Remember you heard it here first folks....
Demolition scheduled for Broadway building
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Published: Tuesday, December 19, 2006
A backhoe will quash the debate over the future of the Northern Paints building on Broadway Avenue.
Demolition is scheduled for Wednesday, weather permitting, said Al Sarich, manager of Silverado Demolition and Excavating.
Sarich was hired by Meridian Development, the private developer who has drawn up plans for a 12-storey condominium that will replace the Northern Paints building.
The high-rise sparked debate earlier this month about the scale of new developments and the fit of the new building in the Broadway community.
"People weren't aware of what could happen on Broadway until that building was proposed," said Mark Bobyn, president of the Nutana community association.
The condo tower would be good for business on Broadway, Bobyn said. However, the zoning on Broadway is from an "older era" and needs to be re-examined, he said. Each property on Broadway could potentially permit developments of 25 storeys.
"It's a drastic change to what makes Broadway attractive to people right now," he said.
The tall orange backhoe looming beside the single-storey building at the corner of Broadway and Ninth Street is indicative of a "lack of subtlety," which concerns the community, Bobyn said.
"It's sad to see an older building go that's fitting with the scale and the age of the rest of Broadway," Bobyn said.
Among the community concerns are wind flow and shadowing. Having a large building in that area affects the real estate value of people's houses adjacent to the property, Bobyn added.
The developer, Karl Miller, is not doing interviews, his assistant said.
The community has invited the developers to meetings about this project and others, Bobyn said. Miller has been invited to attend the community association's open meeting at 7 p.m.
on Jan. 9 to discuss Broadway's zoning and its effects on the surrounding neighbourhoods.
"We'd like for him to be part of that discussion," Bobyn said. "Seeing new people come into the neighbourbood is certainly a natural part of the city's growth.
"We just have to find new ways to fit them in."
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The community association appears somewhat more sane than the Heritige Society, though I get the feeling they don't really want outsiders moving in on their good little thing.
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