marginal costs of service. The current system is regressive, where those who can afford a single detached home are subsidized by those who live in denser...

"Everyone wants steak, we should make steak cheaper." Cross-subsidization, infrastructure cost escalation and escalating property taxes. That's the reason you are looking for. And to respond to everyone else's comments, what you are all looking for are marginal cost levies (not average), and...

I don't agree with stopping all greenfield growth, but you raise some good points. - Calgary is around 590 km2 of developed area. Toronto is 620 km2. Calgary's pop: 1.2M . Toronto's population: 2.7M - Calgary has 16,000 lane kms of road...

This seems odd. Other than foreign investors parking money outside of their country (which happens, I know) it seems strange to imply people spend money on an income generating asset, just to not have it generate any income. I understand short term vacancies- i.e. you just moved out and want to...

As long as new units continue to be built, there will be affordable units available. It is called filtering. Basically, as new units are occupied, it opens up vacancies in older buildings, which have to decrease their prices in order to attract tenants. Today's new condos become tomorrow's...