Pickering of tomorrow, I’m getting frightened.
Read Glenn Hendry’s column, “Downtown Pickering continuing to grow up with condo tower proposals” at HENDRY
The story is starting to scare me.
- 14-tower mix at the “Shops of Pickering Centre”
- 40-story condo project on Pickering Parkway at Valley Farm Rd.
- 6 building redevelopment of multiple towers ranging from 17 – 35 storeys at Kingston Rd., just west of Liverpool.
Some questionable points to consider:
- Parking for the occupants of these many towers/projects
- Impact on infrastructure and as well, property taxes
- Traffic congestion impact on core roadways
- Firefighting capability in case of emergency
- Evacuation plans in case of nuclear or other emergency
- Impact on local businesses, especially ‘mom & pop’ retailers
- Effect and impact on nearby residential homes
- [Please don’t laugh] The developer is also offering one affordable unit in the project to Habit for Humanity at no cost.
Some scary questions
I’m all for modernization, improvement and gentrification of the City of Pickering, but are we moving too far too fast? Are we developing support systems to cope with the impact of all these changes? Where or who is doing all the necessary planning and consideration?
Most importantly, where is the City describing and detailing all the related information in regard to these changes? And is this communication being delivered in layman’s language or that typical lawyerese the city is known to communicate when reporting the Council Minutes?
Residents deserve clean, concise, and easy-to-understand communication about what is in store for the City of Pickering tomorrow. Mr. Mayor and Councillors, where are you on this?
