80-storey tower stirs up anxiety among downtown-area residents
Travis McEwan | CBC News | Posted: April 6, 2017 12:00 PM | Last Updated: April 6, 2017
Once approved, Quarters Hotel and Residence will be the tallest building in Edmonton
Some downtown-area residents unhappy with the proposed 80-storey Quarters Hotel and Residence are hoping to stir up opposition to the project before the city makes a decision later this month.
- City council delays Quarters tower decision for two months
- 80-storey tower proposed for downtown Edmonton
The highrise, also known as the Alldritt Tower, is proposed for the site east of the Shaw Conference Centre on the embankment above Louise McKinney Park.
We have serious concerns. - Candas Jane Dorsey, Boyle Street Community League
"I would much more prefer to see it ... closer to the other tall buildings downtown and further from the bank," said Riverdale resident Andrea Wilhelm.
She worries the public consultation on the project held in October only reached residents nearby, so she's helping to organize an open house for the wider community at the Boyle Street Plaza at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
The event's speakers include Calvin Bruneau, the chief of Papaschase First Nation, and Harvey Voogd of the North Saskatchewan River Valley Conversation Society. Citizens on both sides of the debate are invited, she said.
"More and more Edmontonians are asking questions about it, don't know enough about it. We're trying to provide information," Wilhelm said.
Candas Jane Dorsey, with the Boyle Street Community League, said the tower will obstructed access to and views of the river valley.
"Our community and community league is not anti-development, but we have serious concerns about the nature and placement of this development," she said.
"We would very much support other development opportunities that fit within the plan."
Wilhelm said she also invited the developer Alldritt Land Corporation, but they declined stating that the public consultation has closed.
CBC News contacted Alldritt Land Corporation but no one within the company was available for comment.
A public hearing is scheduled at city hall on April 24.
The tower would be the tallest in Edmonton, much higher than the 66-storey Stantec Tower expected to open in 2018.