City council has approved a massive new development for the Strathearn area of the city, that's going to be bigger than what was first proposed in 2008. The big game changer for it, is the LRT.
It'll now have 1,900 units, in four towers ranging from 20-23 storeys, plus in other four storey apartment buildings that were originally going to be row housing.
"It's not a huge revision," said Coun. Ben Henderson. "It moves the density closer to where the LRT station is going to be. It probably gives them a little more commercial space that was originally there which I think is a benefit to the community."
"We would hope to build the majority of the south end of this development in conjunction with the LRT," said developer David Kent of Nearctic.
"When the LRT shows up with a shovel, we'll show up with our shovel too."
That means it's likely going to take three to four years to get digging, first a massive underground parkade, then the towers and other buildings rising above that.
But it will be hectic, because not only will this project be built, but so will the LRT and the city also has neighborhood redevelopment on the books for between 2015 and 2018. That's a lot for Kent to wrap his head around.
"We have," agrees Kent. "An awful lot of planning has gone into this, an awful lot of planning has to go into this and this is not a project that is going to come out of the ground all at once. It'll have to be staged. It has a 10-12 year life of itself."
Council voted 12-1 in favor with only Coun. Linda Sloan opposed.
"I feel like we've weighted it too much on the speculation of the train which I'm not convinced is going to be there in the short term."
The mayor and several councillors pointed out that $1.3 of the $1.8 billion LRT is already in place.
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Council okays larger Strathearn housing project
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