Calgarians love living on the edge!

In 2021, I wrote a Calgary Herald column with a similar title only it was about how Calgarians love living on the edge of the downtown core. In that column I focused on neighbourhoods like Bridgeland/Riverside, Inglewood, Hillhurst/Sunnyside, Mission and West Hillhurst all on the edge of the downtown that have all flourished in the early 21st century. 

However, the same can be said about living on the edge of the city - be that edge cities like Airdrie, Okotoks, Chestermere and Cochrane, or edge communities within the city’s boundaries like Mahogany, Seton, Trinity or Greenwich.

The vast majority of Calgarians who live on the edge of the city must do so as their household income doesn’t qualify them to buy a suitable home or condo in established communities where the average cost of a used home is $900,000+ and even a new townhome with no backyard starts at $600,000.  The average condo price in the city centre is around $350,000, but they are much smaller than condos in the suburbs, making them unsuitable for families or even a couple with lots of recreation activity equipment.  

This is in East Hills but you could easily think it is in University District, one of Calgary’s new inner city urban villages.

Suburban Sprawl

Living on the edge of the city isn’t a new trend. It has been happening for 100+ years. Case in point - there was a time when Bridgeland was an edge community. I have friends who moved into Charleswood in the early 80s when it was on the edge of the city; a decade later, Scenic Acres was a new community in the northwest edge of the city.  Urbanists call this urban sprawl, but a better term would be suburban sprawl. And it has defined city building in North America since day one.

Suburban living is in the DNA of Calgarians. One of the biggest attractions for moving to Calgary for decades is the opportunity to own a single-family home with a front and back yard. That has never been more evident than today as the new communities at the edge of the city are thriving and so are the edge cities.  New communities are popping every year – some of the newest are Alpine Park, Yorkville, Homestead and Hotchkiss and Glacier Ridge.

Typical streetscape of a new suburban community in Calgary or an edge city looks very similar to inner-city street with new infills, unfortunately without the tree canopy that is responsible for making the street so visually appealing.

Commuting no longer an issue

I remember reading Joel Garreau’s book “Edge City: Life on the New Frontier” published in 1991, where he identified how North Americans were dramatically changing where they live and shop. The most important message in the book for me was that for many North Americans, a 45-minute drive to and from work is acceptable and it is only a 60-minute commute that triggers a move closer to work.

Fast forward to today (post-COVID) and how and where we work, shop and play has changed even more dramatically. More and more of us are working from home, shopping online shopping and live streaming movies, documentaries, sports and concerts is our main source of entertainment. We are just as likely to order meal delivery as often as we go out to a restaurant.   Downtown and the city centre are becoming less and less relevant to our everyday lives.

This social change and the fact the cost of housing per square foot is lower on the edge is why Calgary’s edge cities – Airdrie, Cochrane, Chestermere and Okotoks are all growing faster than the Calgary. While some urbanists are lobbying for ban on new communities; this would only mean the edge cities would grow even faster. 

Typical duplex housing in new communities.

Typical row housing in Calgary and area’s new communities.

Typical apartment housing in new communities and edge cities.

Costco-Oriented Development

Living on the edge of the city is more attractive than ever as more and more amenities are being located on the edge of the city. While urbanists promote the vision of the 15-minute walkable city and transit-oriented development, the reality is most Calgarians are OK if most of their weekly needs are within a 15 minute drive i.e. grocery store, school, recreation centre, parks and ideally a Costco.  

And one could argue Costco-oriented development plays at bigger role in defining the city’s footprint than many realize. I am waiting for an urban planner to coin the term
“COD” aka “Costco-Oriented Development.”  

In the northwest, the Beacon Hill Costco has been the catalyst for huge wave of development north of it; the same could be said for the East Hills Costco and the Cross Iron Mills Costco.  The Tsuut’ina Costco will reshape Calgary’s southwest, while the new Costco near the Springbank Airport will attract more development west of the city.

Fun Fact: Alberta has 19 Costco stores compared to British Columbia’s 14, even though BC has a larger population. While Calgary’s first Costco stores were inner-city, all the new stores are strategically located at the edge of the city with easy access by freeways.

Costco is the new department store, the new shopping mall anchor. It is dramatically changing where we live and how we shop.  Wherever Costco goes, other retailers are sure to follow, meaning more amenities at the edge of the city.

Costco is the anchor for many of the new power centres at the edge of the city like this one in East Hills.

Edge City Living

This past summer I spent a weekend shuttling a great nephew and his friend to Lake Chestermere for a sailing regatta. It was an eye-opener for me to see how the community has evolved from a village to a city (population 31,823) over the past 40 years, with a 22.3% increase over the past five years. And really why not? While Calgary has many lake communities within the city limits, Chestermere provides the best lake for those into water sports.

Okotoks (population 37,550) is my favourite edge city with its quaint downtown that includes cafes and restaurants, a public art gallery in its historic train station and a live music venue in an old church. It has great recreational facilities (two golf courses) and there is the charming Seaman Stadium, home of the popular Dawgs baseball team. And yes, it has its own Costco.

Cochrane (37,011) is a perfect place to live for anyone who works in the northwest as it is an easy commute. It also offers easy access to mountain parks. Cochrane has been growing at an average of 5% per year for 20+ years – a strong growth rate for a city is 2.5%. And of who wouldn’t want to live within 15 minutes of McKay’s Ice Cream.

Airdrie (85,805) is Calgary’s largest edge city, due primarily to it being an easy commute to the downtown along Deerfoot Trail, as well as to the many northeast warehouse and distribution centres and the airport.  With Cross Iron Mills and neighbouring developments like the Costco, cinemas and casino, it means those living in Airdrie have easy access to their weekly needs without driving into the city.

Today, multi-family apartment style housing now dominates new communities, not the large lot, large single family homes of the mid to late 20th century.

Last Word

It should be noted that while Calgary’s edge cities are growing, the new residential developments are no longer exclusively single-family homes. They are a mix of housing types - from single-family to low-rise apartments (four to six storeys), from duplexes and fourplexes to row housing.   The diversity and density of the housing of these masterplan communities is much higher than those built in the ‘70s and ‘80s.  In fact, their density is  on par with many of Calgary’s inner-city communities like Bridgeland, Kensington and Marda Loop. Westman Village (which will soon have 15+ storey residential towers), West District and Trinity have densities that match University District.

As one developer likes to say, “these are not your grandmother’s neighbourhoods!”

Who wouldn’t want to live in Lake Chestermere with this in your backyard.

Enough said……