Quote:
Originally Posted by Gridlock
Completely to take this on a tangent, but its an idea I've had brewing for awhile.
So we have the ALR, the Agricultural Land Reserve to keep fields and such from being at the mercy of a developers whim. In reality, another step before a developer can plant condos instead of tomatoes, but thats not the point here.
I think there is a need for the ILR, or Industrial Land Reserve. Vancouver proper is becoming a bedroom community of itself. I think that is going to have a long term impact far more brutal than anything else that has happened.
As a for instance.
For those that know, in New West, off Columbia by the Petro Can, there is a shitty part of Kingsway, with a bunch of old buildings and such. The city, in infinite wisdom, coming off their famed office tower project wants to work on this area, and turn that area of Kingsway into a walkable neighborhood.
I immediately say bullshit. That area may be many things, but walkable, it ain't ever gonna be. A, we don't need another shopping district in New West...we have 5 or 6. And, without picking up a hammer, we already have a beautiful thing...industrial land. I see a place that actually has functional buildings with operational buildings, and instead of tearing the shit down, I want more. Picture an area that has places where you can work, own a shop, own a business, kind of Granville Island-esque and actually have people live AND work in New West.
Now, the reason I bring this up, is development seems to mean "condos" we want condos. More and more. New West is right along side every other city building a bedroom community next to a bedroom community. You end up with competing factions against each other. We want a car free future(royal we. I certainly don't), we don't want to live next to an industrial area, so we force them out further and further away, so we need to use cars to get there.
Why can't there be a focus on the whole package?
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It's called mix-used development, and vancouver needs more of that.
But a priority should be focused on industrial land, or light industrial land, not enough space for businesses, many businesses complain that the rental rates are high in Vancouver. Commercial and industrial vacancies are pretty low here too.
your right on the car thing, we have too many industrial parks that are located soo far away that theres no easily public transit routes that take them there.
Bottom line, we need more supply of commercial/industrial areas in places that are close to skytrains/public transit routes.
Example: the huge developments going up at Renfrew station, and sapperton and king george/ city centre.
I personally think they are under utilizing the area around the renfrew station as the floor area permitted could be a bit higher for some of them.