Calgary growth plan showdown looming
By Jason Markusoff
Calgary Herald
By Jason Markusoff
Calgary Herald
June 23, 2009
CALGARY- Calgary's suburban developers are enlisting tradespeople to help them sway aldermen against the city's blueprint for a denser, more transit-focused future.
And as home builders and developers rally opposition before council's June 23 hearing on Plan It Calgary, a coalition of community activists, academics and some inner-city developers has emerged to lobby in support of the planning strategy.
It's a high-stakes struggle over a complex and sweeping plan that would limit Calgary's sprawl, boost overall population density by 35 per cent and quadruple the size of the transit system in 60 years.
Opponents and supporters expect an emotional debate among a divided city council. The city received 585 public comments aldermen will have to consider, and the hearing may drag on for days.
But the vast majority of Calgarians don't seem to be tuned in, Ald. John Mar said. At one open house for Plan It, he was initially impressed to see dozens of cars parked outside Earl Grey school.
"When I went in, it was nearly empty -- there was actually peewee football outside," Mar said.
"A couple of parents walked in afterwards."
He's heard both support and concern regarding Plan It, but also worries that some residents who back the idea of higher density in existing areas are the same ones who try blocking such developments in their own neighbourhoods.
"Given that this is a 60-70 year plan, I don't know that there's a lot of urgency to move ahead with it at the speed that we are," the inner-city alderman said.
Michael Flynn of Urban Development Institute-Calgary named Mar as one of the swing voters on a council that is largely divided among suburban aldermen who are skeptical about Plan It, and inner-city ones who have voiced favour for the blueprint.
His influential group and the local branch of the Canadian Home Builders Association ramped up advocacy against Plan It's recommendations with a recent "call to action" to get members writing to aldermen and speaking at the June 23 hearing.
The industry is not only lining up business leaders to voice concerns about Plan It's call for less suburban expansion-- a restriction on choice, his sector argues--but also subcontractors and trades workers involved in home building.
"We were helping them understand it's not only going to affect your livelihood, but also where your family might live in the future," Flynn said in an interview.
Several contractors' letters appear in the Plan It package sent to aldermen before Tuesday's hearing, some of them expressing concern of gridlock if the plan builds too much transit at the expense of roads.
Plan It calls for one-third of all new homes to be built in existing communities--not new suburbs--over the next 30 years, a target that rises to half in 60 years. It would also increase the proportion of condos and townhouses in Calgary's residential mix, which critics warn will make single-family houses more expensive.
The target is a broad aspiration and won't be used as a "hammer" to yea or nay specific developments, said David Watson, the city's general manager of planning and development. But it shouldn't be scrapped because a clear target would help give Calgary a proper roadmap to sustainability, he argued.
The pro-Plan It coalition, dubbed CivicCamp, began in April with 165 locals meeting to discuss the Calgary they want. Some have appeared in the group's blue T-shirts at City Hall meetings to support Plan It and the brief summer closure of Memorial Drive to cars.
CivicCamp member Peter Rishaug said there's a false sense that Plan It will mean 40-storey concrete towers everywhere. Much redevelopment will be low-rises or townhouses on more of a "human scale."
"I don't think that's too much of a utopian vision," he said. "I think it's realistically possible. I don't think the city as a corporation would do anything on this scale if they knew they were going to hurt the development industry."
CivicCamp also includes Ken Toews, a developer who helped create Garrison Woods, a model for Plan It-style redeveloped communities.
"We went totally against what the development industry wisdom at that time said, and it was incredibly successful," Toews said. "But I understand the industry point of view. They own a lot of farmland on Calgary outskirts and want to make as much money as they can."
The Calgary Chamber of Commerce praised Plan It's push against sprawl and car dependence in its submission to council, but urged more forewarning of where high-density redevelopment will go, and study of the infrastructure cost savings city planners say will come from building a more compact city.
One suburban developer questioned how effective it will be to lobby council.
"I think for the most part, you're converted or not, unfortunate as it is to say," said David Fishley of Dundee Developments.
CALGARY- Calgary's suburban developers are enlisting tradespeople to help them sway aldermen against the city's blueprint for a denser, more transit-focused future.
And as home builders and developers rally opposition before council's June 23 hearing on Plan It Calgary, a coalition of community activists, academics and some inner-city developers has emerged to lobby in support of the planning strategy.
It's a high-stakes struggle over a complex and sweeping plan that would limit Calgary's sprawl, boost overall population density by 35 per cent and quadruple the size of the transit system in 60 years.
Opponents and supporters expect an emotional debate among a divided city council. The city received 585 public comments aldermen will have to consider, and the hearing may drag on for days.
But the vast majority of Calgarians don't seem to be tuned in, Ald. John Mar said. At one open house for Plan It, he was initially impressed to see dozens of cars parked outside Earl Grey school.
"When I went in, it was nearly empty -- there was actually peewee football outside," Mar said.
"A couple of parents walked in afterwards."
He's heard both support and concern regarding Plan It, but also worries that some residents who back the idea of higher density in existing areas are the same ones who try blocking such developments in their own neighbourhoods.
"Given that this is a 60-70 year plan, I don't know that there's a lot of urgency to move ahead with it at the speed that we are," the inner-city alderman said.
Michael Flynn of Urban Development Institute-Calgary named Mar as one of the swing voters on a council that is largely divided among suburban aldermen who are skeptical about Plan It, and inner-city ones who have voiced favour for the blueprint.
His influential group and the local branch of the Canadian Home Builders Association ramped up advocacy against Plan It's recommendations with a recent "call to action" to get members writing to aldermen and speaking at the June 23 hearing.
The industry is not only lining up business leaders to voice concerns about Plan It's call for less suburban expansion-- a restriction on choice, his sector argues--but also subcontractors and trades workers involved in home building.
"We were helping them understand it's not only going to affect your livelihood, but also where your family might live in the future," Flynn said in an interview.
Several contractors' letters appear in the Plan It package sent to aldermen before Tuesday's hearing, some of them expressing concern of gridlock if the plan builds too much transit at the expense of roads.
Plan It calls for one-third of all new homes to be built in existing communities--not new suburbs--over the next 30 years, a target that rises to half in 60 years. It would also increase the proportion of condos and townhouses in Calgary's residential mix, which critics warn will make single-family houses more expensive.
The target is a broad aspiration and won't be used as a "hammer" to yea or nay specific developments, said David Watson, the city's general manager of planning and development. But it shouldn't be scrapped because a clear target would help give Calgary a proper roadmap to sustainability, he argued.
The pro-Plan It coalition, dubbed CivicCamp, began in April with 165 locals meeting to discuss the Calgary they want. Some have appeared in the group's blue T-shirts at City Hall meetings to support Plan It and the brief summer closure of Memorial Drive to cars.
CivicCamp member Peter Rishaug said there's a false sense that Plan It will mean 40-storey concrete towers everywhere. Much redevelopment will be low-rises or townhouses on more of a "human scale."
"I don't think that's too much of a utopian vision," he said. "I think it's realistically possible. I don't think the city as a corporation would do anything on this scale if they knew they were going to hurt the development industry."
CivicCamp also includes Ken Toews, a developer who helped create Garrison Woods, a model for Plan It-style redeveloped communities.
"We went totally against what the development industry wisdom at that time said, and it was incredibly successful," Toews said. "But I understand the industry point of view. They own a lot of farmland on Calgary outskirts and want to make as much money as they can."
The Calgary Chamber of Commerce praised Plan It's push against sprawl and car dependence in its submission to council, but urged more forewarning of where high-density redevelopment will go, and study of the infrastructure cost savings city planners say will come from building a more compact city.
One suburban developer questioned how effective it will be to lobby council.
"I think for the most part, you're converted or not, unfortunate as it is to say," said David Fishley of Dundee Developments.
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