KINGSTON Development Thread
Post any development/construction news related to Kingston, as well as the surrounding areas of Frontenac County and Lennox & Addington.
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It looked like there was something under construction when I took the VIA through.
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The Anna Lane condos are under construction
http://optionsforhomeseo.ca/anna-lane-condominiums http://www.annalane.ca/home.html http://www.annalane.ca/home_files/droppedImage.jpg http://optionsforhomeseo.ca/wp-conte...de-700x320.jpg |
Ahhh, that building. It's on Queen Street downtown, I can see the crane on my daily walk to work downtown.
I'm surprised at how tall this is going to be, I had thought there were severe height restrictions on new buildings in the downtown area. |
a pic from the Mayor's twitter account
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BFKq0U4CQAA2mgD.jpg:large |
Isabel Bader Centre - U/C
Archiect - SNØHETTA http://www.queensu.ca/badercentre http://www.queensu.ca/sites/default/...g9-455x195.jpg http://www.queensu.ca/sites/default/...34-445x195.jpg Family and Children's Services of Frontenac, Lennox and Addington - New builidng http://brickbybrickcampaign.ca/App_T...s/BG_NIGHT.jpg http://brickbybrickcampaign.ca/Photos.aspx |
Interesting! :tup:
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Queen's is working on a new Master Plan
http://www.queensu.ca/cmp/home 36 turbine windfarm proposed for Amherst Island http://storage.canoe.ca/v1/dynamic_r...=1362618722217 http://www.thewhig.com/2013/03/06/is...rbine-blockade http://www.amherstislandwindproject.com/ The Third Crossing across the Catraqui is a major upcoming project. Environmental studies are still in the review process http://www.cityofkingston.ca/city-ha...third-crossing http://www.cityofkingston.ca/documen...=1356022407541 Quote:
https://www.cityofkingston.ca/city-h.../williamsville The tender is out for Highway 401 widening between West of Montreal Road, easterly towards Hwy 15.. should take a few years. It's already been widened to 6 lanes from west of 38 to west of Montreal |
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There's an empty lot further west on Princess Street which was a Toyota dealership prior to maybe 2009, and there are development plans which have been getting some local opposition from the NIMBY crowd, but I think will go ahead anyways starting next year. The building proposed is a mixed-use commercial/residential development that is meant to affordable, and will probably attract a lot of students. And yet, the same people opposing these new developments complain about the number of single family homes in the older parts of Kingston that get converted to student housing. Quote:
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A few Kingston updates:
- Construction has started on the mixed-use development on the former Toyota dealership site on Princess Street in Williamsville district. So far it has just been a lot of digging. - Princess Street remains closed between Bagot and King Streets for reconstruction. Work on adding new sidewalks and curbs got underway this week between Wellington and King, so hopefully that section won't be closed much longer. - There has been controversy over a proposed residential high-rise on the east side of the Cataraqui River, just east of downtown. Although a great intensification project that will undoubtedly increase property values in the Barriefield area tremendously, long-time residents are opposed to losing their "quiet" way of life. - Haven't seen much progress on that new high-rise on Queen Street. - Four months from now, Kingston's first express bus service will be implemented, with bi-directional 15-minute service from downtown to the Cataraqui Centre via Princess Street, and via Bayridge Drive, Henderson Blvd, Days Road, Front Road, and King Street. This will cut down bus travel times from the Bayridge area to downtown by over half. Two additional routes are planned for implementation in winter 2015. - Chapters Indigo announced this week that their large Indigo store downtown, which opened in 1997, will close in June. Ten Thousand Villages and a local Telus dealer both suddenly closed this week, and the former Capitol Theatre remains vacant, and some locals are starting to panick about the downtown's future. Fortunately, the commercial vacancy rate downtown is only 4%, a fraction of that of other cities such as Brockville. |
Rant
Something that really bothers me in Kingston is how much people complain about the downtown and how it's "dying". Maybe I have different perspective because of where I lived before Kingston, but despite closures of some businesses, I see a vibrant downtown with amenities like a daily outdoor farmer's market, lots of sidewalk patios, not one but two grocery stores, and a place with low crime (though the area immediately north of downtown is a whole other story). I also can't get over the perception locals have about how "little" parking there is, and how "expensive" it is.
I invite anyone who thinks Kingston has a horrible downtown to go spend a month in downtown London, Ontario. If you can even find a place to park, you'll be paying Toronto rates in some areas. You won't find two seven-storey parking garages. You'll find an outdoor farmer's market, but it's much smaller and only on Thursdays. You won't see any sidewalk patios, except one owned by a DUI convict. You won't find any grocery stores, but you'll find payday loan sharks and lots of places to get a tattoo. And if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time, you'll get shot or stabbed. You might also see a fight break out at D&R. (And London doesn't have the worst downtown in North America, either.) I just do not get the amount of complaining I hear within Kingston about its downtown. These people should be thankful to have a downtown like theirs. Just because a few stores have closed doesn't mean the whole downtown is dying. A store also recently closed at the RioCan Centre, but nobody's saying that the RioCan is dying. It's the cyclical reality of business. |
The people that say that, in my experiences in Thunder Bay, are people that skip downtown and just go straight to the big box stores.
My grandpa is a regular "downtown is dead" whiner but every time we do downtown he says it looks better than he remembers. :shrug: |
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I sometimes wonder if the longtime Kingston residents that constantly complain about downtown parking have ever traveled anywhere else other than Belleville. |
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Someone literally complained to the city that "downtown is too steep, and people in wheelchairs will roll into the lake, therefore the multiplex should be build on the edge of town". They say it will be "another waterfront disaster", because the current one was just terrible what with all the luxury condo developments and short supply of commercial space all of a sudden. |
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Kingston, fortunately, seems to take a much less consultative discussion with local residents when approving zoning changes and new developments - more of a "here's our plan and you will like it". It took only 4-5 months for the proposed mixed-use development on Princess Street to go from initial proposal to shovels in the ground, and I'm sure it would've been faster had they not had to wait for winter to pass. Those kinds of proposals can take years to get approved in London, because their city council tries to please everyone - it took over three years and an OMB hearing just to get a friggin' Tim Hortons built in one instance. |
Thunder Bay (with an average age of 43 or so) was like London, but after we replaced a few members on city council in 2006, everything started being "full steam ahead". We still do a lot of public consultation but for the most part, they've already decided on what they're doing and the consultations are just for show (which pisses off a lot of old people, as they're usually the only ones who attend.) The downside is when they do the occasional project that will turn our really bad, like placing our new bus terminal in the middle of a residential neighbourhood that is kind of near things, but not really.
Every time I attend a planning meeting here, reporters from CBC come up to me and as for my perspective "as the only young person here". |
Within 500 feet of the Kingston Indigo, there's two municipal surface lots and a garage, plus lots of cheap pay street parking ($1/hour, free after 5:30)...on-street parking is free 1-2 blocks away.
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