Cambrian Park Plaza Development Plan

It has almost been a year since the last community meeting and I have not heard any updates. Has anybody else?

I just searched to see if there is any new information... nope. For those that are new to this issue you can see what Weingarten is planning here: http://cambrianparkplazashoppingcenter.com/

I wanted to request everyone to respond to the poll and to ask any friends you have in the community to respond.

We should create a new Neighborhood not a strip mall Weingarten is a retail real estate developer and does not plan to develop the residential themselves. This is why we have a strip mall on the corner and 6 story apartment buildings towering over single family homes. This is also why we have a road separating the residential from the retail. Too many people have said that this design is like "Santana Row". Sorry, this is nothing like Santana Row which has residential and... hotels on top of retail and parking on the sides. Santana Row is not only walkable by those of us that visit it, but people that live there don't have to get in the cars to shop- or cross traffic. This design includes assisted living (which a majority at the meeting were for); however, even the assisted living is across the street from the shopping! I personally would love a Santana Row like mini-neighborhood that I could walk to and walk around. A destination. I can appreciate that some of you don’t want anything that big; however, if you are hoping for something small I think you may be disappointed in the end with a very large strip mall with no community and an anchor store or two that may not be to your liking. Weingarten’s specialty is strip malls. I tried to find any example of a Santana Row like space that Weingarten provides http://bit.ly/2kejLX9 For those angling for no high density residential, hotels, or commercial this may please you. For me this is a nightmare. Yet another strip mall for me to drive to. It might change my 10 minute drive to 5 minutes, but does nothing to make the area we live in a community. Why not push for a Mixed use space with the build up towards the corner of Union and Camden and the open space toward Wyrick? See more

Placement of Apartments and Townhomes After the Community Meeting I think I finally understood the reason why the apartments were placed in the back- Weingarten is a retail realty investor, they plan to sell the residential and commercial land, and they want the premium land for themselves. I believe everyone at the meeting agreed that the new apartments and townhouse would make more sense by Camden and Union rather than in the interior. Thoughts?

Traffic issues on Camden The preliminary plans do not show a new light on Camden; however, it is naive to think a new one will not be put in between Union and Leigh. I'm not sure we can do anything about it, but considering that Camden already backs up from Leigh to Union a new light will make things that much worse. Add the fact that people will be slowing to turn into Cambrian park and traffic will be that much worse. The traffic that currently backs up between Union and... Bascom will get worse. The new light will likely have the same effect as the light on Camden by Peet's, or the light on Meridian to turn into Hacienda gardens. I don't see many solutions for west bound traffic- they won't build an over or underpass- however, for east bound traffic I feel that a potential solution would be for Weingarten to at a minimum separate the entrances for shop parking and for residential parking. And rather than just have a right angle turn they should add a new right lane that would allow people going to Cambrian Park to enter into so they don't have to practically stop when they turn (like many do now at the Bevmo) Any thoughts? See more

Traffic issues on Union Weingarten claimed that the city said there was nothing they could do about the traffic on union. One of the people at the event provided a solution that I think would work: Weingarten could give up some of their space to allow an additional lane on union I think this is necessary. I personally do not have to turn on union to camden much, but I know to avoid it. Once this development is in the problem will only get worse. I can foresee that traffic will be backed up past woodard consistently. This will likely mean that traffic will back up consistently between the two lights- a problem similar to what happens on Meridian between Foxworthy and Hillsdale since Hacienda Gardens was built. The solution of adding a new lane is a step in the right direction that I think we should push Weingarten to accept.

Some have suggested that Cambrian Plaza should be developed similar to the successful Santana Row. What are the pros and cons of this?

Some have suggested that the Cambrian Plaza plan is similar to Hacienda Gardens (Meridian and Hillsdale). What are the pros and cons of this?

Some have compared Cambrian Plaza with the Pruneyard as a successful model. What are the pros and cons of this?

There was a great discussion on next door (https://9rosesartorette.nextdoor.com/news_feed/), but it became a bit too long to follow everything. Lots of points being made, but lack of the ability to reply made it too difficult to discuss anything in detail. Hopefully this page does a better job.