 |
| Manning Town Centre Photo From http://www.camdevcorp.com/ |
I recently found out that a new development is underway for north east Edmonton just north of the Clareview LRT station. This monster of a development is headed by the same firm that has developed the blight that is South Edmonton Common with over 2.3 million square feet of retail. Manning town center according to Cameron Development Corporation will have 600000 square feet of retail space. However you've probably noticed from the development plan that, the retail space is grossly overwhelmed by a sea of parking. Why all the parking? Whenever I have visited any of these "Power centers" the parking lots are always half empty.
 |
| Satellite Image of Manning Town Center |
I decided to do some math on the actual land taken up by this monstrosity. The entire development sits on 314750 square meters. So with 73476 square meters of retail, this leaves 241274 square meters of land leftover. The total retaill space is only 23% of the total surface area of the development. This means that this development is turning a whopping 75% of fertile, arable farm land into asphalt parking stalls. Again why do you need so much parking? Really you only need one of those parking lots at the most, and we could be saving 140000 square kilometers by making the development more compact and pedestrian friendly.
This is deplorable, there is no need for the thousands of parking stalls included in this development. This sort of development this far away from our core, puts a massive strain on our utility infrastructure. Not only that we are encroaching on arable faming land. We really need to curtail and stop this kind of development as it is not sustainable in any way, shape or form.
Here is another satellite image showing just how big the project is.
I highly encourage you to email your Ward 4 councillor Ed Gibbons either at ed.gibbons@edmonton.ca or 780-496-8138, your mayor Stephen Mandel at http://webproxy.edmonton.ca/forms/contactcouncil/default.aspx?cid=mayor. You can also contact Cacmeron Development Corp. who is responsible for this mess at reception@camdevcorp.com or 780-424-8008. We don't need more than one South Edmonton Common.
Personally I am thankful for retail development in the area I live in, now I don't have to drive to South Common. And is parking required by the developer or by antiquated zoning laws that dictate how much parking we need?
ReplyDeleteAlso, isn't it true that another LRT station will be at the south end of this development allowing for people that live in the core get to the power centre unlike south common that doesn't have convenient transit access.
I imagine you live in the core in an "adult only" building and have no idea the work it takes to tote 3 kids around like many of us in the 'burbs do. Please think of more people than the elitist few that live downtown or in the university area.