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Originally Posted by Sheba
The hubs have always been Edmonds / Kingsway and the Skytrain station. Southgate was added as it's such a large site. I'm not sure where else a hub would go (and I live in the area).
Maybe if they can get Hydro to give up some of it's lands... but considering they've been willing to have a bunch of it fenced off for decades I'm guessing they're not in any hurry. It would be too small for a 'mall' - maybe ten small to medium stores but that's it.
I've often thought the section between the bus loop and Griffith (vs the section between the bus loop and the Hydro building) would be a good place to stick a convenience store and a bank with a floor or two of office space above. But the Southgate plans have small retail so I doubt that will happen.
The Royal Oak industrial lands have been slowly moving to Big Bend for years.
Here's hoping they add in some low rises with ground floor retail and a few floors of residential above. Currently almost all retail is Kingsway or Royal Oak, which makes for a long walk for anyone not living right there. It doesn't need to be every building - even just at intersections would be fine.
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Dunno.
Southgate is pretty far from the SkyTrain Station, and the areas south of the station is fairly close.
The biggest problem is the lack of commercial/residential balance.
I dunno what's going on with the midrises south of the station area.
I know it's isolated from the rest of the city, but 5 story midrises 6 minutes from the station in a town center is... Edmonds is not the other town centers, but still.
I agree with the lack of ground-floor retail south of the tracks, but I think density may be too small for that.
It's part of the problem with building an entirely new commercial district from scratch, rather than piggybacking off an existing commercial district that you densify.
The station hub as defined right now is pretty much only on the BC Hydro Lands, so depending on that is probably not smart unless they have some sort of written deal with them.
It's a big early to redevelop, but extending the station hub to the City in the Park region would hopefully densify the entire area around Edmonds and create an easily-accessible large commercial hub south of Edmonds.
The undeveloped BC Hydro lands is about the same size as the Aberdeen Center Mall (not Aberdeen Square or the parking lot) or Henderson Place (minus the tower.)
So it's possible to build a decently-sized mall here- just make it 3 stories tall.
IMO the area south of Edmonds and Southgate should have been kept industrial like the Royal Oak industrial lands, but it's quite late for that.
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The point about Big Bend is true, but Big Bend also doesn't have any more room to expand without removing ALR, golf course, or park lands.
It's unlikely they preserve anything but the minimum they're required to by Metro Vancouver, but still.
They're getting rid of the industrial lands in Brentwood and Sperling as well (also not preserved by Metro 2050), which puts even more pressure on Big Bend that the area can't take.
Hence, the idea of rezoning SFHs.
The only other vacant land in Burnaby is the Cariboo Hill Heights area, which is also in limbo. Maybe more industrial could move there?
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This redo of the Edmonds and Royal Oak plans is well-needed, though and overall looks decent so far.