New subdivision developments

[waterloowarrior]

Minto

Located in the east end, between Page and Renaud Road, TrailsEdge lies on 46 acres of land. A new place to call home, TrailsEdge will consist of beautiful townhomes located close to nature and convenient amenities. Please fill out the Priority Registration Form if you wish to be added to our priority list.

[harls]

Originally Posted by waterloowarrior

Richcraft Aerial Photos

La Croisée Aylmer

The houses they're building along Aylmer rd (far right of this photo) are being built with all brick fronts, plus a huge berm of dirt to block the noise from countless buses and cars that pass by everyday. I wouldn't want to live in one of those.

I noticed the same deal with the plateau area just north of here, where multi-family units are being constructed at a dizzying pace. They are building right up to the highway with those same mounds of dirt, trying to cram in as many homes as possible.

TrailsEdge, Homes of Jack Pine.. is there a random neighbourhood development name generator online somewhere that comes up with these?

[highdensitysprawl]

Originally Posted by harls

TrailsEdge, Homes of Jack Pine.. is there a random neighbourhood development name generator online somewhere that comes up with these?

The general rule of thumb is you either:

name it after the species of tree, plant or animal that was eradicated in the development of the housing

name it after your children

give the subdivision some faux theme....for example there is an area of Gatineau where all the streets are named after areas in the Cote D'Azur, south of France or French ski resorts all designed to give the area an otherwise unattainable ambience.

The City of Ottawa has this website to see if you have chosen an acceptable name.

http://app01.ottawa.ca/roadbrowser/find

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by harls

The houses they're building along Aylmer rd (far right of this photo) are being built with all brick fronts, plus a huge berm of dirt to block the noise from countless buses and cars that pass by everyday. I wouldn't want to live in one of those.

La Croisée by Richcraft has to be the slowest-progressing suburban development (for a booming region) I have ever seen. It was around when I was shopping for my first house 15 years ago! And from what I can see on the aerial shot, the number of streets/scale of the development hasn't really been increased from what I recall was on the promotional materials at that time.

They must be building two or three homes a year in there at the very most.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by highdensitysprawl

The general rule of thumb is you either:



name it after your children

In Quebec at least, the provincial Commission de toponymie banned this practice several years ago as it was getting out of hand. In fact, you can’t name ANYTHING in Quebec for anyone that isn’t already dead anymore.

Of course, we still have a beautiful legacy of Rue Stéphane, Rue Nathalie, Rue Josée, etc. left over from the days before the law.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by highdensitysprawl

give the subdivision some faux theme....for example there is an area of Gatineau where all the streets are named after areas in the Cote D'Azur, south of France or French ski resorts all designed to give the area an otherwise unattainable ambience.

My neighbourhood has a section where the names are all Nobel prize winners, and another where they replicate names of streets around Mount Royal in Montreal.

I sorta got to pick my street's name, as the city hadn't picked a name yet when I bought my house. Fearful as I was of usual street-naming practices, I picked one I thought was good, made a written case for it, sold the city on the idea who then got the approval of the Commission de toponymie du Québec (which has to approve every single new place name in the province: for streets, squares, lakes, rivers, etc.).

[harls]

Originally Posted by Acajack

La Croisée by Richcraft has to be the slowest-progressing suburban development (for a booming region) I have ever seen. It was around when I was shopping for my first house 15 years ago! And from what I can see on the aerial shot, the number of streets/scale of the development hasn't really been increased from what I recall was on the promotional materials at that time.

They must be building two or three homes a year in there at the very most.

It's taking off now.. well, it's going faster. They've built 3 or 4 homes on that impasse since last spring. Still slow compared to the Plateau where the construction men seem to be on steroids.

[harls]

Originally Posted by Acajack

My neighbourhood has a section where the names are all Nobel prize winners, and another where they replicate names of streets around Mount Royal in Montreal.

I sorta got to pick my street's name, as the city hadn't picked a name yet when I bought my house. Fearful as I was of usual street-naming practices, I picked one I thought was good, made a written case for it, sold the city on the idea who then got the approval of the Commission de toponymie du Québec (which has to approve every single new place name in the province: for streets, squares, lakes, rivers, etc.).

You got to name your street? I'm impressed! Can you negotiate your property taxes too ?

About 20 years ago, the rural municipality where my parents live (in MB) went on a tear and started naming roads and putting signs up along the main (and only) provincial highway in the area. To our surprise, they named the road we lived on after our family. There was no real reason that I can think of, other than the family name had been there for generations. What was funny about the whole thing is that we were never consulted. A nice surprise, though.. but I think the other families that lived on the road were miffed.

[highdensitysprawl]

Originally Posted by harls

It's taking off now.. well, it's going faster. They've built 3 or 4 homes on that impasse since last spring. Still slow compared to the Plateau where the construction men seem to be on steroids.

I had to go to the Plateau in November and I couldn't believe all of the stacked TH's and walk apartment buildings along Blvd du Plateau and surrounding streets both existing and U/C. What is the target demographic for those units.?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by harls

You got to name your street? I'm impressed! Can you negotiate your property taxes too ?

About 20 years ago, the rural municipality where my parents live (in MB) went on a tear and started naming roads and putting signs up along the main (and only) provincial highway in the area. To our surprise, they named the road we lived on after our family. There was no real reason that I can think of, other than the family name had been there for generations. What was funny about the whole thing is that we were never consulted. A nice surprise, though.. but I think the other families that lived on the road were miffed.

So is it Harls Road or Blix Road?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by harls

You got to name your street? I'm impressed!

I had actually suggested a few names to them, and they ended up picking my top choice for my street. A few of my other suggestions have also shown up in the neighbourhood as well in recent years.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by highdensitysprawl

I had to go to the Plateau in November and I couldn't believe all of the stacked TH's and walk apartment buildings along Blvd du Plateau and surrounding streets both existing and U/C. What is the target demographic for those units.?

Are you saying this is a good thing or a bad thing?

It is true that the Plateau (and this is also true of some other newer areas of Gatineau) has more mixed density than similar areas under development on the Ottawa side.

I know lots of people who live or lived in these denser areas of the Plateau and most residents appear to be young professionals in their 20s and early 30s, before they have kids. The secondary market would probably be downsizing retirees.

[highdensitysprawl]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Are you saying this is a good thing or a bad thing?

It is true that the Plateau (and this is also true of some other newer areas of Gatineau) has more mixed density than similar areas under development on the Ottawa side.

I know lots of people who live or lived in these denser areas of the Plateau and most residents appear to be young professionals in their 20s and early 30s, before they have kids. The secondary market would probably be downsizing retirees.

It did seem, for a new neighbourhood, to have a good density but I drove all the way along Blvd du Plateau and ended up on Blvd des Grives at Chemin Pink. It seemed a large area w/o anything but the stacked and walk ups. Are there any stores in the middle of it all.

I can see the 2 target audiences you talk about.

Definately a higher density mix than similar suburban n'hoods on the 613 side.

[harls]

I know some people that live in that area, and they are exactly as you describe Acajack, young professionals in their mid-20's/30's.. but they have a baby (they've bought terrain in Chelsea, so they'll be moving out eventually).

Originally Posted by hghdensitysprawl

Are there any stores in the middle of it all.

A couple of pharmacies and gas stations.. not much. Everyone drives to the big boxes. I think there's a mini mall at Atmosphere and des Grives.

Originally Posted by Acajack

So is it Harls Road or Blix Road?

I'll never tell, but you're close on one of them.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by highdensitysprawl

It did seem, for a new neighbourhood, to have a good density but I drove all the way along Blvd du Plateau and ended up on Blvd des Grives at Chemin Pink. It seemed a large area w/o anything but the stacked and walk ups. Are there any stores in the middle of it all.

Most of the retail (say, 95%) is in the massive big box sprawl that spreads east along Boul. du Plateau from the corner of St-Raymond. There is a small building at the corner of Boul. des Grives and Rue de l'Atmosphère with a pharmacy, a few doctor's office and a small café. And there is a gas station/dépanneur combo at the corner of Pink and Boul. des Grives. So most of the neighbourhood (even where the denser stuff is) isn't really within walking distance of so much as a dépanneur.

Originally Posted by highdensitysprawl

I can see the 2 target audiences you talk about.

Yeah, Gatineau has a pretty good supply of young professionals just starting out their careers as the city is a magnet for university graduates from across Quebec. This demographic is also present in other cities I realize but the difference with Gatineau is that the downtown area (where many of these people would live in Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto) is generally not considered to be an attractive place to live by young professionals. Since they're not quite at the house-with-a-picket-fence stage of their lives, many of them end up in apartments, condos and townhomes in the Plateau, which is actually located quite close to downtown jobs, nightlife, shopping, etc.

Originally Posted by highdensitysprawl

Definately a higher density mix than similar suburban n'hoods on the 613 side.

I have noticed this as well. I posted this here almost a year to the day:

Just down the street from where I live, you have new 2500-sq.-ft. single-family homes with stone façades that sit about 100 m from $120,000 condos. Of course, all of this was built at the same time, so one could make the argument that people knew exactly what they were buying into.

But... if I look just a few streets over, the biggest houses in the neighbourhood (worth between $600,000 and $800,000, in Gatineau prices), are less than 100 m from a bunch of public, rent-to-income housing blocks (known in Quebec as HLMs). Now the HLMs were built quite a few years after the luxury houses, but when they were announced and built, not a peep was heard from the neighbours. And there wasn’t a flurry of “A VENDRE” (FOR SALE) signs either.

Although things are densifying a little in the Ottawa suburbs as well. You should check out parts of Orleans south of Innes and east of Tenth Line.

[waterloowarrior]

mattamy is expected to file an OP for their lands near the village of Richmond next month

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by harls

I'll never tell, but you're close on one of them.

Any relations to United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix?

[harls]

Not quite

[waterloowarrior]

[waterloowarrior]

City puts first two Longfields lots up for sale
By Peter Kovessy, Ottawa Business Journal Staff
Fri, Jan 16, 2009 12:00 AM EST

The city expects to collect at least $2.58 million from the sale of the first two development lots for a new 1,400-unit community on 51 hectares of land in Nepean.

The larger of the two properties is 5.63 acres at 3020 Woodroffe Ave., between Fallowfield Road and Strandherd Drive. The property is currently zoned for stand-alone institutional use, residential use or a combination of both, but the city is seeking offers for primarily institutional use, said city spokesperson Pat Uguccioni.

He added that if no reasonable offers are received, the city may readvertise the property at a later date and consider offers with residential as the main use.

Just to the west of Woodroffe is the second property, located at 159 Claridge Dr. The 2.97-acre property is zoned for institutional uses only, which include retirement homes, community centres, schools and sports arenas.

Offers for both properties must be a minimum of $300,000 per acre to be considered, according to a notice published by the city.

Mr. Uguccioni said the development will be a "demonstration" community representing the principles of "new urbanism," "smart growth," and principles from Ottawa's official plan.

The subdivision plan, approved last September, is expected to yield 1,400 new single, semi-detached, townhouse and multiple units in four neighbourhoods complemented by institutional, limited commercial uses and connected to rapid transit pathways and parks.

The lands were acquired by the former city of Nepean. The project got underway in 2002 when city council approved a plan for the "Longfields lands," 51 acres of vacant city-owned property between Woodroffe and Greenbank, south of the CN rail line, said Mr. Uguccioni.