Posted May 19, 2024, 2:38 AM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Vancouver
Posts: 2,052
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I am sooo happy to see something moving on the Onni site, it drove me crazy seeing the site stalled and sit empty like that, and our pitiful hopes we'd see the excavator working or some sign of life, but it never came. As much as I hate Onni, I hope they proceed quick on this one, and not let it die. This proposal seems quite serious, so I'm cautiously optimistic. In hindsight I am glad we didn't end up with that 2016 proposal, yikes! Bad even by Onni standards. We may not improve much on quality or design, but at least it will be taller dammit lol
I am optimistic on many of these other recent proposals for towers in the area (Emily Carr campus itself, plus the Rogers/Shaw lot). I think there are such strong fundamentals with this area, and the Skytrain is really happening and opening in 2 years, it isn't just speculation. Rental is a good steady income stream, and being beside a big university and large employers and a skytrain, it's a pretty good bet. That will be some nice density for the area, and very fitting. The massive open areas at the front of Emily Carr always screamed under utilized, so this is good.
I just thought of an "I can only dream" fantasy for the area. An elevated pedestrian/bike path basically going from the Great Northern Way Station area, over the rail tracks to the low density commercial/industrial properties. And then a major upgrade of the pedestrian/cyclist route from Industrial Ave. and then up Station St. It would be a quicker more direct link between Main St. Station and Great Northern Way Station, and link the different sides of this neighbourhood currently separated by the railroad tracks and a weird road network that has limited north/south connectivity. Something Coast Meridian-esque, ideally just for pedestrians and cyclists, but if it gave it more hope of approval, I suppose it could have vehicle traffic. An elevated viaduct in this area wouldn't be overly controversial either, spanning a railyard only. It would just avoid walking all the way down to Main and up, and might stimulate improvements in the ghastly neighbourhood around Industrial Ave. (I suppose with a name like that I shouldn't expect much, but it isn't even properly industrial, it's just devoid of anything good. Very North Surrey vibes but without the actual bustling industry North Surrey has. Like what I imagine a rust belt city to have. Very pedestrian unfriendly, very dirty, poor drainage, it is way under utilized. But in an amazing area with so many pluses, it's giving way less than its full potential. Maybe bringing in more people by making it a pedestrian/cycle corridor between two major points would help. With St. Paul's coming in too not far down the road, the area seems destined to fill in between that and the Great Northern Way stretch.
Then again, maybe it's just as easy to go down to Main lol but in that case East 2nd should get major upgrades to extend the pedestrian/cylist improvements all the way to Main (it currently stops at the apartment building directly beside GNW station and the rest of the way is just narrow sidewalk)
But it's a total fantasy,
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