Embracing The Suburbs: Let’s Be More Proactive!
With 90% of Calgarians living in the suburbs and 80% working there, you would think the City of Calgary would be zeroing in on how to improve our old and new suburbs. But all we seem to hear about is how to improve the downtown and City Centre. This is true not only in Calgary, but in most North American cities.
The biggest challenge facing municipal politicians and urban planners today is not how to reinvent the downtown or City Centre, but how to transform the suburbs into higher density, mixed-use, walkable, diverse neighbourhoods.
FYI: The City has allocated $2.5 million for the next four years to fund a Downtown Planning team with a $200 million budget, that could grow to one billion to maybe “fix” the greater downtown aka Downtown Core, Downtown West, Eau Claire, Chinatown, East Village, and Beltline.
Note: An edited version of this blog was published in the Calgary Herald’s New Homes + Condos, June 26, 2022.
Should the City of Calgary proactively rezone the land next to LRT and BRT stations for increased density and diversity of uses? Should the City provide incentives for converting these parking lots into residential development similar to downtown office to residential conversions?
Downtown is important, but…
Don’t get me wrong a healthy downtown is important. However, isn’t it time to get serious about how we can make our suburbs not only a better place to live, work and play.
What is the future for large and small suburban malls, huge suburban school sites and LRT park & ride lots? Could they be home to a diversity of new uses in the future? What is the future for the large suburban homes – will they become live/workspaces as more people work from home part or full-time?
Shouldn’t each of Calgary’s major employment/activity hubs have its own planning team to capitalize on their unique economic diversification opportunities? Isn’t how we manage Calgary as a major North American distribution center and inland port, as important as transforming downtown into a Tech Hub? Should the NE (aka The Airport City) have a special planning team?
And, what about creating a NW Learning Hub that would include University of Calgary, Foothills Medical Centre, Alberta Children’s Hospital and Market Mall. It already has 75,000+ patients, visitors, staff, students and shoppers visiting every day. Shouldn’t it have its own planning team to capitalize on the opportunities to enhance this “live, work, play, learn” hub, just like downtown?
Calgary needs to foster more new medium density, walkable communities like Westman Village but with a broader demographics. It is linked to Lake Mahogany, with its beach and promenade, as well as Mahogany Village Shops including a grocery store.
West District is a good example of good 21st century suburban development with its focus on multi-family residential housing, with its own Main Street, a central park, and future office / institutional buildings. It is also supported by 85th Street which already has major grocery stores, restaurants and other walkable amenities.
Suburban Reorganization
The City of Calgary’s Planning Department has recently reorganized the city into 42 planning areas from the existing 180 communities as a means of rethinking how it manages future growth.
North Hill Communities (aka Planning Area 5) consists of 11 communities - Capitol Hill, Crescent Heights, Highland Park, Mount Pleasant, Renfrew, Rosedale, Thorncliffe-Greenview (south of McKnight Blvd), Tuxedo Park, Winston Heights, Mountain and Greenview Industrial. It was the test case and now has an approved plan.
Note: This shouldn’t be confused with Northern Hills Community Association which includes five communities – Country Hills, Country Hills Village, Coventry Hills, Harvest Hills and Panorama Hills. Nor should it be confused with North Hill Centre, Calgary’s oldest shopping centre, which is not part of either community.
A new area plan is currently in progress for something called Heritage Communities (aka Planning Area 31) which includes Eagle Ridge, Kelvin Grove, Kingsland, Fairview, Haysboro, Acadia, Southwood, Willow Park, Maple Ridge and Chinook Park. This might be a bit confusing for some, as “heritage communities” are most often thought of as those settled in the early 20th century not the middle of the century. The name come from the connection to Heritage Drive.
Planning Area 10 or Westbrook Communities (Wildwood, Spruce Cliff, Westgate, Rosscarrock, Shaganappi, Glendale, Killarney/ Glengarry, Glenbrook, and the portions of Upper Scarboro/Sunalta West and Richmond that are west of Crowchild Trail) are also working on a new area plan. Let’s hope the owners of Westbrook Mall are part of these discussions given redevelopment of the mall is critical to the future of the entire area.
Link: Local Area Planning in Calgary
Link: North Hill Plan the long process and lingering discontent
Ward Plans vs Area Plans?
But are 42, area plans still too many? Do we need a more fundamental change in how we govern our city’s growth in the 21st century? Do we need to think bigger? Can we simplify the planning/approval process?
Maybe there should be 14 comprehensive Ward plans i.e., plans that link planning, operations and capital projects of each existing Calgary municipal ward. Each Ward could have not only its own planning document but a four-year operational and capital plan integrating planning, transportation, transit, recreation, police, fire, water/sewer, and social programs. Like the greater downtown, each ward would have its own dedicated team to manage its operations and development.
Creating a Ward-focused governance process would ideally help citizens become less community centric and more focused on how to create a vibrant Ward, based on the synergy between all the amenities within the immediate area.
In effect, Calgary would essentially become 14 small cities, each with a population of about 100,000 people. Ideally each would have its own mini-downtown, centered around a major LRT/Transit hub, shopping, education or recreation centre.
Be More Proactive
If the City is serious about making real change on how it grows, why doesn’t it become MORE PROACTIVE in determining how our suburbs evolve? Why wait until the landowners and developers approach the city for rezoning on a project-by-project basis? The city could work with the existing community members now to determine HOW and WHERE they would like to see their Ward evolve.
Where would suburbanites like to see more diversity/density? What amenities could be added or improved to allow for more diversity in housing types and commercial development in the suburbs?
While some call for blanket rezoning to allow for increased housing densities across the city, what about strategic rezoning? There are many opportunities for “upzoning” (i.e., changing zoning bylaw to increase the density allowed on a specific site) without starting a rebellion from Calgary’s single-family homeowners.
Why not rezone every suburban shopping centre / power centre into mixed-use sites allowing for buildings up to six-storeys…and any land within 1-km (15-minute walk) of a suburban LRT station to allow for a mixed-use development up to four-storeys?
What are we waiting for? We know we should be building up, and not just in the city centre but across the city at appropriate sites.
We also know the city needs more affordable housing. So why not convert some of City’s suburban “Park & Ride” surface parking lots at LRT Stations into affordable housing? Not the entire lot, but perhaps the outer edges next to established residential communities, thereby gradually phase out the park and rides with a mix of housing (not just affordable) and other uses.
And while we are at it, how about rezoning every school site for future mixed-use development with a focus on residential development. Many school sites could easily accommodate housing on their edges without impacting the school activities. What a great place for affordable family housing - next to a school and playground!
Like downtown office buildings, buildings in the suburbs are also ripe for conversions into post-secondary schools. Should there be incentives to do so?
Old suburban malls like Avenida Mall are ripe for redevelopment. Should there be incentives for the conversion of these malls into mixed-use, transit oriented villages, similar to the downtown office conversion to residential.
Last Word
The whole city needs to be proactively planned, not just the downtown. Part of diversifying the city means we must become less downtown-centric and create and foster activity hubs strategically across the city. Activity hubs are places where cultural, recreational, school and retail activities integrate with mixed-use, mixed-density housing and employment buildings.
Calgarians must become less community-centric, (i.e., what my community wants) and focus more on working with neighbouring communities to create vibrant “live, play, work” wards.
And, at the same time, the City of Calgary must become more proactive, more strategic and less reactive in managing the city’s future, especially when it comes to embracing the suburbs as that is where most Calgarians “live, work and play.”
If you like this blog, you might like these links:
Calgary: The Rise Of The Suburbs, The Decline of Downtown