Heritage Communities Local Growth Planning Project | Sept 19, 2019

The Heritage Communities Local Growth Planning project includes the communities of: Eagle Ridge, Kelvin Grove, Kingsland, Fairview, Haysboro, Acadia, Southwood, Willow Park, Maple Ridge and Chinook Park.

Through the local growth planning process, we’ll work together to create a future vision for how land could be used and redeveloped in the area – building on the vision, goals and policies outlined in Calgary’s Municipal Development Plan and the Developed Areas Guidebook.

Why is this happening?

Communities change and evolve over the years. Buildings gain character, community demographics change, trees mature, local amenities and businesses change ownership and offerings. A big part of a community’s life cycle is redevelopment, which often begins when communities reach a certain age and homes, buildings and amenities need to be refreshed and revitalized or renewed and replaced.

Looking more broadly, across the whole city, we need to consider where and how growth and development should happen. We need to consider the sustainability and our city’s urban footprint, we need to ensure existing infrastructure can be maintained and amenities and facilities in established neighbourhoods have the population needed to support them to ensure they continue to thrive. We also need to balance the need to grow and develop with the need to retain and enhance the unique character of our neighbourhoods, historical resources and the natural environment.

What is local growth planning?

Through local growth planning, we look at the fabric of a specific local area, the community’s vision for the evolution of the area, the ideal places to accommodate growth, and how to make the best use of limited land – balancing the need to increase density, improve mobility and enhance places and spaces to live, work and play.

Increased growth and redevelopment is anticipated in the communities of Eagle Ridge, Kelvin Grove, Kingsland, Fairview, Haysboro, Acadia, Southwood, Willow Park, Maple Ridge and Chinook Park over the next few decades.

Working together, we will create a local area plan to help guide growth and redevelopment in a way that integrates and enhances existing community character and ensures the area is vibrant and thriving in the future.

The Heritage Communities Local Growth Planning project is one of the 42 multi-communities areas in the city. This project includes the communities of: Eagle Ridge, Kelvin Grove, Kingsland, Fairview, Haysboro, Acadia, Southwood, Willow Park, Maple Ridge and Chinook Park.

Through the local growth planning process, we’ll work together to create a future vision for how land could be used and redeveloped in the area – building on the vision, goals and policies outlined in Calgary’s Municipal Development Plan and the Developed Areas Guidebook.

A new local area plan will fill gaps in communities/areas where no local plan currently exists and replace other plans that are largely outdated. In this project context, the local area plan will cover multiple communities and will be adopted by Council as an Area Redevelopment Plan.

Currently, the Heritage Communities area has five local policy documents, each covering different portions of the area. These documents were originally created between 1980 and 2017 including:

·L.R.T. South Corridor Policy (1980)

·Fairview Land Use Study (2003)

·Glenmore Trail Land Use Study (2006)

·North Kelvin Grove Area Redevelopment Plan (2012)

·Anderson Station Area Redevelopment Plan (2017)

*(date in brackets indicates year of original adoption or when an entire new version was adopted)

Updating, consolidating or rescinding policies in the above plans will provide a more comprehensive picture of where growth should occur in the future. This is particularly important for key growth areas such as our Main Streets and primary transit corridors such as the Red Line and BRT, in the area. Identifying local growth opportunities along these corridors and within communities is important in order to support existing schools facing declining enrollment, retain and expand the variety of commercial and retail services and support recent and future investment in transit infrastructure.

What is a local area plan?

A local area plan is a plan that provides local-specific direction to indicate and guide where growth and change should happen within a specific local area. Throughout The City these exist as statutory and non-statutory plans and include but are not limited to: Area Redevelopment Plans, Area Structure Plans, Station Area Plans, Design Briefs, Land Use Studies etc.

For those wanting to do further reading, here are some helpful background documents on the project, City planning processes and/or growth and redevelopment. As the project progresses, this library will be added to.

Background handouts:

·Why developed neighbourhoods need to grow and evolve

·How we will grow - MDP Map and Goals

·How we guide growth and redevelopment

·Raising a smart city - Smarter Growth Initiative

·Land Use Redesignations - How it works

Background videos:

·What is Urban Planning?

Background maps:

·Heritage Communities - MDP Map

·Heritage Communities - Existing Policy Areas Maps

·Heritage Communities - Existing Land Use Map

·Heritage Communities - Building Age Map

·Heritage Communities - Parks & Open Space Map

·Heritage Communities - Development Permit Applications

·Heritage Communities - Land Use Applications

Other projects in the Heritage Communities Area:

City-led projects (past & current):

·Guidebook for Great Communities

·Main Streets (2014)

Community-led projects:

·Anderson to Heritage (AH) Coalition

·Sustainable Calgary: Anderson-Heritage (2019)

·Sustainable Calgary: Designing For Health in Alberta. The Acadia example (2019)

·Sustainable Calgary: Acadia Pop Rocks Acadia Pop Rocks Acadia Pop Rocks (2018)

·University of Calgary: Urban Alliance (2018)

·Federation of Calgary Communities: Vision for Southwood (2018)