Challenges Facing Calgary's New City Council
Calgary will have a vastly changed city council for the next four years. And it comes at a time when our city is at a critical point in its evolution.
As a writer on urban development for a decade, with years of past experience in Calgary city planning offices, and with decades spent wandering the neighbourhoods of this city, I’ve tried to sit down and list my hopes for our city.
We must transition from a downtown centric, corporate-headquarters-office-tower city, to a city that supports multiple employment hubs - concentrated office areas near the airport, the development of existing inland port distribution and around hospitals and post secondary campuses.
We need to link vision with economic reality. No more grand visions which make charming artist renderings. No more endless overlapping visions for small pockets of the city. We need big picture thinkers and doers.
We need to capitalize on the diversity of experiences and expertise that each Councillor brings to the city building.
. We need a Council that can work together as a team and not get lost in endless debates and rethinking past decisions. That has happened far too often in the past.
The new Council will need to adapt to the new economic realities of COVID and climate change, and not try to preserve the past. They will have to look for opportunities to work proactively with the private sector, and other levels of government to strategically invest tax dollars where they will pay the biggest dividends.
They must capitalize on the City’s three multi-billion dollar infrastructure projects – Ring Road, Green Line and Stampede Park Culture + Entertainment District.
We need a Council that can make decisions and give administration direction not get side tracked micro-managing the city.
Here are what I consider to be the five key things Calgary’s new City Council will have to address as part of Calgary’s transition.
Note: An edited version of this blog was published by CBC Caglary, titled “5 key urban development issues Calgary’s next city council will face.”
PROPERTY TAX REFORM
The downtown office tower property tax cash cow is dead. This means the new Council will have to derive a fair and equitable formula for collecting property taxes from residents and businesses.
LINK: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/city-council-property-tax-calgary-1.6212314
Because of the drop in value of empty downtown office buildings over the past several years, a bigger tax burden has been placed on small businesses operating out of commercial and industrial buildings outside of the downtown.
As the Calgary Chamber of Commerce tells us in their Pathways to Potential municipal election platform, the current system would have imposed a 23% increase in warehouse property taxes in 2021, however Council capped the increase to 10% by dipping into its reserve funds. Council can’t keep doing this every year.
At some point Calgarians are going to have to accept their residential property taxes have to go way up - as the total assessed value for residential properties is 3.6 times that of non-residential. And the new Council is going to have to do some serious spending cuts.
While most people think of Calgary as a major corporate headquarters city, with all our downtown towers, in fact as the Calgary Economic Development 2020 Fact Sheet has it,
Calgary is home to 58,000+ businesses, with 81% having less than 10 employees scattered across the city.
Instead of spending millions helping national and international pension funds and REITs (with billions of dollars in assets) to convert their office buildings to residential, or to build a new arena, the new Council must create a fair and equitable formula for taxing small businesses in a way that lets them thrive as the city’s future is in fostering the growth of small businesses.
Link: Who Bears the Burden of Property Tax in Canada’s Largest Cities?
Caglary’s new City Council will need to focus on fostering the growth of small businesses outside of the downtown as they represent the biggest growth potential going forward. Council must really start to think of Calgary as five different cities, each with their own opportunities and challenges. (photo credit: Peak Aerials) Link: Calgary Is Evolving Into 5 Cities
Calgary’s downtown has become an office ghetto. It will take 10+ years to transform it into a mix-use neighbourhood. Maybe longer, as there is no quick fix. Calgary has spent billions over the past 20+ years trying to diversify the downtown with little to no success. Link: Calgary’s Ongoing Downtown Revitalization Has Cost Billions!
SUBURBAN HUB OPPORTUNITIES
Calgary needs a plan to proactively manage the City’s northeast quadrant (aka Airport City), to capitalize on its growth potential. It’s an area where our international airport is surrounded by distribution warehouses, and it’s next to road and rail links. In this way, it’s a bit like Richmond is for greater Vancouver and B.C, or Mississauga is for Southern Ontario.
The new 500,000 and 1,000,000 square foot distribution centres on the east side of the Deerfoot Divide are the office towers of the 21st century. The many small NE and SE business parks are in fact incubators for small businesses as much or more than the downtown office towers. The NE Quadrant has the potential to become rival Calgary’s downtown, as a major employment hub, it already has more hotel rooms than downtown.
But this is just one hub.
Westbrook LRT Station is an ideal site for redevelopment with shopping centre beside it.
Transit Oriented Development (TOD) in the suburbs must also be a priority for the new Council. And it's going to need to work with the private sector to capitalize on the billions of dollars the City has spent on LRT and BRT development.
LRT must be more than just a commuter rail system for downtown workers. Council must foster development next to existing and new LRT Stations.
For example, Brentwood Station is ripe for development with two shopping centers on the east side and the University of Calgary’s proposed “Innovation Quarter” on the west. It must become a complete urban village, not just a few colourful condo towers.
And why is the land around the Westbrook LRT station still undeveloped 12 years after the station opened? What about decade old plans for fostering TOD developments at Anderson and Chinook Centre Stations?
These are wasted opportunities.
Link: White: Jobs move away from Downtown core to suburbs
Quarry Park in Calgary’s southeast has been a huge success, converting an old gravel pit into mixed-use community with an office park, shopping centre, recreation centre and a mix of housing from single family, townhomes and apartments.
The University of Calgary and Brentwood Station has tremendous potential to create a vibrant innovation hub.
SAFETY & SOCIAL SERVICE REFORM
The City’s biggest issue isn’t the empty downtown office buildings, but safety.
There is no point in investing billions of dollars in a new arena, BMO Centre, The Glenbow, Arts Commons and office conversions, if we can’t create a downtown that is perceived as a safe place to visit. There is also no point in expanding the LRT, if it is perceived as being unsafe to ride, especially in the evenings.
These safety issues, and the related social issues like affordable housing, mental health and addictions support will require the new Council to fast foster partnerships with the Federal and Provincial governments, as well as not-for-profit organizations, if we are going to have a vibrant downtown and city at large. Link: CBC Downtown Calgary’s biggies issue is safety!
The City has plans to invest billions into the redevelopment of Stampede Park on the southeast corner of the City Centre. It has tremendous potential as a vibrant Entertainment District, but it will must not be at the expense of downtown’s Olympic Plaza Cultural District (Glenbow, Arts Commons and Stephen Avenue pedestrian mall).
FEWER PLANS, MORE ACTION
This may sound counterintuitive, but we need fewer plans.
The city is great at creating plans. Plans full of planning jargon making it difficult for anyone other than a planner or urban nerd to read and understand.
The City of Calgary has been publishing new plans for the creating a vibrant downtown and great communities for decades. I spent an entire day at the Central Library reviewing them.
Every generation of planners and politicians has new ideas on how to make Calgary a vibrant city, most of them fail to deliver the promised results.
The new Council must streamline the community engagement and approval procedures to enhance developments that will diversify and increase the city’s tax base. While some think Calgary is already too developer friendly, our city desperately needs to strategically work with the private sector to foster infill developments across the city to curb urban sprawl.
This document was published by the Calgary Public Library at the beginning of the election. It is a good reminder of role and responsibilities of Canada’s three levels of government. Calgary’ new Council would be wise to focus on its key management areas and not get side tracks by each Councillors’ pet projects.
THE FUTURE BALANCE
We can’t continue to spend as if we are still in boom times, or as if boom times will return soon. The new council is going to have to come together quickly and make some tough decisions on taxes, safety and balancing the needs of the “greater downtown” with the city-at-large.
It’s also going to have to learn quickly to invest our limited tax dollars more strategically.
Further Reading On This Issue:
All downtown must reinvent themselves!
Calgary in Crisis: Must Rethink Its Future!
Top 10 Reasons Why Calgarians Should Be Optimistic About Their City’s Future