I viewed the video and got a much better idea of how the whole thing will look, but I also have some concerns:
- I am amazed to see how much surface parking there will be on the site.
- I can not see what is happening with the large building at the north corner - the one with the big flat green roof. It seems to be a big chunk of nothing at the moment.
- It would have been nice if some short (8-10 storey) residential towers had been included in the site. Getting more people living on site would have improved site usage day and night.
- I also thought that there was going to transit integration - I can see nothing like that in the fly through. I do not see how the buses could function as a transit hub on the site.
- I also do not see any integration with the Galloping Goose/Lochside trail. In fact the northern end looks like it will shut out that as a possibility. The site is located at the nexus of the busiest bike routes in the region and remains apart.
- The stretch along Blanshard is going to make that street almost tunnel like with the large high walls from the development along the street. I had hoped for more improvement along that side.
- The whole site feels like it is going to encourage people to drive around it. It does not look and feel like it would encourage more walking.
- The site could have also been a better entrance to Victoria for tourists if there had been the inclusion of a hotel on the site. Ideally one that would have conference space as well.
- Have the Greater Victoria School District move their offices to this site and then sell off the old Mount Tolmie school site for redevelopment.
- Build a pedestrian overpass from the Save-on-Foods plaza to the site.
- Build a pedestrian overpass to the Galloping Goose
- Encourage a live music venue at the site
- Encourage a movie theatre at the site.
- Get some post secondary education located on the site - an in town Royals Road site, a UVic Extension site, or University Canada West.
Given the topography of the site I would suggest some "underpasses" to link the site across Blanshard and to the Galloping Goose.
ReplyDelete"more people living on site would have improved site usage day and night." Thought I read on there that there are 600 residences... maybe that's the big building a the north end of the site? I'm excited about the green roof plans, myself ;)
ReplyDeleteI think the residences are going to be large towers, likely on the eastern side surface parking lots. I too am unhappy with the slab-like side of Walmart on Blanshard, but that area is such a traffic sewer already. Also, where is the transit hub supposed to come? It would be nice if they could subdivide up the lot and return some streets to the public realm.
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ReplyDeleteLittle late on this, but the big green "field" is the location of the future condo towers.
ReplyDeleteThere will be two of them, each about 35 stories as I recall. About a year ago, the TC published a link to photos of the builders' scale models.
Although I think the Town and Country was in need of a facelift, without a comprehensive regional traffic solution that included Mackenzie, I think this project is going to generate a lot of traffic and parking related issues.
It will be a huge draw for Saanich East all the way out to Gordon Head and beyond. Mackenzie is going to go from ugly to very ugly if they don't address this soon.
I agree with the thoughts of an over or underpass to saanich plaza would be logical but i guess there wasn't much logic in this plan. With the goose, it isnt that far to get to it although some integration would be alot smarter and safer..maybe they have a hidden plan to connect to the tunnel already under ravine way? hmm.would be interesting.
ReplyDeleteAs for the transit hub stuff.. there isnt even really any changes they can make..the site just doesn't seem big enough so im not even sure why they would talk about plans for it although with some of the nightwork ive seen going on, maybe they are doing something around it. Would make sense to do something even if its a small change considering you have all the Sidney busses on one side, All westshore busses on the other, and the 30/31/26 in the middle.
Just thought i'd add my two cents.
I agree with the thoughts of an over or underpass to saanich plaza would be logical but i guess there wasn't much logic in this plan. With the goose, it isnt that far to get to it although some integration would be alot smarter and safer..maybe they have a hidden plan to connect to the tunnel already under ravine way? hmm.would be interesting.
ReplyDeleteAs for the transit hub stuff.. there isnt even really any changes they can make..the site just doesn't seem big enough so im not even sure why they would talk about plans for it although with some of the nightwork ive seen going on, maybe they are doing something around it. Would make sense to do something even if its a small change considering you have all the Sidney busses on one side, All westshore busses on the other, and the 30/31/26 in the middle.
Just thought i'd add my two cents.