[Dartmouth] Russel Lake West

[halifaxboyns]

I am both surprised and not surprised about the height rules in this area. I'm not surprised that the rules are in play (considering that the long runway at Sherwater is directly along the lines of where the high density is ending up) - Calgary has similar rules along the runways for YYC but they are actually a Provincial Regulation (The Airport Vacinity Planning Regulations). I think Edmonton has them as well for YEG.

What surprises me though is that the rules are still in play. I say that because in reading the information on wiki about Sherwater (and as I understand it), the runways aren't used anymore. They have been 'gouged' and x's painted at both ends and only a small 'runway' is used for helicopter operations. Essentially it's only helicopters in and out now. Even the ILS system on the runways has been shut down - so the runways no longer work in aviation terms - so if that's the case, why are the rules still in place?

It makes me wonder if DND or Transport Canada have made an administrative error and not cancelled the height restrictions since the runways aren't used anymore, or at least not in the same way they were.

[q12]

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=166683

This seemed to indicate they were buying back the long runway and maybe going to fix it up.

[Jonovision]

One of the cranes is being taken down today.

[Jstaleness]

I doubt it will be long before it's back up at another location there.

[kph06]

It went up today on Purcell's Cove Rd.

[-Harlington-]

Zoom shot :

[Aya_Akai]

The crane has been taken down from the second 80 unit building being put up in the Royale Blvd complex (off of Basswood across from Sobeys) and they're now starting site prep for the third, the crane will probably be going back up within a month or so judging how they're coming along with it compared with the last one.

"The Woodside" (96 units on the corner of Basswood and Baker) has been pretty well finished, and has been landscaped and I've seen lots of cars in there during the days. I'd say ready for occupancy any day, if not already.

Site prep has begun on Holtwood Court, the street runs off of Lansing Ct, parallel with Mount Hope opposite to behind the Sobeys. I have no idea what's going in there yet, but they're getting a pretty big area prepared (address #47 on the HRM GIS mapping website) and rumor has an Irving station is going in at the corner of Mt. Hope and Lansing.

[kph06]

The crane that's done a bunch of the buildings here went back up today. Its a pretty bland area. Foundations have started nearby on Basswood, I think it will be a 6-story rental. Photos by me:

[Jstaleness]

Driving that strip now reminds me of Parkland Dr. and that isn't a good thing.

[Keith P.]

Is it significantly cheaper to build a building like these with 3 or 4 floors than it is to build one twice as high with the same number of units and a smaller footprint? These 4-floor wonders are really awful.

[someone123]

Not sure about HRM rules but often there are limits to how high you can go with a wood frame building. In some places the limit is 4 floors. The building I live in has a parkade with 2 levels (those must be concrete here), and the "fifth" floor only covers the half of the building footprint where the parkade is taller -- they were not allowed to 5 wooden floors over the parkade on the other half.

I don't think these necessarily have to be terrible. If they changed the design a little and changed the way they lay out suburban areas they could be okay. Everything seems to be optimized to save a little cash though. That's one thing that's a little weird with real estate development -- they will often cut corners to a ridiculous degree, substantially reducing the quality of their product while saving very little money (like they'll skimp on 50 cent hardware when installing a $500 appliance). I guess this happens because people don't really have alternatives or don't necessarily know what to demand from new construction.

It's really too bad, because it seems like they could spend maybe 10% more and produce much higher quality developments. There's also a "tragedy of the commons" element here, where everybody wants things that work for one person but are not the best solution when everybody has them. That's true of things like cul-de-sacs, for example. It's great if you have the one quiet dead end street, but it doesn't work if everybody has the dead end street plus everybody has to sit on clogged arterial roads. In those cases the city should step in to correct design problems.

[Keith P.]

I don't believe these are wood frame though. I drove by there a few times while they were under construction and I'm pretty certain they are concrete. I remember thinking that they were different from the Highfield Park style because of that. That was why I asked the question.

[Aya_Akai]

I still work at the sobeys up there, they're all concrete construction; and the third building in that set on Royale off of Basswood is just going to be a third 4 story 80 unit monstrosity to go with the other 2. *shrug* lol

[Aya_Akai]

1) Could an admin please change this thread name to just Russell Lake West - as we're covering everything, since the retail portion is pretty well done now.

2) Another crane went up yesterday in the area on Basswood Run, this is part of the adapted plan from the changes that went through council when the HRSB dropped the need for the school. They've got the crane up and are beginning foundations for the first building found on "block H" on map #5 on this http://www.halifax.ca/council/agenda...0406ca1013.pdf document. Things are starting to come together for the area of having it wrap around the lake and connect up with Portland Estates, however that document I don't think factors in the re-purchase of the back portion of shearwater by the DND- I'm still curious as to how/if they still plan on connecting up caldwell with Mt Hope eventually.

3) As I'm sure many of you saw, last weekend 2 homes were lost on Lindenwood Terrace due to a vigourous fire that spread from one to the other, investigators say it was started from a discarded cigarette in a wooden planter box on the deck of the first home.

[fenwick16]

I looked through this document - http://www.halifax.ca/council/agenda...0406ca1013.pdf - and I notice that there is quite a bit of development taking place around Russel Lake and Morris Lake. This Google Map link shows the satellite image - http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=halifax...gl=ca&t=h&z=14.

Are there any current plans to extend development right down to Cow Bay Road? With the new Eastern Passage waste water treatment plant, I imagine that several thousand people could eventually live in this area. However, it is probable that a southern harbour crossing will not be built any time in the near future. Will the Woodside ferry crossing and existing bus links provide sufficient public transit to Halifax? Have people familiar with that area noticed an increase in passengers and increased frequency of the Woodside ferries?

[kph06]

I was over here today and snapped some photo's of the new crane, looks like the old City Centre one.





Some sitework just off Mt. Hope, seeing that flying formwork is onsite and what looks like Arnoldin crates, maybe the crane that was on Achordirve will be here.

[Aya_Akai]

Originally Posted by kph06

Some sitework just off Mt. Hope, seeing that flying formwork is onsite and what looks like Arnoldin crates, maybe the crane that was on Achordirve will be here.

This is going to sound super stalkery- but I think I may have seen you from the sobeys staff room at the side of the road there taking pictures just as I was getting off work earlier this evening. lol Were you there around 7-ish?

[halifaxboyns]

From what I remember of the initial planning of Russell Lake West (which went back to roughly 2001), the concept was that it would take up all of the existing Shearwater Lands because at the time it was the very real possibility that the entire base would be folded up and closed.

As time went on, that didn't happen and so RLW was scaled back. But from what I recall of the discussions at the time, part of the justification of future full time operation of the Woodside Ferry was RLW's population. As I recall, the belief was that whether the 3rd crossing was built or not - the Ferry would become a more viable option as population levels in the area increased because of RLW.

That in mind, I think if you add some transit into RLW it would help support the Woodside Ferry. I also seem to recall that the Regional Plan had identified future urban development lands in and around Eastern Passage - which would make sense given the new sewage treatment plan. It's been a while since I looked at the future land use map for the RP so I may be wrong.

[kph06]

Originally Posted by HaliStreaks

This is going to sound super stalkery- but I think I may have seen you from the sobeys staff room at the side of the road there taking pictures just as I was getting off work earlier this evening. lol Were you there around 7-ish?

Haha, not me, I was there around lunch time.

[Aya_Akai]

Forgive the atrocious image quality on this one, I snapped this on my phone from the break room window coming in to work today from the Sobeys in Russell Lake. I saw what appeared to be a crane segment get delivered to the site opposite to where Sobeys backs against Mt. Hope Ave (the civic address for this site is 58 Holtwood Ct, another cul du sac which is being built at the moment off of Lansing- where the new Mazda dealership is). We've (the staff at my store) not been able to figure out what they're building yet, it appears to be an "L" shaped building thus far with what appears to be underground parking. Another condo/apartment? .. I've not been able to find anything on this, even with an email off to Clayton asking numerous questions regarding the Russell Lake area, this lot being one of them, I've still yet to hear an answer after nearly 2 weeks. I also don't think I've ever seen a grey crane around here before..?