Posted Jan 30, 2017, 2:38 AM
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Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Edmonton
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Edmonton's downtown pit has some overflowing with frustration
'It’s just unfortunate the owner of the site doesn’t put it into a decent state of repair until they sell it or redevelop it.'
http://www.metronews.ca/news/edmonton/20...n-calls-for-park.html?platform=hootsuite
Quote:
If a pit sits for 11 years in downtown Edmonton is it simply an eyesore or is it an example of how much we value our inner core?
Whatever your answer, the head of the Downtown Business Association said it’s time to improve the sunken pit at 100 Avenue and 106 Street.
“It doesn’t contribute to the neighbourhood, it’s not well kept, the fence is always falling over and people use it as a dumping site,” Ian O’Donnell, the organization’s executive director, said about the pit recently.
“It’s just unfortunate the owner of the site doesn’t put it into a decent state of repair until they sell it or redevelop it.”
The lot is fenced in and features the remains of Edmonton’s first apartment building, the Arlington.
But there’s a problem: The city can’t do much to turn the pile of rubble into something more substantial.
Sandeep Agrawal, urban planning professor at the University of Alberta, said Friday that the city’s only real option to make better use of the land is to expropriate it. “That’s essentially taking the development rights away, which is a very high standard,” he said. “It can happen, but the city has to prove it’s in the public interest to take it over. “When land is vacant and sitting there, it’s hard for government to step in.”
The Arlington, built in 1909, was gutted by fire in 2005 and had to be demolished in 2008, due to the damage.
Since then, the lot's sat vacant, like a big, empty, ugly pool.
City spokesperson Lisa Sobchyshyn said Friday that Edmonton has requested the owner to fill the excavation to ground level.
“The city recognizes the construction fence around the site has not been effective,” Sobchyshyn said, in an email. “So once the site is at ground level the fencing will no longer be required.“
But O’Donnell said the owner should look to Abbey Glen Park — located on 102 Street and Jasper Ave — as a way to make better use of private land.
“That’s what we would like to see — something returned to green space so people can at least use it during the day,” he said. “The Arlington site gives the impression downtown is unkempt and there’s no care or attention, and that’s the bigger concern.”
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