by Leanne Ellis, VP Development and Traffic
I would just like to highlight what has been happening/going on behind the scenes this past month, in no particular order:
We sent an email to Mayor Gondek and City councillors asking them to reconsider the new residential parking fees. Our communities are under institutional parking pressure from Mount Royal University and an Alberta Health Services facility. The current fee schedule is set to generate excess revenue (above covering the cost of the program), while a recent City audit has indicated that the Calgary Parking Authority has an accumulated surplus of $348 million as of December 31, 2021. These new fees will specifically affect inner city communities which are already heavily taxed based on market assessment of properties. The City has recently sent notification that these fees will be discussed in Council, and no new charges will be implemented until December 4, 2023. In the meantime, permits for residents in restricted residential parking zones will be extended.
There have been no new development permit applications this month.
There are a number of smaller park spaces (both within our community and across the city) that are currently designated R-C1 and would allow for low density housing to be constructed on them with that current land use. With the City intending to make R-CG the lowest density land use across the city, these small parks would then accommodate eight units and would ultimately become very attractive to developers. We had reached out to a previous councillor and asked that this land use be changed to S-SPR to add a higher level of protection to these park spaces. Once the councillor realized how many parks were involved, his office indicated that an error had been made and that he would put forward a notice of motion to address all of these park spaces. This was never done. We have recently reached out to Councillor Walcott in an effort to make sure that these park spaces are protected before any changes are made to the lowest density land use across the city.
We have submitted a CCG application for the replacement of the rink light poles at our skating rink. Mark Y. (Director of Infrastructure Projects) will take the lead on this project and we hope to have it completed before skate season is upon us.
A final engineering report for our hall floor’s structural failure was submitted to our insurance adjuster on June 22, 2023. At this time, we have yet to hear back on whether we have any insurance coverage and cannot proceed until we know for sure. Our main hall remains closed until further notice. Thank you for your patience.
We have followed up on our request to Councillor Walcott to make sure that Richmond Green Regional Park falls within the community boundaries of Currie rather than the boundaries of Richmond Knobhill. The Richmond Knobhill CA is supportive of this transfer.
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