[Halifax] St. Pat's Crossing (6067 Quinpool) | ? m | 4x28 fl | U/C

[maxchristie]

Originally Posted by Musicman Halifax

I never looked at the map before but there are very restrictive covenants (restrictions on what can be built on a site such as height, type of store ect). Across from CTV that has severe height limits due to the need for them to use their satellite dishes. It affects all the land across the street with the exception of the shoppers land (now that I looked at it) and the young tower property and anything behind it. Now I know that the dishes are not used to the extent they were in the past, however they are still in use occasionally.

There are no restrictive covenants on the land across the street. There are restrictive covenants that prevent the Esso station from being redeveloped as residential or almost anything other than a gas station. This includes the Tim Hortons beside the Esso. The other lots will be zoned as part of the Young District Future Growth Node.

[Musicman Halifax]

Originally Posted by maxchristie

There are no restrictive covenants on the land across the street. There are restrictive covenants that prevent the Esso station from being redeveloped as residential or almost anything other than a gas station. This includes the Tim Hortons beside the Esso. The other lots will be zoned as part of the Young District Future Growth Node.

If there are none it is recent. Within the last year. I’ve seen the paperwork. The old piercer’s site was max 3 stories.

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by Musicman Halifax

If there are none it is recent. Within the last year. I’ve seen the paperwork. The old piercer’s site was max 3 stories.

I suspect those changes occurred last fall when our august HRM Council took JT’s bag of federal gold from the Housing Accelerator Fund and threw most planning documents out the window, shamefully.

[Jonovision]

Originally Posted by Musicman Halifax

If there are none it is recent. Within the last year. I’ve seen the paperwork. The old piercer’s site was max 3 stories.

If I recall that was put in place to prevent development from occurring before a detailed masterplan was created for this larger site. There were a few larger sites within the Centre Plan area that was given this same designation.

[Dmajackson]

This project will be starting construction in the next two months. They've been issued some of the last-minute engineering permits that are only good for a brief period.

[someone123]

Still not sure what to think about this one based on the renderings. I haven't seen any detailed site plan or elevation drawings.

To me it looks like maybe the podium is a bit short for a development with such long street frontage. The "crystal" form is also cool looking but is the kind of thing that tends to be nicer in a rendering than in the final product unless the built quality is very high. There are a couple projects in Vancouver of this style that turned out okay. The ROM crystal in Toronto looked a bit like this but was disappointing, with a glassy look in renderings but a messy metal cladding appearance in the end.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by someone123

Still not sure what to think about this one based on the renderings. I haven't seen any detailed site plan or elevation drawings.

To me it looks like maybe the podium is a bit short for a development with such long street frontage. The "crystal" form is also cool looking but is the kind of thing that tends to be nicer in a rendering than in the final product unless the built quality is very high. There are a couple projects in Vancouver of this style that turned out okay. The ROM crystal in Toronto looked a bit like this but was disappointing, with a glassy look in renderings but a messy metal cladding appearance in the end.

Agreed; it's hard to get a great sense of this from the images released so far. The earlier design was relatively simple and plain but also reasonably attractive, I thought. This is more out there, and I'm wondering if the architects' ambition is exceeding their ability in this case. Time will tell.

[Phalanx]

One thing the updated design has going for it is that it adds, or at least appears to add, large format, modern urban retail, something that's sorely lacking in most new developments, let alone Halifax as a whole.

Also, building heights are now given as 28-28-27-27. The topic title should probably be updated.

[Jonovision]

I'm curious if they are planning to build all 4 towers at the same time. All the other multi tower developments in the city tend to just do one at a time.

[someone123]

I wonder about the project by Young and Windsor as well. It seems like a huge amount of housing to put on the market at one time.

All these developments will really increase the density along the Robie corridor. And this particular development could likely appeal to hospital workers. Building complementary developments like this will hopefully help a lot with issues like traffic and parking.

[beyeas]

Originally Posted by someone123

I wonder about the project by Young and Windsor as well. It seems like a huge amount of housing to put on the market at one time.

All these developments will really increase the density along the Robie corridor. And this particular development could likely appeal to hospital workers. Building complementary developments like this will hopefully help a lot with issues like traffic and parking.

I agree wholeheartedly that there is an opportunity here for densification along Robie (and corridors off it like Young, Quinpool, SGR) to provide a big opportunity for those in healthcare and the universities. To me the thing that would take this to the next level, in terms of actually having an impact on parking/traffic is if there was something like a light-rail/streetcar loop that would serve this corridors and the downtown. Sadly I don't see this happening, in part through lack of foresight in government and the fact that there would be the typical short-sighted screams of horror that light-rail would take away from room on the road for cars.

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by beyeas

I agree wholeheartedly that there is an opportunity here for densification along Robie (and corridors off it like Young, Quinpool, SGR) to provide a big opportunity for those in healthcare and the universities. To me the thing that would take this to the next level, in terms of actually having an impact on parking/traffic is if there was something like a light-rail/streetcar loop that would serve this corridors and the downtown. Sadly I don't see this happening, in part through lack of foresight in government and the fact that there would be the typical short-sighted screams of horror that light-rail would take away from room on the road for cars.

I've been thinking about this recently myself. It would seem comparatively simple (although none of it is actually simple) to find space on Robie after the redevelopment of the section from Almon to Cunard is widened as planned. SGR is capable of handling E/W movement until you get to Barrington. While there may be some opportunities on some streets like Connaught for more if you use the median, none of them seem to stay wide for very long. If there was a will and a commitment of funds it could probably be accomplished but I think it is unlikely.

[Antigonish]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

I've been thinking about this recently myself. It would seem comparatively simple (although none of it is actually simple) to find space on Robie after the redevelopment of the section from Almon to Cunard is widened as planned. SGR is capable of handling E/W movement until you get to Barrington. While there may be some opportunities on some streets like Connaught for more if you use the median, none of them seem to stay wide for very long. If there was a will and a commitment of funds it could probably be accomplished but I think it is unlikely.

Connaught always seemed to me like one of the perfect corridor areas into/out of downtown to Windsor Street Exchange area. That large median pretty much covers much of the physical space needed for an LRT/tramway without sacrificing existing car capacity. Then there are 3 potential east-west route crossings with Bayers Road, Chebucto, and Quinpool to link up with it.

[Patriots]

I think Robie would be your best bang for your buck connecting population nodes at SPG, Quinpool, up to Young. Eventually a westbound connection from Young/Robie to the proposed node at Hfx Shopping Center would help.

On the topic of St.Pat's, just nice to see there is a decent plan in place to fill that big gap in the middle of the city.

[HalifaxRetales]

Superstore and Shoppers will be part of the Retail moving from Quinpool Centre


can't get official confirmation because Loblaws always lies to me

[ArchAficionado]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

I've been thinking about this recently myself. It would seem comparatively simple (although none of it is actually simple) to find space on Robie after the redevelopment of the section from Almon to Cunard is widened as planned. SGR is capable of handling E/W movement until you get to Barrington. While there may be some opportunities on some streets like Connaught for more if you use the median, none of them seem to stay wide for very long. If there was a will and a commitment of funds it could probably be accomplished but I think it is unlikely.

With the resources already being invested in the Robie widening, it would be great if the city committed to something more permanent and higher capacity than a BRT - like a light rail train. A Robie corridor, and a Quinpool -> Connaught -> Bayers corridor, combined with a regional commuter rail abutting the 102 -> Windsor Exchange -> Circ would be a great 10 year plan for starting a real mass transit network in HRM.

[Colin May]

Originally Posted by ArchAficionado

With the resources already being invested in the Robie widening, it would be great if the city committed to something more permanent and higher capacity than a BRT - like a light rail train. A Robie corridor, and a Quinpool -> Connaught -> Bayers corridor, combined with a regional commuter rail abutting the 102 -> Windsor Exchange -> Circ would be a great 10 year plan for starting a real mass transit network in HRM.

Any idea how you would reduce vehicle traffic entering the peninsula by 2,000 a day Mon - Fri ?

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by Colin May

Any idea how you would reduce vehicle traffic entering the peninsula by 2,000 a day Mon - Fri ?

Make it so they don’t have to bring their vehicles into the peninsula. Build some massive parkades near major transportation routes at the outskirts of the city, and run BRT/LRT 24 hrs, and at short intervals during peak periods. Make sure the system is efficient and easy to navigate, i.e. convenient, so that motorists view this as a better alternative than fighting their way through traffic each day.

There will be large costs involved, but part of this is playing catch up for all the years when something should have been done but wasn’t. And then sometimes you just have to spend the money to get over the threshold of making it a well-run, and therefore useful and valuable, service for our citizens.

Things can be better, but the work has to be done to make it happen. Otherwise it starts to feel like Groundhog Day, where we keep repeating the reasons that we tell ourselves that it can’t be done. Been there done that, and have been for decades. Now is the best time to change that.

[Keith P.]

Mark's post is pretty much it. It's not hard to figure out, but HRM has never done it and that is why the Province seems to be preparing to step up and do it themselves. Electrified trains of some sort to move large numbers of people to/from a limited number of points.

[Antigonish]

Originally Posted by OldDartmouthMark

Make it so they don’t have to bring their vehicles into the peninsula. Build some massive parkades near major transportation routes at the outskirts of the city, and run BRT/LRT 24 hrs, and at short intervals during peak periods. Make sure the system is efficient and easy to navigate, i.e. convenient, so that motorists view this as a better alternative than fighting their way through traffic each day.

There will be large costs involved, but part of this is playing catch up for all the years when something should have been done but wasn’t. And then sometimes you just have to spend the money to get over the threshold of making it a well-run, and therefore useful and valuable, service for our citizens.

Things can be better, but the work has to be done to make it happen. Otherwise it starts to feel like Groundhog Day, where we keep repeating the reasons that we tell ourselves that it can’t be done. Been there done that, and have been for decades. Now is the best time to change that.

I agree 100% Mark. The most realistic alternative is having the HRM version of the last mile be car-oriented as a compromise. You could construct a park & ride at Main & Forest Hills Parkway and the BRT/LRT heads from there straight to the Dartmouth bus terminal and/or Alderney without any stops in between. Same for Lower Sackville, Bedford, Clayton Park/Fairview, Spryfield, Timberlea, MicMac, etc.

As long as a bulk of car traffic is removed from the inner core that's the best viable option. Once back out in the 'burbs commuters will disperse in every direction immediately from those terminals anyway. I'd go to the length of making parking entirely free at these locations (if you buy a yearly transit pass) to encourage people to at least mix car & transit together as their daily commute. The free parking option would save thousands of people thousands of dollars annually right up front. And "free" parking is an excellent marketing strategy.