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UNDER CONSTRUCTION
953 Balmoral Road
Use: rental
Address: 953-959 Balmoral Road
Municipality: Victoria
Region: Urban core
Storeys: 5
953 Balmoral Road is a supportive housing project along the 900-block of Balmoral Road in the City of Victoria... (view full profile)
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[North Park] 953 Balmoral | Rentals | 4-storeys | U/C


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94 replies to this topic

#21 aastra

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Posted 16 August 2016 - 08:11 AM

Summary: Not only do they not know what they want, they don't even know what they have right now.

 

 

it's kind of shocking how much surface parking dominates this area.

 

Hmmm. Funny how nobody mentions that issue. They're worried that houses will be dwarfed by small apartment blocks, but they're not at all concerned that parking lots are next door to houses. What kind of urban neighbourhood rejects small apartment blocks while embracing surface parking lots? Answer: a messed up one. It's just bananas.


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#22 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 16 August 2016 - 08:18 AM

I've stated it here for years.  Balmoral is one big surface parking lot, that could be really improved.


<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#23 Nparker

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Posted 16 August 2016 - 08:27 AM

I've stated it here for years.  Balmoral is one big surface parking lot, that could be really improved.

Especially with a significant increase in density, but somehow the NPNA thinks this can be achieved with one-storey buildings.  :wacko:



#24 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 16 August 2016 - 08:34 AM

There is enough room on Balmoral to make something really wonderful for two blocks.  It's 3x wider than it needs to be, for the amount of vehicle traffic it carries.  So much opportunity if someone had a great vision.


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<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#25 aastra

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Posted 16 August 2016 - 08:36 AM

 

[his] plan of density and affordability is a good fit for North Park but this building is not.

 

And how many times have we seen some variation of this sort of conciliatory doublespeak in Victoria? You name the project. We want density and affordability, but we just don't want it here. We're not opposed to development, but we just don't want it to look anything like that. The project is good, but it's not a good project for this site. Lather, rinse, repeat.

 

I want to exercise, but not by moving my arms or legs. I want to learn, but not any of those subjects. I want to clean up, but not any of these rooms. And not with a broom or a mop or a vacuum.

 

But hey, at least I'm being cooperative and open-minded. I should get some points for that, right? The dialogue continues. And yet there's actually no dialogue happening at all. All I'm doing is finding more creative ways to dress up a flat "no" as a "maybe".


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#26 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 16 August 2016 - 08:58 AM

And how many times have we seen some variation of this sort of conciliatory doublespeak in Victoria? You name the project. We want density and affordability, but we just don't want it here. We're not opposed to development, but we just don't want it to look anything like that. The project is good, but it's not a good project for this site. Lather, rinse, repeat.

 

I want to exercise, but not by moving my arms or legs. I want to learn, but not any of those subjects. I want to clean up, but not any of these rooms. And not with a broom or a mop or a vacuum.

 

But hey, at least I'm being cooperative and open-minded. I should get some points for that, right? The dialogue continues. And yet there's actually no dialogue happening at all. All I'm doing is finding more creative ways to dress up a flat "no" as a "maybe".

 

Ya, this is exactly what I thought as I read this.  

 

And also, what houses or small apartments is this project going to tower over?  The tiny houses on Mason Street?  Who's time is no doubt numbered, as it should be.  The early 1970's apartment next door?  Anything built next door is going to look into that.  They have had it pretty good for 45 years.


<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#27 Nparker

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Posted 16 August 2016 - 09:07 AM

The NPNA does more harm to the future of North Park than any good they might be effecting.



#28 aastra

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Posted 16 August 2016 - 09:09 AM

 

The City had rejected developer's earlier plan for a 4-story brownstone building.

 

Did we ever see an image for this?



#29 Hotel Mike

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Posted 16 August 2016 - 01:03 PM

Aastra you might appreciate this quote. JFK once said that "We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."


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Don't be so sure.:cool:

#30 Bingo

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Posted 26 August 2016 - 10:31 PM

Balmoral is SUPER wide from Quadra to Cook.  Certainly much wider that is needed, will ever be needed.  Here is an opportunity to claim some of that street in a out-of-the-box way.  A deal could be made here with the developer to have some extra frontage for maybe some angle parking.  I know some people hate the idea of angle parking on a street like this. 

 

ANGLE PARKING SUNDAYS ONLY

"Angle parking if you want to, but only on Sundays"?  Or "Angle parking, this is all you are allowed to do on Sundays"?

 

Why so selective and why Anglias?

Do they only drive those to church on Sundays?

Can't be many of those around anymore, but then anything goes in that part of town.

Maybe snakes prefer Anglias.

https://upload.wikim...17-79,_pic6.JPG

 

Ford_Anglia_Bj_ca_1949_Photo_2008_Castle



#31 Nparker

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Posted 15 June 2017 - 10:01 AM

With the "assistance" of the NPNA this project has now been reduced by about one third. Only 11 units (down from 17) remain in the latest proposal.

balmoral.JPG

Apparently the law of supply and demand (as it relates to housing affordability) has not been taught at neighbourhood associations.

 

I will say that it is slightly less ugly now.


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#32 Nparker

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Posted 15 June 2017 - 11:09 AM

From the applicant's letter to the city:

...The North Park Neighbourhood is an eclectic community that is looking to avoid further gentrification. This project has been designed after taking into account the results of consultation with the North Park Neighbourhood Association...The building’s design and mass has been modified to accommodate the concerns of the NPNA. This includes a reduction in floors from six to four and a unit reduction from 17 to 11...

Have I ever mentioned that I loathe the NPNA? I swear it's motto must be "Keeping your neighbourhood a slum since time immemorial".


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#33 aastra

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Posted 15 June 2017 - 11:13 AM

 

...an eclectic community that is looking to avoid further gentrification.

 

All of the gentrification that has occurred up until now has been great.


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#34 Nparker

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Posted 15 June 2017 - 11:22 AM

All of the gentrification that has occurred up until now has been great.

We won't know for sure if that is true until the St. Andrew's School redevelopment is complete. In my 19 years of living in North Park that is about as close to "gentrification" as any project has come.



#35 aastra

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Posted 15 June 2017 - 12:41 PM

 

In my 19 years of living in North Park that is about as close to "gentrification" as any project has come.

 

The gentrification process in North Park has always been a very gradual thing as compared to say Fairfield or James Bay in the 1960s and 1970s, but there has still been plenty of gentrification in North Park over the years and decades. What about the conversion of the Nelson's Music building and the new buildings behind? The Sandpiper, the apartment block on Cook above the hardware store, the mini-tower across Pandora, the condo buildings between Quadra and Blanshard and elsewhere here and there... if these projects don't represent increasingly middle-class demographics then I don't know what would. How about the racquet club and the coffee shop and the expensive (but also good) ice cream place off Cook? I suppose poor inner-city folk are buying all of those gourmet ice cream sandwiches?

 

That's why I cringe when people today complain about the gentrification of Fairfield. What's happening now in Fairfield is the tip of the gentrification iceberg compared to what happened in decades past. Do we think masses of poor inner-city folk were flocking into Fairfield to live in all of those new apartment blocks in the 1960s and 1970s? Just look at the esthetics of those buildings and consider their front lawns and big balconies and their large surface parking lots and their close proximity to Beacon Hill Park and then try to tell me with a straight face that they weren't designed for the middle-class rental market. But if a developer today wants to address that same middle-class market, either for rentals or for condos, then out comes the hysteria re: gentrification. It's as if the middle class is now afraid of itself. Middle-class people are worried about the impact of middle-class people on their middle-class neighbourhoods.

 

The designations and labels are effectively meaningless now.


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#36 jonny

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Posted 15 June 2017 - 12:48 PM

Gentrification is a four letter word in the minds of the far left. That's nothing new.


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#37 Mike K.

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Posted 15 June 2017 - 01:01 PM

North Park rental proposal slashed to 11-units following community engagement

http://victoria.citi...t-953-balmoral/


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#38 AllseeingEye

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Posted 15 June 2017 - 01:56 PM

Sorry Nparker this will have to be one time when we disagree - purely IMO that new rendering represents a structure that just screams UGLY. I mean its "woof!!"-level bad. Well done NPNA. Very glad it won't be visually assaulting my neighborhood.....

 

I took a quick peek at the NPNA website and - really, no surprise I suppose - the neighborhood liaison is one J Loveday, who is quickly rising to the top of my "Least liked" CoV councilors. He is not quite (yet) at the Ben Isitt-Dislike status, but its getting close. I wonder whether he went to bat at all for the original 6-story proposal or did he just tamely knuckle under at the very first sign of resistance (which of course in this neighborhood is as predictable as the earth orbiting the sun come tomorrow).....


Edited by AllseeingEye, 15 June 2017 - 01:57 PM.

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#39 Nparker

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Posted 15 June 2017 - 02:06 PM

Sorry Nparker this will have to be one time when we disagree - purely IMO that new rendering represents a structure that just screams UGLY. I mean its "woof!!"-level bad. Well done NPNA...

Oh I still think it's plenty ugly (much like its cousin in the 1000 block of North Park), just slightly less awful than the 6-storey office-building-looking earlier proposal. About the only positive thing I can say about this latest incarnation is that no one is going to mistake it for a commercial building.

If I had my druthers, I'd say build nothing here until the adjacent properties to the west can be consolidated into a larger redevelopment site.

953-2.JPG


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#40 Jackerbie

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Posted 11 December 2017 - 03:02 PM

Updated plans were filed in November, and are available on the Dev Tracker: https://tender.victo...Number=REZ00598

 

There's also a letter from the developer, which is rather passive-aggressive.



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