Bedford South Developments & Discussion Thread
This is a huge project under construction in Bedford South/Mainland Halifax. One of the many companies behind it is Clayton Developments (see Russell Lake Retail thread) and once complete the expected population is upwards of 17'000 people. General plans for this community include connecting Southgate Drive (Bedford) to Larry Uteck Blvd (Halifax), connecting Larry Uteck to a new interchange at Highway 102, connecting Royale Hemlock with The Ravines and Papermill Lake. This includes 25% of it becoming green space, a lot of residential and some commercial (near interchange) for a total area of 207 acres.
The official website is: http://www.claytondev.com/ravines.html. (the map only shows Clayton's responibility. There are multiple developers so no full map is available). http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3240/...70d6eca6_b.jpg (Credit: Me) Larry Uteck Blvd from Eagle's Rock. http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3277/...d3ef5ea2_b.jpg (Credit: Me) Ravines/Bedford South from Eagle's Rock. I have spent hours if not days on end researching this project and i cannot find an official webiste or anything, not even a map. If anyone has information regarding this project it'll greatly be appreciated. |
The overall plan involves extending Larry Uteck Blvd up to the 102, as mentioned.
http://www.halifax.ca/council/agenda...dfordSouth.pdf has a (poor) map of the overall development. There are probably better examples on the HRM website. |
Thanks for the map. I turns out Starboard Drive (the main street off Larry Uteck) will curve around to become Nine Mile Drive (Oceanview/Paper Mill) and the land in the middle will be developed. Larry Uteck will become the retail and parkland road without many households.
|
I took the map from the Ravines website and overlayed it on Google Earth.
Took some adjusting but the roads line up perfect. Go to this link and down the file for Google Earth and play with the transparency. That's all I have time for right now, but I'd like to get the section between this overlay and the Royale Hemlocks filled with an image too. |
Vey nice It really helps show where the interchange will be located.
|
I took a drive up in the Ravines today (no camera unfortunately). It becoming a very crowded neighbourhood. There's mere feet between houses here.
http://www.sandyhines.com/ravine5.jpg (Credit: http://www.sandyhines.com/bedspict.htm). They have connected the Ravines Drive loop back to Southgate Drive. They are still finishing houses in Shagnessy (they're HUGE!!), Worthington Close, Rochdale Drive, Kingsbury Way, Thorndale Terrace and Haystead Ridge. |
I just don't understand the attration of developments like this. All the houses look the same even down to color, they are all piled on top of each other, and everything depends on having a car. I could see that if the houses were cheap but they aren't. I guess I'm just not a "new suburbia" type of guy.
|
I tend to agree. $400,000 houses and they don't put in sidewalks? There's also very little commercial development nearby, although that is supposed to be up the hill a bit in a future phase. I find it puzzling because it seems like these developments could be made much more pedestrian friendly with relatively little work. The density is already more or less there.
If you're going to live in a place like this you might as well live in Kingswood, I think. Otherwise, decent houses in the same price range can be found in the city. |
They have sidewalk part way up the hill but it ends very quickly. On good thing this neighbourhood has that most other Bedford neighbourhoods dont have is paths. In most of Beford there are few paths connecting roads in a realitively straight line. The Ravines has them everywhere. Thankfully i live in an older neighbourhood so the houses are unique and have space between them.
|
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3098/...53418006b0.jpg
The Ravines Condo Building http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3262/...7d6bb6047c.jpg Shaugnessy Place McMansion http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2203/...6d96199709.jpg Thorndale Terrace http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3174/...d41cf490db.jpg Southgate Drive http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3242/...b1a1d45940.jpg Southgate Drive Rowhouses http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3209/...fc58c8c63a.jpg Another Condo Building on Southgate Drive http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3004/...5f8c28ff_b.jpg The corner of Southgate Dr. and Ravines Dr. The unfinished road will connect to Larry Uteck Blvd and the Bi-Hi. |
Geez, those designs are terribly ordinary. The company that makes beige vinyl siding must be doing really well. That "most expensive house" is hideous.
I was in the newly built McMansion of someone for the first time yesterday and I have to say I don't get it. Why do people want to spend close to half a million dollars on 3500 sq ft houses that are made out of crap materials and thrown together with absolutely no quality of workmanship? |
I do agree that all the houses are way too similar for my liking but there are some nice aspects to this neighbourhood;
1) There are quite a few parks around (25% of the neighbourhood). 2) They were smart and provived many trails and walkways. 3) They funded the repair of the Old Coach Road all through their property. |
All well and good, and I cannot argue with them if they are getting what they are asking for these places. The question I ask is why do people buy them? The Southgate shot looks exactly like my friend's street, and what you have are oversized faux-Georgian designs shoehorned onto lots that would normally only have supported a house half that footprint size, so you have no yard and no privacy. They are made of chipboard and green wood, clad in wavy vinyl siding and faux-stone, and finished inside with laminate and drywall. In 20 years they will be crap. I don't get it.
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
Just wait until Bedford West is developed. It is a huge peice of land with no waterfront to beautify, is hidden by the Bi-Hi and will look like the rest of up-hill Bedford. |
I don't understand why, when they build these houses, they can't vary the styles, the architectural features, or even just the colours. Notice in those developments all you see are brown and beige? Why are there no green houses, no yellow houses, no blue houses or even a white house? I know one thing is for sure, if I was building my own house some day (not moving into one of these cookie cutter neighborhoods) it would not be brown or beige. It would be colourful, because that adds something to a neighborhood.
|
Clayton Developments has requested for allowing the rest of this neighbourhood to be built.
Case numbers are 01159 and 01194 Its about 290 acres for the Ravines part. The Hemlock side still has to be finished so they wont be connected for awhile yet. |
You mean they didn't have all that already approved?
|
apparently not. Bedford South is broken into different sections and apparently they only negotiated the development agreement for part of it. There are three parcels still not under an agreement (two of which are in this request, and one is part of the Hemlock part probably).
|
Quote:
|
All times are GMT. The time now is 12:18 PM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.