10-30-2014, 09:23 AM
(10-30-2014, 08:27 AM)MidTowner Wrote:(10-29-2014, 03:57 PM)nms Wrote: On the other hand, they were there first. Asking people to "GTFO" if they don't like it is not the right way to build community.
It's obviously a delicate balance in every case, accommodating new development while respecting the existing neighbourhood. In this case, though, we are talking about a mid-rise building in a neighbourhood that already has multi-unit residential, and is one block from King Street. Developments like these are how we fully leverage Ion.
Balance is a tricky question. Is it balanced to go into a place like beechwood or laurelwood and expect to pop in a development the size of the barrel yards? Is it balanced for a bunch of bungalows, a retirement home, a funeral home, to set up right next to the busiest street in the region at the busiest point in the city, and expect that nothing larger/busier/different than them should be allowed? Context is important. If respecting the existing means that next to a two-storey building you can only have a 2 or 1 storey building, irrespective of context, you will quickly have a monoculture, descent into bungalows and 1 storey only. Not the real case example, but it is important to remember the context of these changes, developments, through the lens of a growing region.