Notes from final Community Steering Committee Meeting
Saturday September 23

Not much has changed with the developer's proposal as of September 23rd, 2006 observed by the Strathearn residents "Stakeholder Working Groups" and
"Stakeholder Advisory Committee", other than the developer is now saying they will not apply to have Silver Heights Park moved into the centre of
their complex and the road east of Silver Heights Park is no longer a proposal.

It was very interesting that the size of their proposed new central park (15% municipal reserve parkland) looks the same size as it was with their
old proposal that took away Silver Heights Park. 

Other minor changes are they relabelled 96 Avenue as their grand boulevard and got rid of the median on their new commercial strip that they were
calling the grand boulevard park. 

They are still proposing to narrow 90th street, 97th Avenue and 87th street as they state those roadways are too wide.  This narrowing will provide
additional boulevard space and the proposed depth of the front yards from the city sidewalks to their buildings will be approximately 10 feet (not
very big).

The proposed unit density is still at 1750 units.

What's new, instead of 5 towers (3 tens, 21,23 & 25) they are now proposing 4 towers, but the height of those towers are 24, 21, two 19's and the
buildings surrounding the towers are 6 to 8 storey high rises (Note: City Bylaw 128000 states 6 storeys qualifies as a high rise in a mature
residential neighbourhood).

They had an impressive little programme that showed the shadows don't fall outside their compound as they claim they have sculpted the top of the
towers to remove the shadows.  They are now basing their shadow study on March 21st, June 21st, and September 21st, with a time span from 9:30am to
3:30pm and one minute of December 21st at 12:38PM [if noted correctly]. The study still doesn't provide the complete picture of what the overall
shadowing affect will be on the community due to their high rises.

Retail will be limited to 95 Avenue and what was labelled as their grand boulevard.  They are still planning to add 10,000 more square feet of retail
space. Note: the following retail space calculations are based on numbers provided at their August 2nd, 2006 committee meeting:

Current strip mall retail space proposed for relocation: 35,000 square feet (25 foot frontage by approximately 40 feet deep = 25 to 35 stores)

Proposed additional retail space for new development: 10,000 square feet (25 foot frontage by approximately 40 feet deep = 7 to 10 stores)

Total proposed retail space for the new development: 45,000 square feet (25 foot frontage by approximately 40 feet deep = 32 to 45 stores)

The developer is still saying they will not put a ground level parking lot in to support their retail space and the vehicle parking will be on the
street.  However they did suggest underground parking would be provided for retail patrons.  The viability of underground parking for a strip mall
didn't appear to have been studied very carefully by the developer's team from a personal and property safety, and patron convenience perspectives.
The residents suggested an above ground parking lot should be provided for the retail space; so parking is not forced out onto the adjacent residential
streets.  The developer should also do a parking study, as suggested by the residents.

The developer's team still forgets they are proposing a development in a mature Edmonton neighbourhood that has predominantly single-family bungalows
with the exception of their apartment site) and continue to make references to New York City and cities alike.  As previous, the residents expressed
concerns that their references were inappropriate for the Strathearn neighbourhood.

Once again the developer's traffic engineer professed his road traffic engineering report is sound at 1750 units, but this is without it being
vetted by the city engineers.  He also stated with confidence that the traffic created by the proposed 1750 units would be no problem for our
current streets however 2000 units would put the traffic at a maximum and he wasn't comfortable with that.

There were significant objections by the residents that the mere 250 unit buffer from 1750 to 2000 units does not provide a great level of confidence
that we would not have any traffic problems if the development goes ahead as proposed.  Also there was concern that the developer would use all the road
capacity with his development and there would not be any possibility of growth off his site for other smaller developments in the neighbourhood.

There was considerable discussion with regards to the school bus traffic, where residents stated there are 36 buses traveling around the school in the
morning and then again in the afternoon.  There were a number of suggestions related to bus pull-ins off 95 Avenue and a further suggestion that the
developer should work with the school superintendent to find a solution for all that bus traffic.  It was also suggested to the developer that they have
some obligation to ensure both sides of 95 Avenue in front of their development receive proper design considerations.  (Note: the school is only
at half capacity and the residents are concerned that once it approaches full capacity it would contribute to traffic problems in the area.)

Their traffic engineer still didn't have the benefit of having the developer's market study to assist him in traffic engineering assumptions.

Sorry no photos this time as the developer banned them at the meeting [not sure why they didn't want their information disseminated to the community.]

Projections based on data from the 2005 Census indicates that housing stock will increase by 77% and Rockwell Developments will own 62.5% of 
all housing stock in Strathearn at full build out.

*3 homes and 1 apartment block (20 suites) are now within the development boundary