Saskatoon Construction III

[YXE]

Man, there sure hasn't been a whole lot to talk about in these Saskatoon forums lately...

[prairieguy]

Nordic Spa

FYI....I did submit a short note to my city councilor supporting the Spa and she provided me a link to send a comment to ALL city council members. So, if you have a minute or two this morning and want to share your opinion, here is the link:

https://www.saskatoon.ca/write-letter-councilcommittees

[Echoes]

5 storey condo on Sask Cres across from Rotary Park up for Meewasin board review: https://meewasin.com/wp-content/uplo...ent-Review.pdf

[prairieguy]

Would be nice addition to that area....I assume they feel slumping issues of river bank have been addressed??

[yveseluj]

Very casual NSX hanging out in the driveway.

[cutchemist42]

Spa is dead.

So just putting it out there hut would the spa have passed if it wasnt the hotel? I mean Winnipegs spa is close to some homes that are nicer than the Willows and worth more and I think residents love it there.

[roryn1]

I don’t think it’s dead, the local residents just didn’t allow Dream to cut corners like they’re used to so hopefully they come back with a slightly better proposal, or we see a spa from another company happen at Dakota Dunes as has been planned for years. Either way a spa is coming, so nice to see some competition.

[Crisis]

This decision by CoS city council makes it more likely that the proposal Nordic spa at Dakota Dunes will proceed. Whitecap doesn’t need to conform to CoS and Meewasin rules, much less the opposition from existing home owners.

[prairieguy]

Council Nordic Spa decision
I guess what is a bit frustrating about this, is that City Administration actually recommended approval (based on technical aspects), but once again the NIMBY opposition voice seems to be able to sway council.

So a project that helps meet Saskatoon's efforts for increased densification; adds to more amenities for a "winter city" plan; contributes to increased employment and revenues; adds to tourism/marketing potential; and adds to a more active and healthy community....cannot get the approval of this council.

If I were a developer looking at Saskatoon, I might just look right past it based on this recent scenario. I DO hope Dreams comes back with a revised plan to address the "concerns" of council, but I somehow doubt the spa will be part of that. And sorry....a spa at Dakota Dunes is the same mistake as not building a casino downtown in the first place. I know it is not THAT far out of the city, but far enough to not be top of mind for people staying in downtown Saskatoon.

Of course, just my opinion.

[LittleBoy]

It appears that there was significant public opposition to expanding school zone hours but council still voted in favour. Why is it that they’re listening to the public in regard to the proposed spa but not school zone hours? Personally I’m in favour of both but I think council needs to be consistent in the decision making process.

[Stormer]

Originally Posted by LittleBoy

It appears that there was significant public opposition to expanding school zone hours but council still voted in favour. Why is it that they’re listening to the public in regard to the proposed spa but not school zone hours? Personally I’m in favour of both but I think council needs to be consistent in the decision making process.

It's a pandemic of speed zone expansion (and I am talking about size not time - and not specifically school zones) that is infecting the province. I have noticed they are getting way longer while cars are far safer than they ever have been. I think it is just the nanny state getting out of control.

In Regina they have lowered the school zone speeds to 30kph, which is really slow, but at least they have shortened the school zones and it is only 7am-7pm.

Some examples around Regina: Highway 6 north is 4 lanes divided with limited access, but is 70kph for several KM's outside the City. Arcola East is 6 lanes divided with fences on both sides but is only 60kph. It once was 70. Part of Wascana Parkway that is 6 lanes divided has been lowered to 50 kph from 70.

[GreenCanoe]

Someone in reddit posted the city's Transit Village planning document if anyone is interested.

Now for my little rant or thoughts on what I am seeing in the document.

I am all for density, but the lack of parking being considered is beyond me. I'm just thinking how packed The Centre mall parking lot usually is and just can't see this vision going anywhere. Grosvenor park seems a far better candidate for this sort of development. More opportunity to build out and up where the current infrastructure isn't as well utilized. The other thing I see is how incredibly low density the residential around these proposed villages is. If they want to make a BRT work properly, either make it so commuters can park and ride to downtown, or have it surrounded by proper high density residential.

I can not envision a BRT working on 8th without a dedicated lane, or they better give the busses all green lights.

To me, it seems like it would be far better concept to just have dedicated bus routes to a station at places like the 7-11 in Rosewood, and throw 10 story residential around it. The bus could shoot down the freeway into downtown and head straight back. Google maps gives a time of 45 min from Rosewood to downtown with the current routes. That's just crazy. If the city really wanted to cut down on car traffic, maybe they should look at running busses from Warman and Martensville to the North industrial area and downtown. I am not quite seeing how this document is able to be executed.

It seems like one of the main purposes of the BRT is to support the downtown. The people I work with downtown mainly live in Rosewood, Stonebridge, and a number in Martensville. Why not service these areas better?

Or, how about rather than spending all this money so people can ride the bus, just put more effort into downtown and people can just walk. I probably should have as much of an opinion as I do given that I live about 90 km out of the city and only commute in a couple days a week.

https://www.saskatoon.ca/sites/defau...rt.pdf#page=32

Possibly this should be in roads and infrastructure thread?

[FarmerHaight]

Originally Posted by GreenCanoe

Now for my little rant or thoughts on what I am seeing in the document.

Your link didn't work. I'm not sure if there has been a new document released since January 2020 when the "Transit Villages Report" was issued. If so, please try to share that again.

The transit villages are not designed to be park and ride destinations. If that was the point, they would use locations more on the periphery of Saskatoon. Instead, the report is using a long-term lens to imagine what the redevelopment of the malls could look like. Phase 1 (who knows what the timeline for that is) is to basically improve the pedestrian environment along the transit corridors (8th street, Confed, and 22nd street) and encourage development along those corridors where there are surface parking lots. I'm not sure I have ever seen the Centre's parking lot filled all the way to 8th street, so there could probably be development similar to the Indigo/Starbucks building all along 8th.

Malls all over North America are slowly being phased out. I now live in Vancouver where I think 5 shopping malls are being converted to mixed-use developments with plans for more in the future. Whatever the present state of these malls are now, I think the city is expecting they will be significantly different in 50 years.

I share your concerns about BRT's implementation (signal priority, segregated running lanes, etc.) However, the routing is not designed to serve your co-workers who live in single family homes in the south-east corner of Rosewood, or someone like you who lives outside of the city (Would any of you really ride the bus anyways?). No, the routes go hand-in-hand with the city's corridor planning. Even without redevelopment, these routes would serve some of the denser parts of Saskatoon (22nd, Downtown, the UofS).

[roryn1]

I’m doing some research on urban quietness at work and wondering if anyone has any good documents. A quiet neighborhood is a happier neighborhood! My motivation for this is how loud 25th street can get during quiet hours by things that aren’t common issues in larger cities. Some of the strategies include:
-social calming measures related to homelessness (in Saskatoon, noise complaints tied to this are abnormally higher than regular emergency sirens)
-garbage and recycling vehicle activity
-road work activity (including snow removal from parking lots)
-sirens from emergency vehicles

Any documents tied to policies, regulations, and general strategies are appreciated

[Echoes]

There's a small crane up and operating at the former Canadian Blood Services at 4th & 20th. So that makes 2 cranes downtown... huzzah.

[LittleBoy]

Originally Posted by Echoes

There's a small crane up and operating at the former Canadian Blood Services at 4th & 20th. So that makes 2 cranes downtown... huzzah.

What’s going in there?

[LittleBoy]

Has there been any update on the status of the Knox tower?

[Debratty]

$2.5 million in tax revenue the city passed on. I wonder how the homebuilders feel as that was a lot of upscale homes for them to build. Millions of investment into the city. I believe a revised proposal and open communication without 80% opposition will help get this through. It's clear people are upset, the spa got the spotlight as it's something we need in our city to just help get through the long blue winters. I'm familiar with the group building it, they have depth in hotel development and hope they don't just move on. Dakota Dunes is 20 minutes, won't get the tax revenue for the city and the vision this spa had was to be urban so business travellers can work enjoy the spa/golf after work and not be 20 minutes and contribute to the economy, not the dunes. I feel bad as it's local development money and Dunes will be an out of province quebec company that takes their profits and leaves. Shame on council, shame on the closed minds of the residents. In 5-10 years where are these residents going to be mostly, nursing homes, not the willows. They blew it. Go Dream, Go Scandvik Keep pushing. Here's a link to the support letter the spa group has. https://form.jotform.com/Batting/LetterofSupport

[prairieguy]

Thanks for that link....did that support letter go up AFTER council's decision or before? Too bad this was not circulated before. I did send an email to my city councilor before the meeting and she provided me the link to send email of support to ALL city councilors, which I did....to no avail, unfortunately. I really do hope they submit another proposal that still includes the SPA...it looks incredible!

[Debratty]

I think that was a big part was the support wasn't there on the pro side, they only heard the opposition in big numbers. I know that all council members are hearing the backlash and hopefully they can figure it out and fast track it before the willows residents fly south for the winter. Last winter they had nothing but time on their hands as most are retired business people....go figure retired business people opposing development that made them all rich! *breathe* Okay, I feel better, moving on.