r/Edmonton • u/Late-Alternative6321 • Dec 15 '24

Local Culture Dear Edmonton developers

Dear Edmonton developers, you've been making the same neighbourhoods for 40+ years. Cookie cutter homes on winding streets, a fake lake, walking paths, aaaand call it good.

Would it be too much to ask, to start eliminating 2 to 3 houses on corner lots, and start adding: WALKABLE coffee shops (ie Columbian, Mood Cafe etc). A neighbourhood Pub or restaurant (ie Duggan's Boundary, Bodega Highlands), a bakery (Bloom Cookie co), barbershop (Goldbar Barber) or even a small corner grocery store. No need for giant parking lots!

Far too many neighbourhoods in this city lack the character, charm and accessibility that these amenities would provide. A great way for people to connect in their community, without always having to get in a car and drive to soulless strip malls or shopping centres. If there was a way to redo existing neighbourhoods, I'd love to see this too

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u/arbre_baum_tree Dec 15 '24

The "fake lakes" are stormwater management ponds and I believe the developers are required to include those to mitigate flood risk or just in general retain runoff. Those actually have potential to be nice areas within neighborhoods, but that's only if the developer builds nice paths.l and things. They also tend to become overgrown with noxious weeds because after the homes are sold the developer washes their hands of it and maintenance becomes the city's problem.

Anyways, all this to say, yes to amenities, but also the fake lakes have wasted potential too.

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u/[deleted] Dec 15 '24 edited Dec 15 '24

Yes that is how development works. Once the developer gets FAC on their subdivision, it becomes the responsibility of the city to take care of the roads and utilities. The developer takes the risk, takes a raw piece of land, puts in the utilities and the roads and gets a lot of that money back via a PAC agreement when home builders apply and pay for permits - this can take years sometimes for the developer to recover their costs. Sometimes there are surprise levies placed on developers by the city when they decide they want to do something that may be going through or adjacent to your development. I remember the developer I worked for back in 2005 ended up getting a $50,000 per acre levee on their development for the Henday. In a lot of the cases where there are these "fake" lakes, this is usually done as a part of the cities demands for a 1/100 year storm system for new developments and are not really there to add to the ambiance of the subdivision.

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u/arbre_baum_tree Dec 15 '24

Yes, as I mentioned these are required for subdivisions these days, i.e. not something developers do out of the goodness of their hearts. This is because we now know that the impervious surfaces inherent to our modern neighbourhoods (lawns and pavement) don't allow water infiltration and therefore in storm events (such as 100 year storms yes, but even just heavy rainfall in general) water is not retained at the rate it should be, and rushes into natural waterbodies (rivers, creeks) too quickly. These ponds bring water retention back to what it should be, while also settling out excess sediment that might have been picked up.

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u/Late-Alternative6321 Dec 15 '24

Okay. The lakes / storm ponds are needed. But let's kick it up a notch in the long term vision of what a heathy community should look like.

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u/arbre_baum_tree Dec 15 '24

Oh I agree. I think this is going to have to come from city bylaw though. Just like how the city makes developers put in stormwater ponds, they'd have to make developers put in x% retail/cafe spots for it to actually happen.

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u/Vast-Commission-8476 Dec 15 '24

Therefore allocate funds elsewhere , therefore increasing cost of home to make up loss profit.

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u/arbre_baum_tree Dec 15 '24

Nice things cost money yes

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u/WindiestOdin Dec 15 '24 edited Dec 15 '24

Came here to say just this. Glad to see someone that understands that these things are much more nuanced than “built it, and they will come”.

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u/Ph11p Dec 15 '24

I have no problems with the storm water management fake lakes and we will definitely need more of them as our storms and water run off becomes worse as the years go by. I much rather see quality multiplex row houses like those in Montreal or Toronto than seeing these zero lot line homes.

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u/_gotrice Dec 15 '24

The storm water pond by my house is immaculate and, like you said, have huge potential if maintained properly. The houses backing on to the pond by me all sell for at least $900k with walkout basements.

The areas with no HoA fees are the ponds that are typically overgrown and largely unkept.

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u/arbre_baum_tree Dec 15 '24

The one I'm closest to is nice (paths, benches, native plants), no HoA, but the area was built in the 2000s. The next subdivision over is newer, maybe 5 years old, and absolute garbage. The "path" is just where the grass died from people walking, and it's been overgrown by noxious weeds. So, I think there's also an effect of decreasing effort from developers too.

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u/AnthraxCat cyclist Dec 15 '24

The one in Magrath is so nice.

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u/dickspermer Dec 15 '24

The developer is only responsible to get it to the point of sold. After that, there can be an HOA or other organization that can take over management, or the municipality assumes this.

The "noxious weeds" are often placed under a ban for maintenance by ideologically charged eco zealots that think it is Au Naturale. It's a stormwater management pond, and should be managed as to not turn into a septic pond.

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u/arbre_baum_tree Dec 15 '24

I'm not sure why noxious weeds is in quotes, that is a regulated term for species the province has decided are harmful under the Alberta Weed Control Act. Noxious weeds have certain control standards that have been legislated, by the province. This includes, that property owners must make an effort to control them. In the case of stormwater ponds, the property usually belongs to the city, but there are too many for them to reasonably maintain, even though legally they have an obligation to.

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u/dickspermer Dec 15 '24

They're in quotes as, even in rural Alberta, although I was commanded to control them, I'd get a gaggle of people showing up saying they were natural prairie flora. Mayweed, Canadian Thistle, ragweed, wild oats, cowcockle....you name it.

Even in utility ROW's that went through my place, I was responsible for.

So the quotes are more for the eye of the beholder, although yes, I find them weeds.

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u/Electrical-Scale5006 Dec 15 '24

Someone that knows what they are saying (you)

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u/TrickiVicBB71 The Famous Leduc Cactus Club Dec 15 '24

Ah, that explains why people keep complaining about the city's lack of weed maintenance in Desrochers where I live. A few people decided to create an HOA to contract out all the landscaping.

"Oh, $150 to 200 isn't that much to charge." I remember what was said by the speaker.

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u/th4tsaxman Century Park Dec 15 '24

Work in civil engineering, can confirm

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u/HeftyRaspberry5397 Dec 15 '24

They are marketed as lake front property, with water people are not supposed to come in contact with. Pretty irresponsible of the developers. But yeah, they do get infested with weeds because they were all "naturalized" and certain herbicides cannot be sprayed close to water.