New Scott Street Condo

Shown above is the first elevations of a six storey condo proposed for Scott Street. Small buildings like this are called boutique buildings. It will have about 30 units, with one commercial space on the ground floor. Since the lot has access only on the Scott frontage, the building face has the storefront, main entrance, then parking garage ramp, all in a row. Exterior is brick and stucco with glass balcony railings.

The building is proposed for the vacant lot immediately west of West Village Private, which joins Scott at the same intersection as does Lanark Avenue, near the Metropole condo tower. This condo is on the southwest side of Scott. When the West Village was being pre-sold about 4 years ago, the initial sales office was on this lot, and I vaguely recall that even then it was proposed as an apartment site. I also vaguely recall that Larco (the WestVillage developer) also owned the bank note printing plant behind the West Village that also faces Richmond Road at Kirkwood. I like the idea of condos there better than the original suggested new Cdn Tire which relocated to Carling in any case.

Condos in the area seem to sell like hotcakes. The Thieberge Homes building on Richmond between Island Park Dr and the Metro store are 80% sold in just the few weeks since they opened their sales office. Most units are smallish one bedrooms (500-600 sq ft @ $425+/sq ft). Buyers fall into two main groups: first timer DINKs; and older Empty Nesters.

Scott Street will be undergoing a community design plan (CDP) in the next year or two. Apparently some decisions have already been made, since the builder has been instructed by the City to move it right up to the lot front. Apparently when Scott is redone it is to be in the "traditional main street" format (like Preston, West Wellington, Bank Street)? This building is considerably shorter than the one facing Scott as proposed for the Westboro Collection, the McRae Avenue site behind and across from Trailhead.

It will be very interesting to see if the City can manage to develop Scott as a traditional main street format when it is presently a mish-mash of houses and commercial, some old, some new. They deserve credit for the attempt, in my opinion, since considerable redevelopment is expected all the street in the next decade and it is better to plan before development than after.

Transitway water bill

Picture 2 shows water burbling up from the base of this concrete structure. It comes up so fast it creates a 6-8" high stain on the concrete. The large puddle of crystal clear water (likely from a water main) forms a large puddle then runs down a ditch to a catch basin.

The site of the puddle is the northwest corner of the western transitway station at Queensway. It is bloody obvious, and must be apparent to OC Transpo maintenance crews. Yet it appears to have been there for some time as aquatic plants are growing the in the runoff and if you click picture one to enlarge it, you can see the asphalt bike path has agae and moss growing on it from the surplus of water.

Yes, I called 311 to report it.

Westboro Collection

click to enlarge site plan

The Westboro Collection is a proposed multi-building development in Westboro. The Real Cdn Superstore (aka Loblaws) is at the bottom of the page, where the title SITE is. The building at the corner of McCrae is Bushtucka. Further north, the building at the corner of Scott is Trailhead and the Westboro transit station is on the top left.

Two features of this development that I like: it removes the sidewalk back from the curb and places it along the store fronts (new and existing) running up the east side of McCrae. This should create a nicer pedestrian environment than being glued to the curbside. The other feature is that instead of single buildings or scattered redevelopment, there a several buildings being designed with the existing buildings incorporated into the plan.