[kwajo]

Also posted in the North of Union thread:

I was looking over the CEU report about the site this morning, and then looked at the actual development that is slated to begin construction in a couple months, and boy am I disappointed. Seriously, how did a site with so much potential degrade into what it is now? The CEU report identifies numerous aspects of development that have been completely disregarded by the city, including: not allowing parking to dominate a development, orienting buildings to the street, maintaining the street grid and converting Hazen Avenue to pedestrian-only, focusing on all buildings being 5-6 stories and adding landmark buildings (150 feet) as terminating vistas, incorporating subsidised and market-rate housing to help attract young people and families to the Uptown, respecting existing streetwall, and the list goes on and on. What happened here? We've lost out on a real opportunity to make Uptown a destination in the region, especially combined with the Coast Guard development (which thankfully has a much denser and more mixed-se design) and the Irving HQ (imagine Irving Oil workers living in new condos/apartments North of Union and just walking down the hill to work every day rather than driving from KV).

I'm just flabbergasted by this complete lack of leadership from the city on this one, it just disgusts me.