Sarah Mills: We came so close to the zipper merge
Three block of two lanes of traffic merging one by one, with everyone inching forward. It was the zipper merge in action...
The former site of the Star Phoenix building is one step closer to becoming downtown Saskatoon’s tallest building.
On Thursday night a public information meeting was held at City Hall, where roughly 35 people came to learn more about the proposed rezoning of 204 Fifth Avenue North.
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If the development goes forward, two towers would be built featuring 600 residential units and going as high as 35 storeys. One design feature generating buzz is the building’s proposed grocery store.
“That would be the ideal thing for us,” neighbour Darlene Bessey said about the potential grocer.
For the last 10 years, Bessey has been living a couple of blocks away from the site tagged for development and said in that decade there’s never been a grocery store downtown.
Although, there have been previous downtown projects which included grocers in their design those, “have never come to fruition,” she said.
Currently, like many in Saskatoon, Bessey drives one or twice a week to Eighth Street to load up her car with groceries, but she said as she and her husband get older that will become more difficult.
“We may not driving,” she said. “Certainly in another 10 years, we won’t be driving.”
So, it would “be much nicer to have something close by,” within walking distance, Bessey said.
Senior planner, Brent McAdam, said at the start of the public information meeting the, “room was pretty full.” By 7 p.m. it had emptied out a little, but overall roughly 35 people came. (Marija Robinson/650 CKOM)
The downtown resident didn’t just attend the meeting to learn more about a potential grocer, though.
Bessey also came with concerns on how the development would impact traffic and she wasn’t the only one with questions for the city.
Senior Planner with the City of Saskatoon’s Planning and Development department, Brent McAdam, said he fielded, “questions about traffic and parking, questions about the height and density of the development, and impacts during construction,” at the meeting.
According to McAdam, the session reinforced where the department needs to share more information or take another look at the proposal.
For Bessey, the meeting helped mitigate her concerns after learning about the traffic assessment that’s been done and the initiatives developed in response.
This was just another step in the process for the proposed development, with city council still needing to determine whether it will rezone the property, according to McAdam.
The current zoning doesn’t permit for some parts of the project, like the grocery store.
Now, he said, the proposal will go to council for a decision during a public hearing, where residents can come and give their feedback.
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