by Simonetta Acteson and the CHCA Planning Committee
How will this affect your residence or our community?
The City of Calgary is making changes to our community development and planning process. Specifically, our community will be governed by two new plans: The Guidebook for Great Communities (the Guidebook), and the North Hill Communities Local Area Plan (NHCLAP). Both documents are in a final stage of revisions as directed by council on July 27, 2020 and anticipated to be approved in January 2021.
These two documents herald a significant shift in how planning is approached in Crescent Heights and will affect change in all areas of our community. The City’s long-term goal is to increase densification in established neighbourhoods by 50%. Increased density targets will include accommodating developments of 6 to 26 stories (along Centre St., Edmonton Trail, 16 Avenue, and 12 Avenue, depending on proximity to a transit station). The proposed new policies will also change the existing designations of single-family and semi-detached portions of the neighbourhood (RC-1 and RC-2) to allow for multi-unit rowhouses, townhomes (i.e. R-CG), mixed-use buildings (i.e. M-CG), and commercial and industrial transition buildings, of up to 3 stories throughout our community. The graphic below gives a visual of what would be permitted. The current round of revisions means that some of these policies may change. This is our opportunity to recommend changes.
For more information on the Guidebook and the NHCLAP, please access the City websites through the following sites:
- https://www.calgary.ca/pda/pd/why-city-planning.html
- https://www.calgary.ca/pda/pd/current-studies-and-ongoing-activities/guidebook-for-great-communities.html
- https://www.calgary.ca/pda/pd/current-studies-and-ongoing-activities/local-area-planning-in-calgary.html
- https://calgary.ca/engage/Documents/North%20Hill%20Local%20Growth/Draft%20Plan/Draft_North_Hill_Local_Area_Plan.pdf
Additional information can be accessed at http://calgaryguidebook.ca/. This is not a city website, but one created by a group of community associations actively involved in planning in their communities.
The Crescent Heights community values its: urban forest (both in public and private lands), stunning park spaces, mix of heritage, older and newer homes and apartments, variety of housing types, developing commercial opportunities, and the diversity of its residents. The CHCA is providing a survey to our residents. The goal of this survey is to find out how the CHCA can:
(i) best provide information to residents on the proposed plans; and
(ii) best engage with residents for their feedback into the process.
The survey takes approximately 5 minutes to complete and will be circulated on our social media sites and available on the website at: http://crescentheightsyyc.ca/. A direct link can be found here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CHCAplanning. Please consider taking the time to complete this survey. Your responses are confidential.
