Edmonton Construction 9 (2008-08)

[ue]

It can be. It's further along than 101 st. I don't see why it can't. It has a sort of edgy gritty look. It already has a bunch of stores like Haven, Donovans, and Inspired Home Interiors.

[ue]

Council on verge of airport decision

Only a few leave much doubt about inclination

By Scott Mckeen, The Edmonton JournalJune 22, 2009 6:53 AM
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City council will vote in early July to close the City Centre Airport.

Book it. You read it here first. Fire up the bulldozers. It's a done deal.

Mind you, I also predicted Bill Smith to win in 2004 and Mike Nickel in 2007. So, like, don't bet the farm.

But fools rush in, again and again. So here is my prediction on how council will vote on the most crazy-making civic issue since the cat bylaw. I include a rating of how each council member is leaning on the vote -- towards closure, or status quo -- to make things more accurate. And to cover my 🞵🞵🞵🞵.

-Mayor Stephen Mandel, 80--20 closure.

Mandel's feelings on the matter were made clear in his recent state of the city speech. Unless Muni boosters reveal some compelling public interest in keeping the airport open, Mandel wants closure--to both the airport and the debate.

-Karen Leibovici, 75--25, closure. Leibovici's politics, as I've said before, are unpredictable. But she's a pragmatist and will focus on benefits to Edmonton, not Alberta, in making her decision. Leibovici knows her mind and is near bulletproof to lobbying.

-Linda Sloan, 80--20, status quo. Sloan is deeply worried for people

of the north if the Muni closes and medevacs are relocated. Yet her own ward was pro-consolidation and likely pro-closure. Linda Sloan, meet Mark Norris.

-Ron Hayter, 90--10, status quo. Hayter has long been the Muni's

best friend on council. He made his mind up on this one before many of you were born.

-Kim Krushell, 80--20, closure. Krushell spent the last few months

researching the airport questions. She's swayed by the opportunity to redevelop the lands, as well as the opportunity costs in not doing so.

Her ward is pro-airport. But Krushell tends to vote with her head and heart, damn the politics.

-Tony Caterina, 100--0, status quo.

Caterina has spent much of his political capital this term defending the Muni. Weird. It's not like many voters in Ward 3 get to use the Muni.

-Ed Gibbons, 50--50. Gibbons certainly cares about Edmonton's relationship with northern communities. But he won't be keen to appear as Caterina's ally, or convert, on the issue.

-Jane Batty, 60--40, closure. Batty is a staunch Mandel loyalist,

but also friends with old money in Edmonton--people with private planes.

Yet her urban constituents aren't pleased with the airport's impact on downtown development. Ultimately, she'll vote for downtown.

-Ben Henderson, 70 -30, closure. Henderson is even more sympathetic to the downtown. His lips are sealed, but I'm told that he's quietly expressed a desire to see the airport closed.

-Bryan Anderson, 55 -45, closure. Anderson is a details guy. He'll want to know this, that and the other thing about trends in the airline industry and how they might impact Edmonton. If he likes the answers, Anderson will vote for closure. If not, not.

-Don Iveson, 70-30, closure. Iveson is the environmentalist on council. And he's a wonk.

So, he'll favour the idea of building a high-density, environmentally sustainable community on the airport site, with direct LRT access to downtown.

The politics or emotion won't faze him.

-Amarjeet Sohi, 60 -40, closure. Sohi, like Iveson, is new to the debate and free of any old grudges. Sohi is also big on transit and sustainable communities.

He gets branded a union guy. But except for one lame exception, the unions have been mostly quiet on the airport question.

-Dave Thiele, 80-20, status quo. I'm told by sever al sources that Thiele is adamantly in favour of the airport. Why?Who knows with this guy.

So there you have the rundown. The pro-closure side has a bit of an edge, but information at the public hearings could tip the balance. I suspect not, though.

I expect we're going to hear the same old arguments, over and over. I expect the vote will be 9-4 or 8-5 in favour of closing the airport.

Note:Edmonton will still have four other regional airports to handle scheduled service, charters, flight training and medevacs.

Private plane owners can even lease hangar space at the International Airport.

For their benefit, that's the airport by Leduc.

The vast majority of Edmontonians use it all the time.

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http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Council+verge+airport+decision/1720020/story.html

[bulliver]

^ Hopefully closure will squeak through. I have noticed several "Airport Not For Sale" signs sprouting up on the lawns of my neighbours. Keep in mind I live 2 blocks from the airport, I would have thought most folks around here would be pro-closure, just to reduce noise.

[Airboy]

Originally Posted by ZiZiPop

^^ Is that the location where the NAIT student won the design competition for.

Observed a group with what appears to be design reports, pealing stucco off, poking and prodding the buildings on the north side of 118th ave between 124 and 125th. The location the Nait students designed.

[HomeInMyShoes]

Originally Posted by bulliver

^ Hopefully closure will squeak through. I have noticed several "Airport Not For Sale" signs sprouting up on the lawns of my neighbours. Keep in mind I live 2 blocks from the airport, I would have thought most folks around here would be pro-closure, just to reduce noise.

Not if it just means a bunch of development that's going to increase traffic.

It pains me to have lived in Edmonton and to know that this is still an issue. Edmonton could be so much more without the airport than it is with the airport. Kill it, kill it now. Stretch the LRT up past the new residential development built upon it's charred remains and past the Kingsway and NAIT and the hospital and up to St. Albert.

I'm hopeful the airport will finally be voted away, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Daveography]

Just imagine, if the vote is for the status quo, we can expect the debate to rage on or another ridiculous number of years whole groups call for expanded scheduled service and opposing groups continue to call for total closure. I think that this prospect is not lost on most of city council, and that the only way out of it is total irreversible closure.

[Coldrsx]

i am more curious to see who brings what kind of proposals out if this is closed and the market begins to recover...

[rapid_business]

It will be a large, internationally bid, plan which will then become the ASP long before we see a shovel in the ground or anyone trying to build something on their own. If passed, expect no shovels (or infrastructure) for 5 yrs.+

[Airboy]

There was an interesting article this weekend in the Journal about the closing of Berlin’s downtown airport (Templehoff). Violent protests to support making the space people friendly and not commercial.

Maybe someone should start a walk on protest.

[Coldrsx]

Originally Posted by onishenko

It will be a large, internationally bid, plan which will then become the ASP long before we see a shovel in the ground or anyone trying to build something on their own. If passed, expect no shovels (or infrastructure) for 5 yrs.+

not the muni site... but downtown.

[HomeInMyShoes]

^Excatly. I was wondering if someone was sitting on a proposal through the 🞵🞵🞵🞵 times to see if something would happen with the muni.

Hello 190m.

[Coldrsx]

^200m

[ue]

I've seen maps of the area where City Centre Airport, Queen Mary Park, and parts of Central McDougall (all of which were the last areas under the Hudsons Bay Reserve, which is why they developed later, even so close to the downtown) were planned to look like in the 1910s and before the Muni.

It wasn't your typical looking grid, but the streets were gridded, but it was done in a master planned way, see Ladd's Addition in Portland on a muuuuch larger scale. Kingsway Ave, Princess Elizabeth, and all those other diagonals weren't made diagonal for the heck of it. In fact there was supposed to be a diagonal big intersection where Princess Elizabeth and Kingsway would meet, instead of there being Airway Park. Then these roads after intersecting would go down to 107 Ave.

Among many other things, it looked interesting while keeping the integrity of the grid. I hope something similar to that happens on the muni site.

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

^200m

please no. that would look far too out of scale in edmonton's skyline. 170 m, yes, 180m, sure, but nothing over until our (and if our) downtown gets taller. Which historically it hasn't so I doubt it. But it would be nice to build 100 m tall condos on 108 St and have a tallest of 177m on 102 St or somethign.

[oiler-dude]

The Bow: 236M



Doesn't look that out of place, IMO. It's obviously bulky, but that's not a necessity.

[Daveography]

It's kinda silly to say that anything taller than what we're used to would "stick out" or look "out of scale." Some of the best and most skyline-defining buildings "stick out" from their surroundings. Sure the Burj might be a bit excessive, but a 200m tower (the scale of Banker's Hall, Bay-Adelaide, RBC Dexia, or Shangri-La) is not unreasonable for a city like ours.

We don't need to (force developers to) move incrementally up to 200m.

[Harrison]

With a closed Muni, I'd like to see more high-density residential and commercial around Kingsway and the LRT station; it would be like an "Uptown" area like in Atlanta, Toronto, or Houston (with no massive freeways). The towers should be lower than Downtown's, as to keep the two distinct.

As well, MUCH more development in Downtown as well, with towers going over 200m and condos up to 150m in the future hopefully

[ue]

I always thought Oliver was 'uptown', 109st/Jasper was 'midtown' and downtown proper was 'downtown'.

[0773|=\]

Having talked to a lot of people who live near the muni, it seems the biggest "concern" for the voting public in that area is traffic. People want to be convinced that if condos start going up on the muni site, that there's a plan in place to keep 111 Ave/118 Ave from becoming bogged with way more cars.

Those concerns obviously can't be addressed until we see a physical plan for the site.

[Kevin_foster]

hmmm

car noise VS plane noise...

[Jasper and one o nin]

alright, Im scared. what the hell is going to happen on Aug 5?