I’ve written before about the Active 18 group. They’re a community group who are working to preseve the unique character of the Queen West district in the face of multiple proposed condo developments in the Queen West Triangle.

I thought the work of Active 18 was worth revisting in light of all my posts about Westside Lofts today (1, 2, 3 & 4), as it is one of the buildings in the area that Active 18 are focusing on.

There’s a lot of rather dense information on the Active 18 website, but digging through the site I agree with much, if not all of what they are saying. There’s a very important balancing act which Active 18 are calling for. It’s already widely recognised that economic and density requirements mean building new, multi-story residential buildings down town is essential. What seems to be less widely realised is that maintaining real, liveable, human neighbourhoods is equally important to the long term health of the city.

The section on the community design charette that Active 18 ran is a great place to get an idea of the reasonable ideas they’re pushing to for, including:

• Respect for scale and nature of Queen Street
• The need for green space
• A pedestrian/cycle link to the areas south of the tracks
• A high quality of design

As someone considering buying one of those new condos in the Triangle, I have a great deal of respect for the work Active 18 are doing to keep a balance between development and livability. I have no more interest in moving into a sterile concrete wasteland than they do in seeing their neighbourhood turned into one.