November 1, the City and Harvard Developments held a joint public information open house at the Eau Claire Market to discuss the plans for the redevelopment of the site of the current market.
ECCA has always been behind the redevelopment of the Eau Claire Market, it has huge potential to be the social and shopping heart of our neighbourhood. The last development plan (DP) that was approved was mixed use: an office tower on the far edge closest to 2 Street, residential (both condo and rental), a hotel, and a four-story retail podium that was meant to have in it a grocery store, a drugstore, a theatre, and plenty of room for professional offices, retail, and restaurants. It came, as all such plans do, with caveats that the developers can build for those uses but third parties must sign the leases.
At the public consultation, we learned that the single plot of land that Harvard Developments owns will be sub-divided into three plots, one of which will be owned by the City and will be the site of the new 2 Street Station for the Green line. This change, plus the time that has passed mean that the last DP has completely expired, and Harvard Developments are starting fresh. Scott MacDonald, VP, Development and Construction (AB) told me that the new DP they expect to submit to the City will be roughly the same. The space will be reduced and there may be two shorter podiums instead of one but overall, they expect it to be the same concept. They will still plan for space for an office tower, but unless things change drastically in Calgary’s downtown office market, they don’t expect to develop that portion at the same time as the rest of the space.
Despite that assurance, a number of amendments to the Eau Claire Area Redevelopment Plan have been proposed. ECCA will vigorously oppose any such amendments that will change our neighbourhood from “primarily residential” and which remove the stated goal of increasing our residential population to 5,000. We see no need to change the ARP, except to add a short sentence allowing an LRT station. The last DP was approved with this ARP in place, it’s clearly not preventing anyone from building roughly the same thing.
Proposed Amendments to the Area Redevelopment Plan
Stations are being placed across the city in areas that have historically been single-family residential. In those areas, it makes sense to amend the plans to encourage “Transit Oriented Development”. This change allows the areas around new LRT stations to densify, to add walkability, and fill in the residential “missing middle” between traditional single-family homes on large lots and high-rises.
Eau Claire already has everything that a transit-oriented development plan could want. Within metres of the new Eau Claire Station, you can find residential (from townhouses to towers, condos to rentals), retail, restaurants, offices (both towers and unique, historical spaces such as Joe Phillips Building), hotels, professional buildings, and Prince’s Island. All that’s missing is what Harvard is promising: a grocery store and pharmacy.
However, the poster boards, presented at the public information session, show that extensive and fundamental changes are being proposed.
Policy Reference 6.08.4.7 – The City and private developers want to remove the existing policy that does not allow high-rise office towers.
Policy Reference 11.4.1 – They want to remove height restrictions.
Policy reference 4.5 – They want to remove “primarily residential” from our neighbourhood.
Policy reference 6.0B.1.2 E1 – Eau Claire Market Site. They want to remove “primarily residential” specifically from this site.
The River Run condos (which are a perfect example of the missing middle in housing) are being torn down to accommodate the LRT track, so we are already losing residences. Given the assurances from Harvard that they want to build substantially the same thing that was previously approved, ECCA doesn’t see any need to amend the ARP in this way.
They want to add half a sentence that says, “that incorporate an LRT station and a variety of transit supportive development”, this could be reduced to “that incorporates an LRT station.”
Policy Reference 6.0B.4.2 – They Want to Change:
Current: “To facilitate primarily residential mixed-use buildings that will provide an increase of approximately 1,000 residential units and contribute towards a residential population of approximately 5,000 people for Eau Claire.”
Proposed: “To facilitate transit supportive, mixed-use buildings that create opportunity for an increase in total jobs, services, and residential units”
Policy Reference 6.0B.4.3 – They Want to Remove:
“Set Direct Control guidelines to ensure that the residential component is sensitively-designed to minimize the impact of commercial activities on residential units, protect resident’s privacy, provide amenity space, and require separate access for residential and commercial uses.”
The current ARP allows for all the uses that were included in the previously approved DP.
The current ARP allows for all the uses that Harvard Developments says they intend to propose for the site.
ECCA strenuously opposes changing or removing any of the language in the current ARP, both as it applies to the Eau Claire Station site and as it applies to the entire neighbourhood of Eau Claire – we are a primarily residential district; other uses are defined and everything that is being disclosed at this point of time fits under the current ARP and was previously approved under the current ARP.
For more information, and to view the informative posters online, visit https://eauclairestation.ca/#projectresources.
