Victoria Commons

[JCnb]

There's something I failed to notice about this development. Although it's on a large site (over 15 acres), the only outlets are on the east side of the site on St. Leger. This is a lot like suburban developments which favour cul-de-sacs and other silly street geometry over grids that are  flexible and provide options. When you do something like what's been done here, walking distances are dramatically increased and so too are the chances of car-dependency on the part of the residents.

I know that there weren't that many options on this site since there are existing buildings on Margaret and Blucher. A path to Louisa could easily and should have been included, which would have reduced walking distances by at least two hundred meters when heading in that direction.

The developer could use his imagination and try to negotiate with the owner of the apartment building on Margaret to get a foot path from Victoria Commons to Margaret. This would benefit the residents of that building, too, if there really will be commercial uses in the development. If that could happen, a resident of Victoria Commons wanting to use the bus stop on Margaret Ave would face a negligible walk, rather than a walk of more than 500 meters.

Hopefully I'm wrong, and there is somehow foot access to Adam, but from their site plans it doesn't look like it, and having access only from St. Leger would have a strong negative impact on walkability here.

While vehicular access is restricted to St. Leger as you have mentioned, the development does provide two other pedestrian accesses to the site. The first one being along the proposed "central park" which will connect the central area of the site to Louisa St. The second connection is at the North-West  back corner where the developer owns a narrow strip of land which will have a sidewalk connecting the back corner of the development with Blucher St. The developer also attempted from the get go to have Adam St. travel through the site however the church on Margaret owning the parking lot in that area which blocked any expansion, wanted nothing to do with it.