Quote:
Originally Posted by paulwillyjean
I'm getting a 502 error front trying to access your link.
As for family housing, I don't think low density is required to get it. We can develop strong family friendly environments in well designed apartment buildings. Assuming we go with height, I'd go with as many +3 bedroom units and family storage space as possible and a central, enclosed courtyard all residents would have access to and in which kids could play.
However, I perfectly agree with making sure the area doesn't become a food desert because that will impact people's ability to conduct their daily activities in the neighbourhood.
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First of all, thanks for reading my long post.
The link in my 2nd post actually works for me even when I am accessing it without logging in so you need to try again as sometimes those sites are not that stable. If you still can't access it and if you really are interested in seeing what I have drawn up, let me know and I will see if I can upload the actual image in a private message.
The reason why I propose townhouses instead of 3 apartment building towers as proposed by the developers is actually 3 folds besides raising children in a low-density housing. I agree that low-density housing is not a required residential housing type to achieve space requirement for raising a larger family with children although it is an ideal and more desirable option and I was thinking if there is enough space to build them after building a very high-density housing tower to compensate, then why not?
Montreal is not in shortage of high-rise condo or rental buildings. Just right across from Decarie Square, there are going to be FOUR high-rise high-density condo towers to be built but with just 3 condo townhouses to be built as per the Westbury project. And you already have the Luxor condo building just right beside the Decarie Square on Vezina Street and you have another upcoming huge condo building The Royalmount to be built by the Hippodrome. Seven condo towers all in a tight vicinity of each other, do we really have to build another three 14-story high-rise towers? Like I said, what is in shortage in Montreal is houses or townhouses with each individual backyards for children to play in not just a commune courtyard where children have to travel 14 stories down elevators to reach to play and a basement with again another extra private playroom and storage and dumping space not 2X2 or 3X3 cages aka lockers for storage. That basement is what gives houses/townhouses the extra space that building residential units don't have. With buildings, all you have is rooms in your unit and that's it. Sure you can build 3+bedrooms but besides that you don't really have anything else. When you are single or empty nesters, you really don't care that much because you don't have that much extra storage anyway or anymore and you don't really need that that much space but when you have 2+ children, every single square inch of space counts. You have no idea how much 1 child, just a tiny 40-centimeter little baby would add to the extra space requirement. LOL And besides it would also be a nice contrast to the upcoming neighbourhood as well. With four high-rise condo buildings coming, it would be nice to have some townhouses or single-family as kind of a change of scenery.
Another bigger issue really at this point is the traffic congestion on Decarie blvd. which is extremely congested as it is right now and seven potential high-rise towers are coming including the ones proposed by 2bd. This is going to be extremely taxing on the already congested Decarie Blvd. What's the point of building more housing when the people who's going to be living there can't even get out to go anywhere? Townhouses would add relatively speaking less of stress on the Decarie Blvd. road structure while at the same time create a more balanced and more variety of housing choices to Montreal and to the surrounding neighbourhood.
Many times, less is more.
It would be probably slower for the developers to recover their investments but in the long run, it really does benefit the people who will be living in there. If you are going to invest the money to revamp something, you might as well do it for the best option if your funds and the space allows it.