One of the big things to consider with a new neighbourhood are the "future plans" for it. Our neighbourhood comes with a lot of promises.

• A "Town Centre" to the northeast with pedestrian-friendly feel
• LRT stations
• Bridge access to the highway (plus one to cross the ravine)
• schools
• recreation centre
• medium and high density residential near by
• skating rink

We have been pretty honest with ourselves on this stuff. We are building in Phase Two of what looks to be a 12-15 phase neighbourhood, that is part of a 13 neighbourhood community, of which only 4 are nearing completion and another 3 have been started. There is a long way to go before we have the sort of population density that will warrant a train station or a lot of major retail to move in. And while space has been planned for schools and a rec centre, we aren't going to be holding our breath. There is space reserved in most neighbourhoods for a school and only a few get them. The city is notoriously slow at building out infrastructure, so I don't expect to see the promised bridges in any great rush.

And with all that negativity, I still think this is a good location. In 20 years, if all those plans go forward, they will likely be coming close to completion and it will be an amazing location. The skating rink is going in this summer, and there is already a completely landscaped lake and park. Safeway has signed on to move into the Town Centre, so we will have a local grocery store, and both Save On and Sobeys are located at the main road to get into the neighbourhood (although about 20 blocks north of us), which means we aren't in a rush to get it.

All these "future plans" sound great, but we made sure we could live with what's already in place.