Quote:
Originally Posted by xanaxanax
Maynard isn't a comical street and having it be only residential helps out current and future retail space along Agricola and Gottingen St a lot more.
|
I don't find anything funny about Maynard Street at all...but in terms of 'commercial' being on the street; I'd have to agree. It's not really a commercial high street - it has some lingering auto-oriented industrial/commercial uses but those are likely non-conforming (allowed because of history; but not by right under current zoning) and will go away once the land values reach a tipping point.
Frankly, I think the main commercial streets in this area are Gottingen and Agricola. If some commercial had to go on in; I'd suggest it mainly be some localized neighbourhood mixed use at the corner of Maynard and Roberts and be nothing more than a local corner store of coffee shop. Anything beyond that - I wouldn't recommend as the trip generation for cars brings those trips too far into the neighbourhood.
Granted my ultimate dream for Agricola would be to see it closed down to be a transit/pedestrian only street with designated delivery zones which can be accessed at certain times to help the ground floor commercial. Vehicles could cross Agricola (so if you turned up West Street from Maynard, you could still cross Agricola to get to Robie) but could not make any left/right turns onto Agricola. I think that would send the land values through the roof and turn this street into a very interesting place to be (and necessitate an increased level of density/bldg height).
Plus, since it has the lowest car volumes compared to Robie/Gottingen - the impact would be smaller to close it. I'd want to try it between Cunard and North Street and then eventually close it all the way to Young (once the Brewery outgrew it's location and moved). Of course the challenge would be that in order to provide access; you'd have to purchase enough land that you'd have a means to gain access off of a side street (or partner with adjacent land owners and get access easements). This might be an instance where I'd want the City to just swoop in and expropriate or buy out a lot of folks and then create an arms length development company (much like Calgary did with the East Village) and then re-assemble the parcels to be able to work with a development plan. I'm not always a fan of expropriation, but this might be the solution in this case (to fit my dream). Likely will never happen though...but it's nice to day dream.