Richmond’s vintage Lansdowne Centre Mall, age 41, is getting a facelift, but maybe not the type you’d assume for its location — smack dab in the middle of a downtown not typically known for its active transportation facilities, or lifestyle.
But it’s true: for this future development, cars are out; transit is in. Even bikes feature in the planning docs and related literature. For residents and visitors alike, this is big.
As usual, click an image to see a larger version.
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- thanks to Vanprop Investments Ltd.
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- thanks to Vanprop Investments Ltd.
A few thoughts come to mind.
First: Goodbye to acres of asphalt, as a car-oriented shopping mall is replaced with a fairly dense, transit-oriented mixed-use development, including housing, retail, commercial and public park space. The transformation is due to start in late 2019 or early 2020, with the mall itself closing in 2025. A startlingly positive proposition.
Second: This, and a nearby sister development, are good models for the upcoming Jericho Lands transformation on Vancouver’s west side, which will be nearly twice the size. And the Heather Lands, too. But hey, you exclaim, doesn’t Lansdowne already have a transit station?
Third: Yes, but not so fast. That nearby sister development area is at Capstan Way, where the City of Richmond is putting up $28 million for a new Canada Line station. It’s a model for transit-oriented density. It’s true that funding a new Canada Line transit station at Heather Lands might be a bit of a squeeze, but at 92 acres the Jericho project seems like an appropriate place for a stop on the Broadway Extension. There’s also an opportunity to partner up with UBC on the west-of-Arbutus section.
But back to Richmond — the Lansdowne project appears to be a real take-the-bull-by-the-horns approach in an ever-densifying city.
Further south in the area around Sea Island Way and Capstan Way along the No. 3 Road corridor, developers such as Concord Pacific, Pinnacle International, Yuanheng, and Polygon are behind redevelopments that will create dozens of buildings to house up to 16,000 people. These projects are also funding the $28-million cost of building the Canada Line’s new station at Capstan Way. . . .
During a media event last week, Richmond mayor Malcolm Brodie credited the Canada Line for being the catalyst for the developments that are providing Richmond with a well-defined urban downtown core.
“You just have to look at Richmond to see the effect on urban development and redevelopment that a very effective transportation system will have,” said Brodie. “We have refocused and redeveloped our downtown core, and it is all based around the Canada Line.
With thanks to Kenneth Chan in the Daily Hive.
About time. Richmond has long been transit hostile–unpaved. unsheltered bus stops. Richmond-Brighouse is the only SkyTrain terminal without a bus loop or other facilities. Cross a busy street at-grade to the shopping mall. Buses stop in the street, passengers wait in the rain. No car or taxi drop-off or pick-up. A disfunctional zoo at busy times.
A transit centre/loop has been needed here since the bus expansion of the late 70s– so far nothing.
It is great to see what a difference a decade can make in understanding the positive relationship between transit and retail sales. Over a decade ago during consultation for the construction of the Canada Line, many of the shopping malls in Richmond along the proposed transit route didn’t want any stations on their property. The malls were concerned that transit users would just use up mall parking and not shop. A view initially shared by Lougheed Mall in Burnaby. Today, 15 years after Millennium Line opened and almost a decade after Canada Line opened, shopping centres in Metro Vancouver are racing to build around rapid transit hubs. This is a positive trend for Metro Vancouver in its efforts to reduce automobile dependence.
Not any transit. Rapid rail based transit.
Who has ever seen a condo ad advertising their proximity to a bus station?
great news for Richmond citizens! A poor public transportation infrastructure tires the population out really quick.