Actually, not really…
The Urban Village plan is “on hold”. I’ve been telling my friend who bought a house near the Urban Village proposed location for years that the whole plan was a sham, and that this city will never get its act together enough to pull off something like the Urban Village. Glad to see that the McMansion Mayor did not fail to dissapoint…
New plan
Urban village delayed for ‘significant project’Dave Hall
Windsor StarWednesday, April 25, 2007
Mayor Eddie Francis says the urban village concept has been delayed
Plans for an urban village on lands adjacent to the Art Gallery of Windsor have been delayed because of the potential for a “significant project†which could encompass most or all of the 50 acres, said Mayor Eddie Francis.
Speaking after the Downtown Windsor business improvement area annual general meeting, Francis declined to divulge details but said “it’s not driven by a single developer and it’s something we need to consider before we bring forward a request for proposals for the urban village.
“We need an opportunity to address that entire development before we move forward with anything else,†said Francis.
London developer Shmuel Farhi recently acquired a piece of property next to the art gallery fronting on Riverside Drive as part of a land swap which allowed the city to acquire property where the new arena is being built on the city’s far east side.
While acknowledging that Farhi is “looking to add to his investment downtown,†Francis declined to say whether Farhi was involved in the development project being considered by the city.
The 50-acre site, which is bounded by the new transit terminal on the eastern edge, University Avenue on the south, Caron Avenue on the west and Pitt Street on the north, was the subject of a community improvement plan more than three years ago.
Once city council decided the property was an expensive and inappropriate location for a new arena development, the focus shifted to an urban village which would include an eclectic mix of residential, commercial and retail development designed to attract more pedestrian traffic to the edge of the city core.
Council decided last year to issue a request for proposals from potential developers on both sides of the border but that process is now on hold.
© The Windsor Star 2007
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there's some video on my site about the DWBIA meeting today with the mayor talking.
he didn't talk about that so much during the meeting. just said he has something their working on that is education related. so who knows what will happen. no word about the capitol too.
http://www.artwindsor.org
Don't kid yourself. The city of Windsor had no intention of building an urban village anywhere near downtown. After all, why give up all that lucrative parking revenue to make way for progress? This city sucks and the idiots who elected this do-nothing mayor and city council deserve what they get.
What is the "urban village?" I saw the outline of the neighbourhood, but what does it mean? I see images of two-storey townhouses in my head with I hear that phrase. What is the point of it with all the residential and commercial vacancies in downtown? Why does the city need to be involved in it? How much of the taxpayers dollars did the city spend in buying up these lands? Have they actually budgeted taxpayers' money to subsidize this?
from the Windsor Star article
"the focus shifted to an urban village which would include an eclectic mix of residential, commercial and retail development....." Would someone remind Mayor Francis that Plum Street lasted about 30 minutes and has been gone for nearly 40 years?
I tend to be wary of what one might call "developed ambience", and believe that neighborhoods evolve into their uniqueness (maybe with a gentle push from government) rather than have that "uniqueness" created for them. Maybe I'm just getting old and grouchy, but urban "theme" planning has always bothered me unless you live in some tourist trap like Leavenworth, WA or Frankenmuth, MI.
I'll crawl back into my cave now.....
David, we taxpayers paid for the land about 20 years ago, when the city expropriated it for the arena.
What he means is he wants to build a fake residential area that looks like waht was there before the city knocked it down.
For some reason, I get images of those ugly new townhouses in the Brush Park Village renewal, which is a combination of brick and vinyl siding next to what's left of the real Brush park mansions.
The city should just cash out. Selling that land to high rise developers and collecting higher property taxes from it could hire more cops to hunt down the graffitti bandits who make this city such an eyesore. I think that's a more worthy public goal than looking at more vinyl sided townhouses that we'll end up subsidizing.
So, why can't this land be sold to a casino developer? If I were Mayor, I would sell it to a casion developer. I think Caesar's Windsor needs a little competition, and I think we could use the addtional tax revenue and jobs. You know what would be perfect to put on those lands? They should sell it to MGM on condition that they build a Bellaggio Windsor. Now, that's a modern construction of a classical architectural marvel that's worthy of Windsor and these lands.
I don't know if this is true or not, but a real estate agent once told me that Donald Trump was denied a casino license in Detroit a decade ago, so he called up Canadian realtors including him looking for a large enough parcel to build a casino in Windsor, but he could find anyone who wanted to sell.
Pathetic performance by this do-nothing but blow smoke up your ass administration. Let's really do it right and make Ken Lewenza mayor and bring in Buzz Hargrove to handle the finances. Who needs federal money when we have the NDP doing absolutely nothing?
Windsor,you are Detroit's bitch. Urban renewal-downtown Windsor reminds me of the Cass Corridor. Turn out thel ights on the autmotive unemployment capital of Canada.
David the problem with the Casino idea is that the ultimate benefactor of the Casino is the Provincial Government. Why would they want to break their own Monopoly?
Niagara Falls Canada has two large casinos, with the second one just down the street from the first one. If they do it in Niagara Falls, why can't they do it in Windsor? I don't think they'd just be competing for market share. I think the City of Windsor would be getting more overall tourists who would play at the casinos like they do in Vegas. Why is it that in Vegas, they have hundreds of high end casinos in a city that's in the middle of the desert in the middle of butt-f-nowhere and yet everyone makes enough money to stay in business. I don't buy the idea that casino #1 wouldn't stay in business if another one was here. In fact, I think Windsor Airport may actually break even with more casinos in Windsor because Torontonian gamblers may choose Windsor over Niagara Falls if we had better casinos.