Calgary softens growth plan in hopes of quieting critics
By Jason Markusoff and Kim Guttormson, Calgary Herald
CALGARY - City hall is aiming to pacify critics of its 60-year growth plan by erasing river crossings from the future Calgary map and softening language around car use and a less sprawling city.
Ahead of a crucial council hearing Monday, city officials modified Plan It Calgary in hopes of tamping down criticism from home builders and developers, as well as some aldermen who agreed the strategy called for radical change to the city's development.
But initial reaction suggests the conflict hasn't yet subsided, potentially leading to a tense council debate over Calgary's future.
The planning department is still drawing industry ire by rejecting calls to do away with Plan It's long-range targets, including one stating that half of future population growth should occur in already-developed areas, rather than mostly in new suburbs.
"No matter what kind of language there is, the numbers are still in the document," said Michael Flynn of the Urban Development Institute-Calgary after seeing the new version on Monday.
The industry has warned targets are market interference and will limit home builders' ability to provide as many single-family homes as buyers want.
Mayor Dave Bronconnier said Plan It has good principles but is flexible enough not to damage the free market.
"It's time to keep a healthy development industry, provide lots of consumer choice, but set the direction with more complete communities and more compact (communities)," he said.
As for the biggest problem residents raised at Plan It's marathon public hearing in June, city staff eliminated proposals for transit-only bridges over Bow River at Edworthy Park and the Elbow at Sandy Beach.
Plan It still states Calgary may need such crossings for buses, pedestrians, cyclists and emergency vehicles sometime in the future, but no longer suggests where they will go.
"We'd be pleased that the plan has taken out specific references to river crossing, within an urban park," said Fred Fenwick, president of the Edworthy Park Heritage Society, who has yet to seen the new document, which will be made public later this week.
The revised version also calls for a tunnel to access Calgary International Airport after the Barlow Trail access closes, but the inclusion doesn't force council to commit to the project and its estimated price tag of up to $500 million.
While most of the main development and density targets remain-- albeit with clear statements they'll be applied broadly, not to individual applications--city staff did grant one clear concession to suburban home builders.
Earlier versions mandated that new suburbs that aren't yet planned out must have 70 residents per hectare, much more densely packed than most new Calgary communities. The new version changed that to 70 residents or employees at local businesses.
"It's to give developers more flexibility-- more jobs, less people, or more people, less jobs," said David Watson, the city's general manager of planning.
The city chose not to erase the targets altogether because of failings of 1995's Go Plan--a blueprint that also tried to ease the trend of Calgary spreading across more surrounding green space. Watson said the city must set a clear direction, but also monitor targets and revise them when the city sees major change, such as the recent economic boom.
According to a city-commissioned study, Calgary could spend $11.2 billion less on roads, fire stations and other infrastructure in the next six decades if it builds the compact city that Plan It envisions, rather than sprawling outward as it has for decades.
Ald. Ric McIver, a key critic of Plan It, said he's still concerned with the proposed pace of change.
"I think we're only fighting about whether it's evolution or revolution, and I'm an evolution believer," McIver said. "I know you can get there faster, but the faster you get there, the more people you hurt along the way."
He cautioned that with stated targets, there's the risk of city planners trying to bring 60 years' change in only five.
Aldermen proposed more than 70 amendments to Plan It, ranging from tweaks to major overhauls.
Ald. John Mar is sure council will want an explanation on which amendments made it into the document and which didn't--and why.
"If not, why not? They should be included so council as a whole can debate the merits on a case-by-case basis," he said, adding he knows some of his requests--including a detailed map of growth in the inner city and how it will affect traffic--weren't done.
The city has spent $6.3 million on consultations, promotion and the creation of Plan It.
kguttormson@thEhErald. canwEst.com
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