I live here. I am in the townhouses that are affected by this development. If you believe the shadow studies you will believe anything.

There have been two buildings recently built along Niagara Street. We were 'told' that the shadow studies done would mean that Victoria Square would not have shadows. The south end of Victoria Square is now in permanent darkness. The grass does not even grow there anymore. These builds were 10 storeys high. I have absolutely no faith in shadow studies having lived through and experienced the reality of these nearby developments.

So this building, slightly offset is 16 storeys. 16 commercial storeys which I believe is higher then residential. So I am going to hazard a guess here that the park and surrounding houses will be in shadow and without direct light.
 
womble said:
I live here. I am in the townhouses that are affected by this development. If you believe the shadow studies you will believe anything.

There have been two buildings recently built along Niagara Street. We were 'told' that the shadow studies done would mean that Victoria Square would not have shadows. The south end of Victoria Square is now in permanent darkness. The grass does not even grow there anymore. These builds were 10 storeys high. I have absolutely no faith in shadow studies having lived through and experienced the reality of these nearby developments.

So this building, slightly offset is 16 storeys. 16 commercial storeys which I believe is higher then residential. So I am going to hazard a guess here that the park and surrounding houses will be in shadow and without direct light.
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It's not exactly easy for shadow studies to lie.. it's a pretty simple formula that is prepared to calculate it. The sun's movement isn't exactly unpredictable.

Streetview shows a sunny day in July at about 1pm judging by the shadow location.. Nowhere close to touching the park and the grass seems perfectly healthy, if a little downtrodden due to the small sidewalk. Hardly permanent shadow. The shadow study provided for this development shows a small impact from those developments between 9am and about 2pm.. but it's only on a small corner of the park, entirely contained between the garbage can and the road in the image below.

The shadow study does show a small amount of shadow impact on the park before 10:30am on March 21st - but nothing that exceeds the existing as of right shadow impact within the existing zoning.

Any day between March 21st and September 21st will feature lessor shadow impacts than at those times, and even on those dates the impact is frankly pretty minimal.

Also, The project is 16 storeys, but only along Front Street, far from the park.

shadow park.JPG
 
Those pictures are conveniently at the peak of summer with the sun at it's highest point and the building still under construction. Now take into consideration the other 8 to 9 months when the sun is lower. I walk here every day. It is dark. It's in shadows.
As for the 16 storeys being on Front Street, this will directly affect the townhouses which are on Front and Portland.

When I attended the initial (community) planning meeting for this new building, the planners even forgot to bring the shadow study. It's been shady from the start.
 
I am not sure of your point. There have been other planning meetings and they have since published the said studies. Having lived in the shadow other nearby developments (pun intended) and been told that the shadows of these would be negligible I would like to point out that I think developers shadow studies are a work of fiction.
 
womble said:
I am not sure of your point. There have been other planning meetings and they have since published the said studies. Having lived in the shadow other nearby developments (pun intended) and been told that the shadows of these would be negligible I would like to point out that I think developers shadow studies are a work of fiction.
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Yeah, they're all science-y, like vaccinations, and the world being a sphere, and evolution! I mean, I've tried to sell my crystals to the shadow study people but they refuse to buy them! What quacks! They think proven astromonical formulae applied to an intricate digital model of the city is all they need, but I know better! Crystals! Or do you use tea leaves and tarot cards?

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womble said:
Right, if somebody has an opinion different to your own or disagrees with you. Just belittle them. Very mature behaviour from an Administrator.
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So now that you've correctly identified that, you need to face the fact that you are belittling the professional engineers who create shadow studies, all those who depend upon them for analyzing the impact of the projects, and are hurting yourself by not taking them seriously.

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This discussion reminds me of the classic thread on the bodybuilding forum where the members have an earnest argument about the number of days in a week.*

For real though, how can you argue with someone who doesn't acknowledge fundamental laws of physics? It's like trying to debate someone who's convinced that water is not wet, or that gravity goes up, not down.

* Here it is, for your reading pleasure/frustration: https://forum.bodybuilding.com/show...=364dc05906227533e7af7031e5c1e020&pagenumber=
 
I'll have to say that I went by yesterday around 1pm (prime shadow time) to the park and there was no shadow on the park from those apparently "permanent" shadows coming from the developments to the south.. So much for those shadow studies lying.
 
innsertnamehere said:
I'll have to say that I went by yesterday around 1pm (prime shadow time) to the park and there was no shadow on the park from those apparently "permanent" shadows coming from the developments to the south.. So much for those shadow studies lying.
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Also, even if that bizarre claim were true, I'd so much rather a partially shadowed park than a surface parking lot.
 
I believe I attended the same initial community meeting that womble mentioned, and yes, the developer did not bring shadow studies then. Also, Victoria Memorial Square is in shadow during the winter months on a portion of the south side. As for the grass dying in VMS, I would say that is due more to dog urine and not necessarily an absence of sunshine during summer months.
 
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