Bank Street: a redevelopment thought

[eternallyme]

The middle section is the most constrained, yet has the most opportunity available right now as most of the lots there are currently abandoned.



Mixed-use, preferably with 3 or 4-storey condos on a 1st floor business (making it look like an old village centre) is the order of the day here. The population is low currently so that would fill the area and increase the population. In the southern part, near St. Bernard, there is an additional office block.

Parking is quite restricted here due to the small shapes and cemetary. On-street parking would likely need to be encouraged (either with a 6-lane cross section at all times, or a 4-lane cross section during off-peak and a widened Conroy).

The cemetary would not be affected, but pedestrian access would be greatly improved with a high-quality sidewalk (currently there is none!)

[eternallyme]

The lower part takes on a town centre feel.



The mixed-use development continues, when two multi-family residential blocks - with reverse frontage - make things much more difficult. I chose to ignore those, and then focus on the old, and some abandoned, businesses and residences near Rosabella and Kingsdale. Those are all replaced by community-based facilities (i.e. libraries, theatres, galleries, places of worship, small-scale recreation, etc.) in the small blocks. Some parking is available, but not much.

At Queensdale, the Giant Tiger/Farm Boy plaza is also demolished, and major redevelopment takes place on the east side as well. Community-based commercial is built at the corner and along Bank to a new local street. The sprawling plaza (which is quite vacant) has plenty of extra space created, and that is used for multi-family residential. Finally, a gateway park and facility (perhaps an information centre) is built at the Greenbelt edge at 3000 Bank Street. At that point, Bank changes to a rural cross-section.

[lrt's friend]

1. Limiting road access to Hunt Club Road is going to create tremendous congestion around the Bank and Hunt Club intersection. Bridging the intersection will simply result in traffic backing up on the short ramps both onto Hunt Club and onto Bank Street. This will likely result in a worse traffic situation than today.

2. Some of the properties to be redeveloped along Bank Street are really small. There are limits to what intensification can take place there.

3. You cannot put a sidewalk in front of the Jewish cemetery. That is used for roadside parking for the cemetery itself.

4. You are planning to pave over a pioneer cemetery adjacent to the Jewish Cemetery.

5. You are planning to demolish recently built houses at certain locations. Is a parking lot better?

6. Is it really any better to put large parking lots behind buildings when that will separate stores from the adjacent neighbourhood? The problem is the general lack of walkability in the suburbs, not just set backs from sidewalks.

7. Parking access in some cases will be very circuitous and parking access off of residential streets will encourage more traffic on those streets.

8. I see on-street parking on this section of Bank Street as very problematic and would be especially dangerous at night with traffic entering potentially at high speed from the Greenbelt. This road was always designed as a highway and not as a main street.

[eternallyme]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

1. Limiting road access to Hunt Club Road is going to create tremendous congestion around the Bank and Hunt Club intersection. Bridging the intersection will simply result in traffic backing up on the short ramps both onto Hunt Club and onto Bank Street. This will likely result in a worse traffic situation than today.

2. Some of the properties to be redeveloped along Bank Street are really small. There are limits to what intensification can take place there.

3. You cannot put a sidewalk in front of the Jewish cemetery. That is used for roadside parking for the cemetery itself.

4. You are planning to pave over a pioneer cemetery adjacent to the Jewish Cemetery.

5. You are planning to demolish recently built houses at certain locations. Is a parking lot better?

6. Is it really any better to put large parking lots behind buildings when that will separate stores from the adjacent neighbourhood? The problem is the general lack of walkability in the suburbs, not just set backs from sidewalks.

7. Parking access in some cases will be very circuitous and parking access off of residential streets will encourage more traffic on those streets.

8. I see on-street parking on this section of Bank Street as very problematic and would be especially dangerous at night with traffic entering potentially at high speed from the Greenbelt. This road was always designed as a highway and not as a main street.

The Bank-Hunt Club interchange could be modified slightly. However, I wanted to restrict the lanes in order to keep it safer for pedestrians and cyclists on Bank, so I tried to avoid huge turning movements that exist now. Instead of one huge intersection with 6-7 lanes to cross currently, there would be two smaller intersections with 2-3 lanes to cross and sharper tangents more typical of urban designs. Through traffic on Hunt Club would be free-flowing.

The roadside cemetary is indeed problematic. However, with on-street parking there (during off-peak periods, or at all times with a 6-lane cross section), it would counter such. Some parking would be reserved. I forgot about the pioneer cemetary, the development shouldn't go that far out then.

As for 5, in the case of the recently built houses, I knew there was one development but I remember it being set well back. But if they are set back, it would be allowed to stay, replacing the parking lot. In the case of the setback parking, in the northern part, they are already segregated - there is no residential in the area! Since the existing retail businesses (except for gas stations and purely auto-oriented businesses) have first right of return, the only difference is that the new development would be facing Bank Street directly. Transit users (surely bus service would be expanded with that) would get the advantage with streetfront service.

In the case of 7, that is actually a positive - it would encourage local residents NOT to drive if access is difficult! Notice the amount of parking is NOT sufficient for a large-scale development at busy times.

I did think about 8, but it is a tough task. Indeed, it would go from an 80 km/h rural arterial right down to a 50 km/h urban boulevard. However, the fact the town centre is at the southern end precludes an urban transition area.