In its July post Our Opportunity to Make Growth Sustainable, the Governance, Finance, and Infrastructure Group reported on the City of Calgary’s effort to implement a Framework for Growth and Change. This is CC-GFIG’s update on that initiative.
This fall, City Administration asked “key stakeholders” for their ideas on what the criteria should be and how they should be applied. One-on-one meetings were held with each stakeholder group, followed by a forum on October 17th. CivicCamp’s Governance, Finance, and Infrastructure Group was fortunate enough to be included in this consultation process.
City Administration is now reviewing the comments they received. On Wednesday, December 14th, Administration will present recommended criteria to City Council’s Land Use, Planning and Transportation Committee (LPT). Administration’s report to LPT will include all comments received from the public.
CivicCampers have shown a keen interest in how Calgary develops and how our tax dollars are invested to support that development. An essential step toward ensuring the best development and the best use of our taxes will be to make sure our voices are heard on the criteria for managing growth.
On December 14th, the public will be allowed to speak to LPT on this issue. So mark that date on your calendar as a time you can have a significant influence on Calgary’s future. You can also write the Mayor, the LPT Chairman, and other Aldermen to let them know your views.
In the meantime, take a look at CC-GFIG’s submission on the growth management criteria. CC-GFIG conducted an exhaustive analysis of the imagineCalgary long-range plan and the Municipal Development Plan. It concluded that, among other things:
- The City needs stronger, more inclusive criteria than were presented to key stakeholders.
- Thresholds, that is, minimum standards, for development proposals are needed to meet the City’s growth targets.
- Criteria and thresholds should create a more open and innovative market by remaining neutral in terms of developers’ financing, technology, and strategy. In particular, factors such as “market demand,” “developers’ interest,” and “innovation” should not be the preconditions for, but instead the outcomes of the City’s investments.
- The City’s capital and operating budgets should be closely aligned with the goals of Plan-It so the majority of the City’s investment is oriented toward intensification.
- Evaluation of the worthiness of a development proposal should not be based on the internal characteristics of the proposal, but on how it works as a component of the broader city-system.
- An important component of any city-wide intensification strategy is mid-level high rise, i.e., 5 to 9 storey development. Very little of this important market niche is being built in Calgary, largely due to the very high cost of concrete in Calgary. The market is clearly not working for this type of development. The City needs to intervene to ensure that the social, economic, and environmental benefits to the city of mid-level high rise development are realized. Mid-level high rise is too valuable as a component of intensification to allow market failure to quash this important housing niche.
If you have questions, need more information, or want to become involved with CC-GFIG’s work, e-mail ccgfig@shaw.ca.
