Quote:
Originally Posted by halifaxboyns
Granted my ultimate dream for Agricola would be to see it closed down to be a transit/pedestrian only street with designated delivery zones which can be accessed at certain times to help the ground floor commercial. Vehicles could cross Agricola (so if you turned up West Street from Maynard, you could still cross Agricola to get to Robie) but could not make any left/right turns onto Agricola. I think that would send the land values through the roof and turn this street into a very interesting place to be (and necessitate an increased level of density/bldg height).
...
Of course the challenge would be that in order to provide access; you'd have to purchase enough land that you'd have a means to gain access off of a side street (or partner with adjacent land owners and get access easements). This might be an instance where I'd want the City to just swoop in and expropriate or buy out a lot of folks and then create an arms length development company (much like Calgary did with the East Village) and then re-assemble the parcels to be able to work with a development plan. I'm not always a fan of expropriation, but this might be the solution in this case (to fit my dream). Likely will never happen though...but it's nice to day dream.
|
I dunno--I like a lot of that vision, but I'm wary of the long arm of the government getting involved in areas that are naturally revitalizing on their own. Calgary's East Village had/has a lot of social and geographic problems (and a LOT of vacant land) that the Agricola corridor doesn't have to deal with. I'd be happy to see Agricola continue growing organically--perhaps with some extra guidance from a neighbourhood-specific planning guideline, but mass expropriation seems unnecessary and probably undesirable. A great neighbourhood is a delicate balance--things are already going very well on the street right now. Upsetting the environment that's fostering that feels risky.