Beltline_B said:
Was going to be the hero of the day by dropping news that this is u/c, but Alexyyc has beaten me to it!

With the amount of new builds just south of Chinook, I would like to see a pedestrian overpass from 4th street across Glenmore trail. The city would never do it due to the existing clusterfuck crossings at Macleod and at 5th street, but we can still dream.
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It would be great to see a pedestrian/cycle bridge, coupled with a cycle path the rest of the way to Heritage station. There is plenty of density, and lots of businesses along the way. It would be so nice for the people forming that density, to be able to do a quick bike ride to Chinook.

1705437489349.png
 
This area is the best evidence in the city that density alone isn't enough - we need to give the more people living here something to do, somewhere to walk safely.

From the high-level the location is great - dead centre of the city, close physical proximity to transit, services, the region's largest shopping mall etc. It's just none of our infrastructure, retail or street designs actually capitalize on this density.

But the gap between being high-level a good location, and a good location in reality is enormous here. There are dozens of restaurants nearby, approximately zero are walkable - half are on the other side of MacLeod so might as well be on the moon if you are on foot. Chinook Centre is close, but laughable inaccessible in a reasonable way (from another post about walking challenges in to Chinook). There are no major grocery stores for kilometres. This site is less than 2km from the reservoir and some of the region's best parks - but getting there reasonably on foot or bike? Good luck.

MacLeod is the main culprit here - essentially has never shook it's 1960s-highway design despite it not being a highway anymore. But Glenmore and Elbow play supporting roles here, commuter focused with limited / no ability to become anything more than car-sewers. Land use is a disaster here.

With all the complaining out of the way, there's hope - this is legitimate density enough to create new markets for more local stuff in the future. Larger-scale redevelopment will happen eventually - only takes one thoughtful and ambitious one to completely change how badly MacLeod sucks.
 
CBBarnett said:
This area is the best evidence in the city that density alone isn't enough - we need to give the more people living here something to do, somewhere to walk safely.

From the high-level the location is great - dead centre of the city, close physical proximity to transit, services, the region's largest shopping mall etc. It's just none of our infrastructure, retail or street designs actually capitalize on this density.

But the gap between being high-level a good location, and a good location in reality is enormous here. There are dozens of restaurants nearby, approximately zero are walkable - half are on the other side of MacLeod so might as well be on the moon if you are on foot. Chinook Centre is close, but laughable inaccessible in a reasonable way (from another post about walking challenges in to Chinook). There are no major grocery stores for kilometres. This site is less than 2km from the reservoir and some of the region's best parks - but getting there reasonably on foot or bike? Good luck.

MacLeod is the main culprit here - essentially has never shook it's 1960s-highway design despite it not being a highway anymore. But Glenmore and Elbow play supporting roles here, commuter focused with limited / no ability to become anything more than car-sewers. Land use is a disaster here.

With all the complaining out of the way, there's hope - this is legitimate density enough to create new markets for more local stuff in the future. Larger-scale redevelopment will happen eventually - only takes one thoughtful and ambitious one to completely change how badly MacLeod sucks.
Click to expand...
Well put and so true.

Macleod and Glenmore have screwed the area in many ways. If we could ever get things like, good mixed use development where the Home Depot is that carries on to the LRT station, some mixed use development right on Chinook Centre's premise, and some sort of good pedestrian bridge connecting 4a St to Chinook (and maybe some mixed use development there it would help improve a lot. Would still have its drawbacks, but it would be better than the current gong show. Even fixing MacLeod anyway possible could negate the damage done by Glenmore.
 
Surrealplaces said:
Well put and so true.

Macleod and Glenmore have screwed the area in many ways. If we could ever get things like, good mixed use development where the Home Depot is that carries on to the LRT station, some mixed use development right on Chinook Centre's premise, and some sort of good pedestrian bridge connecting 4a St to Chinook (and maybe some mixed use development there it would help improve a lot. Would still have its drawbacks, but it would be better than the current gong show. Even fixing MacLeod anyway possible could negate the damage done by Glenmore.
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And it's certainly doable - MacLeod's right-of-way here is a remarkable 55m+, excluding building setbacks from the property line.

1724692051527.png


Hardly a world-beating feat of public space design, but even the 2012 corridor study concluded that - yeah it's a pretty east fix from a geometry perspective.

In comparison to the endless scrappy fights for space on minor streets to allow for a street trees... meanwhile MacLeod can plant a practical forest, keep all lanes (and a unnecessary median), widen all sidewalks to 5m(!) and add a 4m bike path:

1724692225304.png


But as with all ignored and forgotten corridors, the real trick is never geometry ... it's actually convincing anyone that this place doesn't have to suck.
 
MacLeod Trail is insanely wide, and the amount of space wasted is depressing. The improved cross section would do wonders to the look of the street but unfortunately, people don't appreciate the value of these sorts of investments. In its current form, MacLeod more resembles an expressway than a proper urban street.
 
CBBarnett said:
This area is the best evidence in the city that density alone isn't enough - we need to give the more people living here something to do, somewhere to walk safely.

From the high-level the location is great - dead centre of the city, close physical proximity to transit, services, the region's largest shopping mall etc. It's just none of our infrastructure, retail or street designs actually capitalize on this density.

But the gap between being high-level a good location, and a good location in reality is enormous here. There are dozens of restaurants nearby, approximately zero are walkable - half are on the other side of MacLeod so might as well be on the moon if you are on foot. Chinook Centre is close, but laughable inaccessible in a reasonable way (from another post about walking challenges in to Chinook). There are no major grocery stores for kilometres. This site is less than 2km from the reservoir and some of the region's best parks - but getting there reasonably on foot or bike? Good luck.

MacLeod is the main culprit here - essentially has never shook it's 1960s-highway design despite it not being a highway anymore. But Glenmore and Elbow play supporting roles here, commuter focused with limited / no ability to become anything more than car-sewers. Land use is a disaster here.

With all the complaining out of the way, there's hope - this is legitimate density enough to create new markets for more local stuff in the future. Larger-scale redevelopment will happen eventually - only takes one thoughtful and ambitious one to completely change how badly MacLeod sucks.
Click to expand...
I think that entire area is prime for redevelopment. But to expand on your points, I think the city needs to invest in sidewalk, connectivity and landscaping improvements before redevelopment can occur. The streets are already built in grids and there's a lot of room on either side of the road for streetscape improvements. It just takes capital and political will to make the streetscape investments.

1724696246973.png


The city could also reduce 'Macleod trail from 6 lanes to 4 lanes and install a dedicated bus lane running down the middle of the road for the #10 bus (Similar to what was done in Forest Lawn).

 
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