Quote:
Originally Posted by Alex Mackinnon
That's the segment you described as being surrounded by high density housing.
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No, he was talking about Victoria Hill.
Here's Victoria Hill. I don't think that anyone would disagree that McBride has characteristics of a Stroad right now. The question is how it evolves in the future and what land uses are going to be around it. This might feel like a slight tangent, but look at the land use plan around 8th Street and McBride (snazzy gif of current zoning vs. new OCP draft by CanSpice):
McBride and 8th Street are zoned for highrise (mixed use and residential) on both sides. Eventually those strip malls will go and the area will become a more prominent node. The current design of McBride is not conducive to that.
Looking back down to Victoria Hill again, there is still vacant land close to McBride. Because of the speed and nature of McBride residents of Victoria Hill favour a new bridge design that is similar to the status quo in alignment, ensuring that traffic as as far away as possible. The other alternative (called Option B during consultations) would have made for much more efficient land use around McBride and Royal. It would have also had a stop light for North bound traffic. With that bridge design and perhaps some further tweaks further down McBride, I think the road would have a much different feel. It would have also opened up a lot more land for parks and residential development, contributing to an urban feel with better connectivity between neighbourhoods (excuse my awful Skitch):
Some might feel that this is getting a little bit off topic for the Brunnette Interchange but that interchange is closely tied to the bridge, future traffic flows through New West as well as land use changes in the area.