Community Engagement 101: You can't make everyone happy!
It was three years or so ago that James Robertson, President, West Campus Development Trust (WCDT) said to me “design and defend is dead.” What he meant was that developers, especially those wanting to do major infill projects in established communities, can no longer just design what they want to build, then host a single public open house where they defend the design of their project as the best thing since sliced bread. Robertson’s comments came after one of the several WCDT open houses to share with neighbours, their planned development of the University of Calgary’s land on the west side of campus near the Alberta Children’s Hospital (now called University District).
Robertson and his team were very careful not to design anything before talking to the community first to get some idea of what there concerns were. They first – and wisely – got some idea of neighbours concerns. Only then did they begin to develop a master plan for the 184-acres always keeping the public informed with more open houses and meetings with Community Associations to fine tune the plan as much as possible to meet the University’s needs and those of the community. At the same time the thoughtful plan had to be based on sound economic and urban planning principles. University District when fully built out will become home to 15,000 residents and 10,000 workers.
A typical post-it board of comments from any open house or community workshop for an major infill development.
Urban Village in Suburbs?
In the spring of 2014, Truman Developments created the Engagement Hub, a purpose-built 2,000 square foot building on site of their proposed new community West District next to West Springs and Cougar Ridge. The café-like build was designed as a place where people could comfortably visit and learn about some of the ideas Truman was considering for their new urban infill community. The Engagement Hub was open weekdays, weekends and evenings to allow neighbours to drop by at their convenience to find out what ideas others had given, share their ideas and peruse a library of books with examples of good urban planning. It was only after 200+ hours of consultation in groups and in one-on-one basis that Truman finalized their master plan for this condo-only community next to sea of single-family homes.
Truman's purpose built Engagement Hub building provided everyone to drop by and discuss plans and ideas for the new West District community.
Kingsland Densification
More recently, Brookfield Residential took community engagement one step further. They engaged the community before they even purchased the Market on MacLeod (a former car dealership site on Macleod Trail near Heritage Drive). In this case, they sent a survey to neighbours soliciting input on their concerns and opportunities to redevelop this gateway site to the community. Once the survey results were in, they hosted a public open house to share the results and, further discuss the redevelopment of the site to determine the community’s appetite for transforming their community into more of an urban village. Brookfield is currently evaluating the community’s input before they exercise their right to purchase the land and begin the master planning design process.
Market on Macleod site is perfectly located for urban densification.
Harvest Hills Densification
Cedarglen’s purchase of the Harvest Hills Golf Course - with the intent of converting it into a condo/townhome residential development - has been met with significant resistance from the neighbours since Day one. However, unlike the Shawnee Slopes Golf Course redevelopment a few year back where the new landowners were reluctant to meet with the community, Cedarglen, with the help of Quantum Developments, have been actively discussing with the community their Land Use Rezoning application, as well as options for redevelopment. However this process hasn’t prevented some very heated exchanges by those wanting the City to retain the land for recreational use only.
Google Earth image of Harvest Hills Golf Course today.
Outline Plan of the proposed Parks at Harvest Hills development.
Last Word
In each of these cases, while there has been significant upfront community engagement, there are still some unhappy Calgarians. Unfortunately, there is no master plan for new urban infill developments that will meet the diversity of needs and demands of everyone in a community. The biggest issue is always the City (not the developer) wanting to create denser (i.e. condo) communities, which are cheaper to manage (roads, schools, emergency services etc.), while most Calgarians have a love affair with the single-family home.
Lesson Learned
You can’t make everyone happy, no matter how much community engagement there is!
An edited version of this blog was commissioned by Condo Living magazine.
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West District: Community Engagement Gone Wild