[St. John's] The Official Project Thread

[cam477]

I won’t get into whether or not I think the city should be expropriating those properties from Loblaws. Expropriation should only be used in extreme situations… which some could argue this is. But I will say this – despite this happening over a decade ago, has the city taken any measures to ensure this can’t happen again? Surely, they could create a bylaw whereby a property zoned as commercial can only remain vacant for so many years before it must be auctioned off or can be expropriated by the city. It’s terrible corporate citizenship on the part of Loblaws. However, corporations are almost always going to get away with everything they can. The part that annoys me more is that we know they are doing it and yet have we put in place regulations to prevent it from happening again? (I genuinely don’t know. If so, I stand corrected.)

Horsell – I completely agree we need to get past the need for parking in the front of buildings. I have no idea why NLers can’t change their thinking on this. But that doesn’t mean that areas with vast parking lots in the front of properties now can’t be redeveloped.

In my opinion it makes more sense to focus on city center neighborhoods than newer developments like Kenmount Terrace, Southlands or Glencrest. The reality is, the people moving to those neighborhoods are going to drive everywhere they go. I fear that well planned, mixed use, walkable developments, that are not connected to anywhere else in the city by fast, reliable, quality transit, will become poorly used and somewhat wasted. Maybe I’m wrong and being overly pessimistic. I just think we need a smart core before we have any hope of smart suburbs. I also think that these neighborhoods are going to densify and become more mixed use regardless of what the city planners or councilors do. I think it’s organic growth for central locations to thrive in booming cities so we should take advantage of that.