To be fair Wong did vote in favour of the land use change. I was listening and he voted against the amendment that requires the developer to put the plaza in, based on feedback he has heard from the community that a plaza there really isn't that great. Kind of hard to argue that, do you want to hang out at the corner of 10th street and Kensington road choking on all the vehicle fumes and the noise? Bleh.
 
Nimbus said:
To be fair Wong did vote in favour of the land use change. I was listening and he voted against the amendment that requires the developer to put the plaza in, based on feedback he has heard from the community that a plaza there really isn't that great. Kind of hard to argue that, do you want to hang out at the corner of 10th street and Kensington road choking on all the vehicle fumes and the noise? Bleh.
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Fair enough but the plaza will make the area much more walkable (not sittable I suppose) since the corner was a pinch point or you could shortcut through the parking lot but drivers tended to do the same.
 
There's a plaza (not just the Plaza theatre, but also a plaza) 1.5 blocks away at Kensington Crescent, which gets a lot of use.
 
I don't see any need for a plaza, but that corner does get a fair amount of pedestrians waiting and right now it's the worst possible situation. The fact it's going to be a "plaza" will ensure it's more than than just a corner cut area, like there is across the street at the old BMO. Perhaps that also gives some hope to good size trees surviving and maybe some public art.

It also forces the Architect to design something more than a rectangle.
 
Regardless of the less than stellar reputation of the site owners, this is an important project at a crucial intersection, arguably the most important site in Kensington, and replacing what is effectively a strip mall with a mixed use mid rise is exactly what Kensington needs.
 
Were there any hints dropped at Council about when we might see a DP or some sort of design for this revised proposal? Hopefully they don't just sit on the land use forever. Given it is the Osteria people behind this, they should take a page out of Concorde's playbook and move their restaurant to the top level of the building so they can maximize the pretentiousness.
 
Totally fine and onboard with a plaza there. It's a feature corner that, as of now, has terrible utilization and flow. As someone who grew up in Kensington, I'm all for this plaza idea on that particular corner (the 'apex' of Kensington, if you will); it will be make it much, much easier and logical to traverse that directional turn. Anecdotal, but trust me when I say it will be a place where people end up meeting and exploring Kensington from. It'll be a great urban solution.
 
Looks like we'll be waiting for a few years before we see any more action on this...

"The development permit is the next stage in the approval process, but Karpat said the timeline for that application is still a few years away, as the Terrigno family has other development projects in the works."

calgaryherald.com

Calgary city council approves land use change for 16-storey tower in Kensington

A land-use change approved by city council last week is the first step toward construction of a maximum 16-storey tower in Kensington.
calgaryherald.com calgaryherald.com
 
outoftheice said:
Looks like we'll be waiting for a few years before we see any more action on this...

"The development permit is the next stage in the approval process, but Karpat said the timeline for that application is still a few years away, as the Terrigno family has other development projects in the works."

calgaryherald.com

Calgary city council approves land use change for 16-storey tower in Kensington

A land-use change approved by city council last week is the first step toward construction of a maximum 16-storey tower in Kensington.
calgaryherald.com calgaryherald.com
Click to expand...
Hopefully they flip the property to a more active developer.

Edit: just saw the building is on fire, wonder how bad the damage is.
 
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It looks bad. Dining room area totally destroyed at least.
 
This happened to another property in the area. It was up for development, was vacant, and there was a fire. Someone in the area is doing well as an arsonist for hire.
 
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