Haddow Community Design Engagement
February 23rd, 2015 marked the first design engagement meeting between Rohit Communities, the City of Edmonton, and the current residents of Haddow in southwest Edmonton. After the successful engagement process of Tawa Landing, Casselman Landing, and the newly released Larkspur Landing, the people of Haddow were given the opportunity to voice their concerns about the upcoming development and how the new community will incorporate into the existing neighbourhood.
Participants from the Haddow community were given an overview of the opportunities to provide feedback on designs, the engagement process and what they can expect, how the process is evaluated and how progress of the project will be communicated. Some of the questions and concerns that were raised by the residents included:
- Parking, traffic flow and overflow parking
- Location of the future community planned rink and building adjacent to the site
- Project start date and construction timeline – the builder noted potential for site servicing as early as fall of 2015 with construction to begin soon after
- Servicing synergies for league development and the potential for site servicing coordination of both projects
- The development matching the aesthetics of the existing community
- Orientation of the homes and where they are set in comparison to the adjacent street or park
- Colour of the exteriors as well as concerns for material usage and hazards for buildings in close proximity
- Fire protection on home exteriors
- Community architectures and the use of building materials to fit into the neighbourhood
- Project density
- Summer/Winter maintenance – given the nature of the of the project as a planned condominium community, Rohit Communities has confirmed that exterior maintenance is planned for this project
- Lighting and the potential for dark sky street lights
- Landscaping and trees species
- Boundary fencing including materials, height and colour that is adjacent to the park space
- Grading & Berming
- Plantings on City land and whether there is opportunity to landscape outside of the proposed development to blend with the community
- Accessory buildings
- Garage door visuals
- Concerns over the community becoming a rental property
- Contingency or visitor parking
- Entry feature designs and if there was a possibility of designing it to match the existing one
Participants were also shown 8 different conceptual site designs and were invited to review and provide commentary on aspects that they preferred from one concept over the other. The next design engagement will occur on the 3rd week of March where Rohit Communities will take into consideration the comments made and bring forward 2-3 revised design plans for further review.