by D. Jeanne Kimber
Save the Date – our Association Annual General Meeting will be held virtually on Thursday, June 24 at 7:00 pm. You may want to consider volunteering to join the Board, which gives you the opportunity to participate more fully in decisions about the community and the community centre. If you wish to learn more, please don’t hesitate to contact myself or one of the other Board members. To attend the meeting, please email [email protected].
The formerly named Guidebook for Great Communities was renamed to The Guide for Local Area Planning and was made a non-statutory policy document and administrative tool. Ultimately, it was passed by resolution of the Standing Policy Committee on Planning and Urban Development. As an administrative tool only, it does not need approval of Council. A number of amendments were accepted into the new Guide, including enhanced policy language around heritage conservation and limited scale development. As the foundational piece underlying the North Hill Communities Local Area Plan (NHCLAP), the changes to the Guide mean that changes need to be made to the Plan. These will be forthcoming soon, and the intent remains to bring the Plan to Council on June 21 for approval of first reading. After that, it has to be reviewed and approved by the Calgary Metropolitan Regional Board. Then it comes back to Council for final readings and approval. Although the Guide is now non-statutory, the NHCLAP will be a statutory plan.
To read more about the Guide visit https://www.calgary.ca/pda/pd/current-studies-and-ongoing-activities/guidebook-for-great-communities.html?redirect=/guidebook.
Our Community Cleanup will be held on September 18, 2021, and a metals recycler and e-waste recycler have already been booked for the event. City garbage trucks do not pick up large bulky items like sofas or mattresses on their regular runs. If these items cannot be donated because of their condition (dirty, worn out), then they can be taken to a neighbourhood Community Cleanup event or taken to the City landfill. You should note that certain items cannot be accepted at the Community Cleanups, such as propane tanks, car batteries, microwaves, and refrigerators. See https://www.calgary.ca/csps/abs/partnership-programs/community-cleanups-items-we-accept.html for more information. Also check out the City’s What Goes Where A-Z webpage at https://www.calgary.ca/uep/wrs/what-goes-where/a-to-z-listing.html.
While the Highland Park Preschool and the NEXT Before and After School Care programs have operated throughout the pandemic, the Community Centre has otherwise been closed to all other visitors and uses. The HPCA has taken advantage of this closure to accomplish extensive interior repairs and upgrades. We will be continuing with some exterior work this summer, pending approval of our funding applications. Longer term, we would like to see the construction of a rain garden to help with stormwater management and provide space for community garden beds.
The Highland Park Community Association offers an excellent part-time Preschool program for three- and four-year-olds. You can find information about our preschool program on our website, www.highlandparkcommunity.ca. To register your child for September 2021, please contact [email protected].
We email the link to the digital copy of our newsletter to everyone on our distribution list. If you are not on the distribution list, then you can send a request to [email protected]. You can access issues directly from the publisher’s website at https://mycalgary.com/magazines/highland_park_highwood/ or from our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pg/highlandPkCA/posts/?ref=page_internal.
Bee friendly – Everyone dislikes dandelions on their lawns, and they will go to great lengths to get rid of them. But did you know that dandelions are an early and valuable food source for bees when there is little else for the bees to feed upon? So, to bee friendly to bees, avoid pulling or mowing the dandelions until the flowers are just starting to go to seed.
