Hey, I'm all for a more "urban" feel and less parking. I don't see this coming from Smart Centres. And I'm against them wanting wholesale changes from the city with providing nothing to the city/community in exchange for the changes.
They aren't saying, "Hey, allow us to cut 597 spots and we'll throw a couple of hundred grand to local charities, Goodwill, City Kidz, etc". Or, give us the 597 spots and we'll 200 of the spots into a lovely green space/parkette. They are saying: "Let us cut 597 spots to allow us to boost our profits, and BTW if it negatively impacts the surrounding community, oh well...........
I for one am sick of hearing things like the following: "We will have to take a serious look at this development if we don't get this variance." That's developer speak from their broken record collection. Translation: "If we don't get our way, we'll take our ball and go home."
Call their bluff. Don't think for a minute that Wal-mart doesn't want a new store and Smart Centres is tied so closely to Wal-mart they'll do whatever they want.
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The jobs, stupid!
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