Habanero said:
Just tall enough to block out our view of Telus Sky 😐
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It’s as if it’s intentional.

I’d rather they swap the office to the NE corner, which makes more sense from a lobby and street front presence perspective for the tenant. I’d do the taller tower where the office is currently on the NW.

Then I’d do all of the hotel and rest of the residential horizontal across the Stephen Ave heritage buildings with some openings throughout to break it up. More of a glass waving facade to contrast the squareness of the heritage buildings below. Slightly set back further than they propose for the podium. Take the airside facade of the airport Marriott and make the face wavy.

Then they get long efficient hallways for hotel rooms that overlook Stephen Ave.

Stop worrying about a sniff of sun on the longest day into a boring alley courtyard. You don’t need a massive courtyard. Stephen Ave is your courtyard right there! It’s too obvious.
 
outoftheice said:
Should there not be large signs on both Stephen Ave and 7 Ave advertising the DP Application and informing the public about how they can comment? I haven't been downtown since the project was announced but I thought that was an actual bylaw requirement? If that hasn't happened is there any recourse
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I thought that they would have to do that too, I work downtown and whenever I'm on this block I look for the notice (at least a sandwich board) and haven't seen it yet. They may have had it in a inconspicuous location and I never seen it though. As for recourse if it didn't happen, I can't answer that....
 
Public notices on site (so, the large sign that indicates the DP and file manager contact info) usually get put up pretty early on in the process. The idea being to notify affected people (those who see the site and interact with it, so would likely see the sign) that something is proposed, and give them the information on where they can find more info, and how to submit comments to the file manager. It is supposed to be up during the review period, so comments can be submitted to be taken into account when a decision is being made, not to make a comment after the fact.
 
outoftheice said:
Should there not be large signs on both Stephen Ave and 7 Ave advertising the DP Application and informing the public about how they can comment? I haven't been downtown since the project was announced but I thought that was an actual bylaw requirement? If that hasn't happened is there any recourse?
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There's seems to be more signage and public notification for a local rowhouse than this project.
 
outoftheice said:
Should there not be large signs on both Stephen Ave and 7 Ave advertising the DP Application and informing the public about how they can comment? I haven't been downtown since the project was announced but I thought that was an actual bylaw requirement? If that hasn't happened is there any recourse?
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Seems a good way to get cancelled at SDAB.
 
Surrealplaces said:
Aside from arguments about the podium and heritage buildings, just the basic idea that we are adding a bunch more office space to a core with 30% occupancy rate is a backward move. It is the literally the very last thing downtown needs.
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With council spending money to help 'fix downtown', if this was to go forward it would be proof that we will be forever paying to fix council's mistakes as they are incapable of learning.
 
MichaelS said:
Public notices on site (so, the large sign that indicates the DP and file manager contact info) usually get put up pretty early on in the process. The idea being to notify affected people (those who see the site and interact with it, so would likely see the sign) that something is proposed, and give them the information on where they can find more info, and how to submit comments to the file manager. It is supposed to be up during the review period, so comments can be submitted to be taken into account when a decision is being made, not to make a comment after the fact.
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This is particularly concerning as the Land use application comments closed on June 10 with no public advertising put up.
 
Hopefully enough of us here gave our feedback so that council doesn’t think they have carte blanche.
 
JoeUrban said:
This is particularly concerning as the Land use application comments closed on June 10 with no public advertising put up.
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I'm not super familiar with the typical DP application process so I would appreciate hearing from forumers who are much more in the know, but does anyone else get a super shady vibe from this project? It almost feels to me that Triovest felt they had planning approval and 8 Council votes in their back pocket and have been trying to sneak this through the process without anyone noticing. It's like they know they have a sub-par project that will also rip the heart out of downtown that doesn't really stand on its own merits and they don't want to invest the time and effort to improve it.

Contrast this process to developments like Eighth Avenue Place and Telus Sky where both developments were going to tear down historic buildings that were contributing to downtown vibrancy. In both those cases the developers gave the impression they genuinely believed they had world class projects on their hands and were happy to promote and present them throughout the approvals process because they felt the loss of the heritage buildings would be seen by the public as a worthwhile trade for the projects they were proposing. For Stephen Avenue Quarter we haven't even seen proper renders of the project and the developer hasn't been willing to comment on it in the majority of media stories covering it. The lack of signage advertising the DP application is just the icing on the cake.

Given Triovest is controlled by a wealthy Calgary family with ties to the Calgary conservative oil and gas power brokers who play such an outsized role in Alberta and municipal politics, it just kind of feels like the fix is in with this project. Happy to be called out as paranoid and be proven wrong by those with better knowledge on these topics than me though.
 
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