Change is coming on Queensview Drive. It is both an opportunity and concern for residents of Queensway Terrace North (QTN). The QTN Planning Committee is taking early action to influence City plans for this area, instead of waiting to react to proposals by outside developers. City plans for Queensview Drive will become public in the draft Official Plan later this month.
In advance of the Official Plan, QTN is asking the City to consider how Queensview Drive could better serve area residents and be connected by pathways, in an integrated plan. This could make it easy to walk or bike there for necessities, recreation, or coffee with a friend. As outlined in a Discussion Paper, titled “Queensview Drive and QTN: Good Neighbors,” this requires attention early in the planning process. While density and the height of towers will get a lot of attention, QTN wants a stronger focus on the design of the whole street to be a place residents will want to go, rather than a wall of high towers on the edge of our neighborhood.
This direction reflects the responses of a majority of residents in an informal summer survey.
A majority of respondents want to see a mix of commercial and residential uses, with a focus on services for area residents, according to the findings in our survey.
Better connections and noise mitigation are other factors that QTN wants included in the early plan. A better connection to the Queensview LRT Station has been a high priority for QTN since the earliest discussion on the LRT. It needs to be in place when the station opens, not five years later, to ensure that QTN residents have good access to the LRT.
QTN is also asking that community services, such as a recreation center, be developed at the same time as affordable housing to foster community connections. QTN, says the discussion paper, could be an “oasis” neighborhood between Lincoln Fields on the north and Queensview Drive on the south, building on its green spaces and friendly streets. That requires a change in the planning process, to center the community in the plans and work with all the stakeholders, including businesses and residents, to find mutual benefits.
Looking to the future, QTN is also asking the City to consider moving the bus barns from the current location on Queensview Drive and using that space for affordable housing and associated services (see section 5 in our paper). This would reduce noise levels on the south side of QTN and allow more affordable housing than the current in-fill strategy, which is having negative impacts on QTN .
This is a working paper to foster discussion. QTN invites feed-back, suggestions, and discussion with your neighbors. We will continue to work toward a plan that works for the future well-being of QTN as well as for the new LRT stations on our boundaries.
Kathy Vandergrift, Planning Committee
I just checked the survey and it seems that according to the answers, affordable housing is not a priority. Why then has it become a major point in the above Planning Committee working paper?
While density and the height of towers will get a lot of attention, QTN wants a stronger focus on the design of the whole street to be a place residents will want to go, rather than a wall of high towers on the edge of our neighborhood.
Looking to the future, QTN is also asking the City to consider moving the bus barns from the current location on Queensview Drive and using that space for affordable housing and associated services (see section 5 in our paper). This would reduce noise levels on the south side of QTN and allow more affordable housing than the current in-fill strategy, which is having negative impacts on QTN .l
Affordable housing is a stated City priority and the reason for promoting forms of intensification that are of concern to QTN. This is a Working Paper to put issues on the table and foster discussion . The point of this section is to consider using under-utilized land as a better way to get affordable housing. The survey showed support for mixed use, which includes housing. The City plans to use new provincial planning rules that will require the inclusion of affordable housing in projects close to LRT stations. That is likely to be in the draft Official Plan for Queensview Drive. Our focus is to get a comprehensive plan for Queensview Drive that considers all options for affordable housing and services that will benefit the community, as well as density and height of towers to be built in the future.
If the bus barn were gone, it would be great to continue Queensview up to Connaught for residents in the south part of the hood, like me. It takes forever to get through the entire neighborhood from Kelly off Pinecrest. With homes lining that extended part of the street with pathways to the LRT station with a nice garden park separating the station and businesses from the houses. Nobody wants tall towers there, a nice garden park works be a nice touch to lift the sometimes dull, old neighborhood a bit.
Thank you for naming the issue of access and suggesting a vision for something better.
We have named the challenges of access and egress from QTN as one of the matters to be addressed in planning for the future of this area. Our focus is to get a comprehensive plan for Queensview Drive that also benefits QTN. Moving the bus barns is a long-term goal; we are naming it now for inclusion in the Official Plan. There will time for discussion of all the related factors, such as transportation impacts and solutions.
I’d like to see the bus barn area planned for a recreational area. The LRT has already destroyed so much of our green space that will never be close to what we once enjoyed. We do not want to see an increase in the speeding traffic in the neighbourhood or running of the stop signs. Definite concerns of having additional access to Connaught from Queensview.