Lets Stop the Controversal Road Access to Terwillegar Foot Bridge Through Wolf Willow and/or Edmonton Country Club NOW!

The Controversy over access to River Valley Oleskiw

First let me say that I was involved in a recent fight with the City of Edmonton Bureaucracy. As a Director of Edmonton's Heritage Festival, we fought to block a new beach/Lake in Hawrelak Park as viewed below.

 

This lake would have shut down 14 of Heritage Festival's tents. No one in City Hall wanted it, Heritage Festival didn't want it, Edmonton Federation if Community Leagues didn't want it. Yet it got so far that we all had to go down to city hall to fight it.

 

We won. It was stopped.

 

Now we have to face the "Parking Lot". Not the Terwillegar bridge, the bridge is a done deal. Let's talk about access to the walking trails and an upcoming parking lot.

 

Here is an overhead of the area from Google earth.

 

 

Here is artwork of where the bridge is going, 90 degrees clockwise from above.

Now here is the problem. Construction of the bridge. For very good reasons, people on the west side, in Country Club Estates and on Woodward Crescent are concerned that construction of the bridge will require access from one of two unsuitable routes. These routes include passage through Country Club Estates and  Woodward Crescent. The City of Edmonton is trying to convince the owners of the Country Club golf course to allow trucks through to build the North Side of the Bridge. Woodward Crescent is worried that their route may be chosen.

Here is a look at the two possible routes, as seen from above. Country Club in Orange, Woodward in Blue, Possible parking lot in Red and Bridge in Purple.


I don't want either of these routes used. I want all construction to take place from the South Side in Terwillegar where Road Access already exists. Why? Because if either of these routes are used it will become very easy for city bureaucrats to attempt to continue to use the routes after the bridge is constructed.

I walked both those roads. NEITHER can be used. Neither is wide enough. Both have very steep sections, dangerous in winter, and neither of the roads leading into those future sites are ready for the traffic required.

It simply will not work from either side and all access should be blocked now so that they cannot be used in the future.

But I have another reason I want them stopped. I like the bridge. I like bridges that connect our ribbon of green from Fort Saskatchewan to Devon but we need to keep all other roads and development out of those sections of the river valley. I worry that if we start developing the river of green we end up with this in Terwillegar Park.

Another lake nobody wants. So we have a parking lot nobody wants, roads nobody wants, lakes nobody wants and they all cost money. Then another, then another then another. We need to draw the line today. Keep the areas available for footpaths, bike paths, dog parks and no roads and no fake lakes.

 

I already fought one lake. I accept the bridge but the rest has to stop. We need to keep our ribbon of green green.

 

 

 

 

Its Time We Track All Crimes In Edmonton - Including Graffiti and Vandalism

I am often asked how I would reduce crime in certain neighbourhoods. In particular crimes like graffiti and vandalism that seem to be ignored in the grand scheme of Edmonton crime busting.

I have a first step.

First, if you have never been here http://crimemapping.edmontonpolice.ca/ you should have a look. It is a powerful site.

When you go there, a sample page looks like this.

In this neighbourhood there have been three theft from vehicles, two break and enter and one assault. 

I want Graffiti and Vandalism added so that it can be tracked

(These are fake examples).

I want these added so that people are more likely to report them, the police are more likely to investigate them and we are more likely to find who is committing these crimes. 

It is a simple idea for a simple post, but information fights crime. Lets start tracking the more common but often ignored crimes that cost taxpayers, citizens and businesses a fortune.

A new Dog Park for our Four Legged Family Members

As you are aware, I would like to create an off-leash park West of the Henday as an amenity for all the new housing going up.

My four legged family is in full agreement.

 

So I have een handing out dog cookies and spreading the news. Now I have some more information.

 

Here is a map of the area near Big Island. The area I highlighted in yellow is zoned AG. By changing it to A or AP (simple) we can make it a dog park in advance of building all the houses. Build it and they will come, four legged and two legged.

This will alleviate any pressures on Terwillegar and Buena vista as the city expands. We can diminish sprawl with proper advance planning.

Solutions to fight Urban Sprawl in Edmonton

I get asked, daily, about Urban sprawl. I understand people’s concerns; it certainly appears that Edmonton has “Sprawled” haphazardly. People in Ward Five are particularly worried because we have so much available Land in the South West of the Zone.

I will address some of the City of Edmonton’s current responses to minimize future sprawl. I am in support of ALL of these attempts to direct growth into existing neighbourhoods and I plan to simplify City Zoning and Ordinances to allow for faster approval of new high density housing (as long as it meets all of the appropriate requirements) and as long as the housing does not infringe on Edmonton’s Green Spaces.

Firstly let’s talk about some facts. Edmonton’s current population according to the capital region board is 827,512. In 2018 it is estimated that it will be 900,833. In 2028 it will be 1,019,420. This is Edmonton alone NOT including the remainder of the Capital Region. http://capitalregionboard.ab.ca/-/reports/appendix1_population_e.pdf

This means that, realistically, within 5 years we have to make space for 80,000 new people. Keep that number in mind.

The city of Edmonton is currently engaged in a number of creative processes to increase infill in usable land in existing neighbourhoods. Here are a few.

The City has created a program that recycles old school spaces (used or never used) and turns them into “First place” homes, seniors centers and others, as yet not decided. Please see the following: http://www.edmonton.ca/city_government/urban_planning_and_design/surplus-school-building-sites.aspx

Grey circles represent new senior’s centres; Red circles “First Place” centres and green are undecided. (I have downloaded and rejigged these images). I would like to insert an aside here that the city seems a little gung ho about rezoning green spaces and frankly we need green spaces so I will look into whether we are being too aggressive with this program). For now, however, let’s say that these 36 sites, combined manage to house, say, 10,000 people.

Now let’s look at some other new developments. In the next image, the top Orange shape is the Airport Lands (and I quote from the website) “The associated residential population was established to be in the order of 24,286 people.” http://www.edmonton.ca/blatchfordedmonton/documents/Airport-Land-Market-Impact-Assessment.pdf#xml=http://search1.edmonton.ca/texis/ThunderstoneSearchService/pdfhi.txt?query=airport+lands&pr=www.edmonton.ca&prox=page&rorder=750&rprox=250&rdfreq=0&rwfreq=0&rlead=750&rdepth=0&sufs=0&order=r&cq=&id=5224eaea7

For simplicity, let’s say it is finished by 2018.

The bottom Orange square is Century Park, known as a “Transit Oriented Development” because there is LRT nearby, which will house between 5,000 and 10,000 people. The Orange circle is the new high-rise downtown, the Pearl, which will supply housing for (my estimate based on the website) 350 people. Add a few similar new ventures.

That means that within five years these developments and a few others will achieve, roughly, numbers in the range of  40,000 to 50,000 people (Please feel free to correct me if my numbers are off). So we have approximately 30,000 people that we do not know what to do with.

So my simple question is: where shall we put all of these people if not for houses? Well, we need more high density housing but sometimes that can take years or even decades to get off the ground. We need to simplify and speed up city processes that will allow for more high density housing, especially where close to existing and planned LRT lines. This must be council’s priority.  I am committed, fully and completely committed, to doing everything reasonable to help draw people into the center of the city. The new Arena will help. The Galleria will help. Expanded LRT service will help. Making more housing available will also keep the cost lower which will help dramatically. And more people make life in the center more entertaining, creating more of a draw.

Eventually the draw to the core, itself, will be “The Core”. We are close, another couple years and we won’t need incentives. It will just draw people in.

Now, for part two, minimizing sprawl in new Urban areas.

While I will try to minimize sprawl there will always be an argument for new housing. Many new immigrants, young families and others want houses. These people deserve the same rights to homes that our parents and grandparents had. Let’s not forget, while many decry new growth, our ancestors came here for the dream of better lives; a home for children in a safe, clean, free democratic country. Not all of our new immigrants can afford apartments downtown. New developments are usually more affordable and more spacious for large families.

I could never deny a newcomer the right to their own home. But as a councillor, I will do my best to assure that those homes are being built in well designed neighborhoods with green spaces, properly designed schools, reasonable amenities, bike paths and access to mass transit ready when they arrive. As I mentioned before, my ancestors came here for a better life. I honour their memory by trying to make that same, better life available to the people that choose to join us and share our wonderful city and province.

As your councillor I will do everything I can to make Edmonton a greener, more urban, sustainable city by finding every means available to draw people to a higher density core. At the same time, I accept that our growth requires a certain number of new houses and that the people who choose those houses deserve equal access to amenities.