Calgarians love their single family homes.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that people living on single-family home streets in Calgary’s established communities are not keen to have their streets invaded by four-plexes and heaven forbid townhomes or apartment blocks. The dream of living in a single family home, in a community of mostly single family homeowners is part of the DNA of Calgarians (and for that matter most Canadians).
Does single-family homeownership in Calgary (North America) influence how you think about urban sprawl and increasing density in established neighbourhoods?
A 2018 ThinkHQ Survey titled “Calgary Growth Perspectives” examined what Calgarians were looking for in a new home - 66% were looking for a single-family home. That is consistent with the fact that 67% of Calgarians currently live in a single-family home (56% in detached, single-family homes and 11% in attached duplexes).
Wander Sunalta and you will find lots of single family century homes that look very much like the new two storey infills. Calgarians have been in love with large single family homes for over 100 years.
Our Home Is Our Castle
Urban planning for the future of any city is complex and messy, especially when it comes to residential development. After all “our home is our castle.” The six-foot fence around our homes is the moat around our castle - it protects us from intruders and being spied upon by neighbours. We love our privacy. For most of us, our home is our biggest investment and the biggest investment risk we have ever taken.
And, Calgarians loves homeownership more than most citizens! DYK: Calgary has one of the highest homeownership rates in the world at 68% (Montreal’s is 56% and Paris’ is 33%). Homeownership, like single-family living is part of Calgary’s DNA.
Calgary’s high home ownership is a result of several factors.
Calgarians have the highest household income in Canada which means buying a home is an option.
Calgary has one of the highest employment participation in the country i.e. two-income families means more money for a bigger home. As I like to say, “the two income family allows you to buy the two story home, with two garages and 2+ bathrooms.”
Calgary’s has a high percentage of young families which means a large demand for a family-friendly homes with a backyard.
Calgary’s development has happened post World War II, when home ownership and single-family homes became popular and attainable.
The bottom line is Calgarians love their single-family homes and will do anything to preserve their value, even if you can show them that more density and diversity of housing types in their community won’t affect its value. And, the more expensive the home/community, the more expressive homeowners will be about not wanting any change.
Calgarians love their big single family home in the suburbs, where they have their own front and backyard. (photo credit: Peak Aerials)
Single-Family vs Apartment Living
Homeowners of large single-family homes interact with their city differently than those in smaller apartments. They are more likely to spend money on home repairs and renovations versus entertainment. Their idea of entertainment is to hang out in their media room, than going to out to a cinema or pub. They can host friends on their private backyard patio, rather than meeting them on street-side patio.
If you are a homeowner, you have less of a need for a fitness studio within walking distance when you have a workout room downstairs. You don’t need a café nearby to work, as you have a home office. You don’t need a grocery store close by, as you have a car and are shopping for several people which means a shopping cart full of groceries, not a backpack load.
Simply put, when you own a large single-family home, you don’t need the same amenities you do when you live in a 500 square foot apartment.
Community Engagement Isn’t Working!
The City’s community engagement process is broken. Rather than bringing people together to find a happy medium, it has become very divisive. There is no happy medium these days, which shouldn’t be a surprise, as we all want different things in life.
It is interesting to note that those involved in the North Hill Plan’s community engagement (which was used to test the ideas in the Guidebook) were 85% homeowners and only 15% renters. This doesn’t even come close to reflecting that 40+% of people living in the North Hill communities who are renters.
Some might argued renters don’t care as much about their community as they have less invested in it. Others might postulate that renters don’t plan to live in the community as long, so any community changes aren’t as important to them.
Or it could be renters are often lower income and single parents, who have less time to be able to participate in the extensive meetings and reading that is necessary to become informed on what is a very complex and time consuming planning process.
Some have questioned if it fair that most community engagement favours those who have the time and money to influence the planning of our city’s future? Is it fair that those who agree to sit on Community Association Boards and their planning committees are often those who want to either encourage more development or are anti-development. When Banff Trail was faced with several new infill developments the old pro-development Board members were ousted by new members who were against the new developments.
When I attend an open house I rarely hear people say “I am here to listen!” Most of the time it is because they have an agenda – they want something or they want to prevent something from happening.
No matter how much community engagement the City does, no matter how much they try to reach out to everyone in the community, there will always be outrage when the final product is presented as it will be too much density for some and too little density for others.
Evolution of duplex homes in Calgary from middle of 20th century to today. The term “duplex” use to have negative connotations, but today they are they are often referred to as “side-by-sides,” i.e. two single-family homes next to each other. There are very desirable infill homes in established communities as they allow a bigger home on the same size lot. Yes, it is all about a bigger home.
Why do we need a guidebook anyway?
The City is looking for a way to streamline infill development in established communities to make better use of existing infrastructure. It is not only the cost of urban sprawl that needs to be contained, but also the cost of excessive community engagement and development delays that result in making inner-city housing and commercial developments less affordable. The Guidebook was supposed to get everyone on side so when new developments were proposed in established communities, their approval could be streamlined.
Developers want “certainty of approval” when they spend millions to assemble a piece of land for redevelopment and propose a development that meets the City’s existing zoning / planning rules. What they don’t want is their projects rejected after spending millions of dollars and thousands hours of community consultation doing what the City has asked them to do i.e. add more density to established communities only to have the project delayed for further study.
Homeowners also want “certainty of lifestyle.” They want to know that if they buy a house on a street full of single-family homes in an established community it will stay that way in perpetuity.
That is why they bought their house and paid a premium. This may be an unrealistic expectation, but it is the reality for most homeowners, especially in established communities where they are living in there “forever” home.
Calgary’s love affair with single family homes dates back over 100 years, like these homes in Cliff Bungalow. What some people don’t want is the 4+ story apartment block on their street.
New commercial development along Elbow Drive at Britannia designed to be sensitive to the single-family home beside it. Some residents have issues with office window looking into back yard.
The City Can’t Say “NO!”
Homeowners are also frustrated by the fact the City of Calgary rarely says “No” to developers who want to rezone a site for higher density even when there is significant opposition from neighbours and community. For example, in Inglewood the Business Improvement Association and the Community lobbied against approval of the RNDSQR Block, a 12-storey mixed-use development in the middle of their historic 9thAvenue SE main street, but the city approved it anyway.
In High Park the community warned the city not to proceed with the redevelopment of the Highland Golf course, but the city didn’t listen, eventually it the proposed development had to abandoned due to water drainage issues and the city is being sued.
In West Hillhurst, there was significant opposition to the Legion site redevelopment and while the developer Truman did make modest changes to the original design the city approved a building that could be twice as tall as anything currently in the community.
Time and time again, the City seems to favour the developer. For many homeowners and community associations the feeling is the city doesn’t listen to them and just approves whatever the developer wants.
Also, the City promises density will bring more community amenities i.e. better transit, maintenance of parks and recreational facilities, sidewalks etc. but that rarely happens, without a lot of kicking and screaming.
It should also be pointed out not all established communities are the same. There are estate communities (Elbow Park, Rosedale) that are almost exclusively single-family homes, active infill communities (Bridgeland, Inglewood, Marda Loop, West Hillhurst) and existing mixed-housing communities (Highland Park, Kingsland and Brentwood already have 80, 73 and 41% non-single family homes) and there are potential Transit Oriented communities i.e. those next to LRT Stations (Banff Trail, Erlton, Manchester, Sunalta) that are ripe for redevelopment.
It is no wonder most of the Guidebook For Great Communities complaints came from estate communities as they are the ones with the most single-family homes (Elbow Park 98%, Roxboro 93%, Scarboro 88% Rosedale 87%) as in theory they could see the biggest changes to their communities.
Last Word
What makes a “great community” is in the eye of the homeowner, not city planners and politicians. There is strong “group think” amongst North American planners and that our cities must grow up and not out, which means established communities have to welcome more density and be like European cities.
While they may be right, Calgarians aren’t buying it. Why? Because unlike Europeans we love owning (or dreaming about owning) a large single-family home, in a community with mostly other single-family homes and we aren’t about to let planners and politicians tell us we can’t.
Footnote:
FYI: I have lived in an infill house for 25+ years. And I have watched my community evolve with hundreds of new infills of all shapes and sizes over that time. I love the diversity that comes with new infill projects, especially the young families. It may surprise some that the invasion of infills doesn’t happen overnight and that while they may seems strange at first, eventually they create a new aesthetics and vibrancy in the community. But that’s just me.