After a doctor's appointment, I went down to the NEFC open house. I almost immediately got into a disagreement with a man claiming to be landscape architect who insisted that the low income residents in the area will be mistreated by the tall buildings. He asserted that the buildings would cast shadows on the future park land, rendering it unusable. He also claimed to have seen the contracts for the social housing, and insisted they had a clause that would require it only be provided for one year. I didn't put up much of argument because my back was killing me, and I didn't trust myself to behave with him screaming at me.
One thing to note is that the Site 10C tower was absent. The reason I was given was that as it is just one tower, there wasn't really a reason to cover it again. In my view, the explanation could also be that the province knows it can do whatever it wants anyways.
As Migrant Coconut stated, its likely that the streetcars will end up in the roadway for this area, specifically in the curb lanes. Infrastructure for the streetcar system will be installed during the rebuilding of Pacific, and future station sites are being identified and will be roughed in advance of funding for the line.
The biggest shocker from this event is the time frame. Apparently the plans are for this to be at council at or before the summer of 2018. Several people expressed to me that they believe that the NEFC plan has reached a point where it would be impossible to turn back. Given that informed opinion, and that this will go to council by this summer, I think its safe to say that, even if the election doesn't return a Vision lead/majority council, that the Viaducts will be coming down is now unavoidable.
The start of construction on some sites is hoped for as early as 2022! However, the plans for the park have been placed on hold and will be seriously delayed. This is due to a negative reception from the public and newfound/increased interest from the Chinatown and First Nations communities in having a greater role in the parks planning. In short, the architects of the park are forced to go back to the drawing board and do some serious retooling.
Stay tuned for site specific updates and photos of the models, none of which show their adjacent sites in the correct proportions.
Prev
Linear Mode
