I made this point on the SSP, but I was wondering if perhaps submission of this to DRP has been delayed as a result of the discussing around parking minimums. This proposal has quite a bit of parking, and I wonder if the new parking requirements coming to the public will change what they proposed:

The mixed-use proposal features 478 residential units, 4,372 square metres of commercial space and 426 parking spaces.
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RitsmaCW said:
I made this point on the SSP, but I was wondering if perhaps submission of this to DRP has been delayed as a result of the discussing around parking minimums. This proposal has quite a bit of parking, and I wonder if the new parking requirements coming to the public will change what they proposed:
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The parking rate is well above the existing minimum rate so the developers were likely proposing a large amount of parking for some other reason. Commercial parking, etc.

The existing by-law rates downtown vary a bit depending on your exact unit configuration, but generally work out to about 6 spaces per 10 units. The parking proposed according to the FC description, even adding the required parking for the office space, has around 50-75 extra spaces over the existing by-law.
 
Still haven't heard anything regarding this Redevelopment, but they recently painted all the plywood again (but didn't replace the broken or fallen pieces??)
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It looks like one more building to comedown on King Street! I would love something like this to be built downtown. It would add so much more to that area and build on what the King William Urban Rentals are doing. If only the next Connaught building would get built? That area would be booming!

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Holy parking lot. This has parking up to the 5th floor. Hamilton really needs to start regulating above ground parking and also setting standards for commercial units. These shallow-wide units suck for real businesses.
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Hawrylyshyn said:
Yup, the parking is absolutely ridiculous in this thing.
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Perhaps that's why this didn't end up going to DRP, maybe they gave plans to reduce the parking with the new parking bylaws coming into effect.

I've heard a few developments are planning on reducing parking with a new submission.
 
Soo they're destroying the building with the most remaining craftsmanship for their all glassed in.. wall..?

*slow claps*

I thought ALL of these buildings had heritage protection? I mean theyre not even TRYING- just.. generic glass wall.. woop de fucking do. I mean it's not even an entrance from the looks of it - it's JUST glass - they're demolishing what was fought to be heritage protection - JUST to replace it with glass - it's the most insulting proposal for that singular building ever.

*fumes*

actually it maay be an entrance based on the floor plans - guess the elevations were just shoddy for showing that. Still, I'm pissed they're demolishing that building just for an all-glass exterior - breaking up a streetscape that is largely unbroken in our gore area, AND proposing to destroy a pre-confederation building, which is what caused all this up-in-arms to begin with - so I don't seem them removing THAT building going over well.. at all.

Also these are rowhouse designs basically - removing that building in the middle is going to cause the same issue removing the building at the end did - the walls will no longer be stable. This is basically just gonna be a teeny veneer these outsides or the entire insides will collapse.
 
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Hawrylyshyn said:
Yup, the parking is absolutely ridiculous in this thing.
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I will note that they do appear to be proposing a significant commercial parking component. The amount of parking proposed is already significantly above that which is required by the zoning by-law for the site - the parking rate here is almost 1:1 to units, while Hamilton's existing zoning requires closer to 0.5 spaces per unit in the downtown.

Looking at the plans, the parking ramp to the 2 underground levels appears to be designed for commercial purposes with additional width to accommodate payment processing, so I imagine the 172 parking spaces proposed on the two underground levels are commercial parking spaces, and the remaining 269 above grade spaces are for the residential itself - which more closely aligns with the by-law requirement (0.56 spaces / unit).

The latter component may be reduced, but the former component is already the developer doing it willingly above and beyond that required by the ZBA. King William Residences also overbuilt parking for a commercial component, FYI.

Commercial parking in the downtown is going to be an issue moving forward as Hamilton has very little in the way of municipal parking garages (unlike Toronto), or even private commercial garages, mostly relying on surface parking (which is a bad thing!). As the downtown intensifies, there will remain a significant commercial parking need in the downtown - even if Hamilton does manage to reduce the overall demand with modal changes - and it will be too great to accomodate in the limited amount of existing structured commercial parking. Ultimately commercial parking is needed in the downtown.

The residential parking is free to be deleted though in my mind, provided the developer thinks they can sell the units without it.

The applicant is also only proposing 2 underground levels currently - they should be encouraged to increase that to 3 or 4, if possible, to reduce the amount of above-grade parking required.

It's also important to remember that these plans were only filed for the Formal Consultation, they are extremely preliminary and shouldn't really be analyzed at a detailed level. the final application which is actually made to the City will likely be quite different.
 
They better keep all the damn storefronts.. this has been a bone of contention since they seemed to have intentionally been wanting this whole thing to collapse so they can just build whatever on it - "compromising " by destroying another storefront is UNacceptable.

Now if they were to KEEP the facade, clean it up, and put glass in FRONT of it, that might be acceptable.
 
Chronamut said:
They better keep all the damn storefronts.. this has been a bone of contention since they seemed to have intentionally been wanting this whole thing to collapse so they can just build whatever on it - "compromising " by destroying another storefront is UNacceptable.

Now if they were to KEEP the facade, clean it up, and put glass in FRONT of it, that might be acceptable.
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Based on the above architectural documents, it appears they are shrinking the commercial component significantly into a single shallow unit rather than keeping the 4 or 5 deep individual units.
 
Those Gore Park facades have to be kept, no matter what. The history they embody and their relation to the park, makes their preservation the absolute top priority for anything going in here.
Hamilton devastated its historic downtown during it's big modernization leap in the late 60's. Repeating that same mistake now, only on a smaller scale, doesn't make it OK.
I'm really glad to see how many parking lots this project would take up and make use of. It badly needs another pass through the CAD machine though, if not a different firm. It's way too blockish and insensitive. The crude stepbacks above what would be left of the facades really drives this home : half-blank walls facing the park, really?! That spiderweb thingie is a pretty bad substitue for good looks, or even coherence.

Here's hoping it gets sent back to the drawing board.
 
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