Development Variance O.K.
By 250 News
The Metropolis development set for 5th and Quebec, has inched another step forward.
Prince George City Council has approved a development variance permit that will allow the project to go ahead without having to provide for the normal on site loading areas for garbage and retail operations.
The project’s initial phase allows for five ground level retail outlets and 16 residential condos that will face on to Quebec Street. The second phase would face on to 6th.
The plan presented to council tonight provided some more information on the development including the colour scheme for the stucco exterior, (yellow, blue, brown and grey), the residential units will be two stories, each with a square footage of 1,450 sq feet. The units will feature hardwood floors, and granite counter tops. The facility will also have a gym, clubhouse, and an open plaza.
The development will use one, possibly two on street parking spots for loading. Development services says there is adequate supply of parking in the area, so the loss of one or two spots would not have any significant impact.
As previously reported on Opinion250, the construction of the project will not start until 70% of the project has been pre-sold. The real estate company handling pre-sales there has been a great deal of interest.
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The most obvious improvements which should be made to this development is to make use of the laneway for the purposes laneways have been provided and continue to be provided - vehicular traffic to access parking and garbage pickup. Either that, or get rid of the laneway system, since they become redundant otherwise and use the space for more development.
The garbage room faces 5th Avenue with small bins shown. That means that on pickup day, the bins will be sitting on the sidewalks rather than in the laneway. In addition, the parking access is off 5th Avenue, thus having one more car entry and exit on a street rather than directing the traffic to the laneway which is already a vehiclular access, thus avoiding traffic congestion as the city gets busier with more such developments.
Thus, 40 feet of street frontage is taken up for the wall and doors of a garbage room and a garage entry while the laneway has a blank wall. Hardly a design which promotes maximum use of street frontage.
You will not find such developments, for instance, in the west end and downtown of Vancouver where garbage as well as parking access to buildings is restricted to the laneways, other than for some large parkades similar to our own parkade structures.
So, it appears that on garbage pickup day this development is going to make us look like downtown New York and Toronto which have the pedestrian streets strewn with garbage on pickup days. It'll be especially interesting in winter after a snowfall as city crews try to sweep sidewalks around the garbage bins.
Surely we can do better than that. Can't we get some more experienced and citical eyes at city hall which can nip such things in the bud, or are they all glazed over due to the first such development in this city?