ECCA’s Primary Mandates are Gather, Review, and Speak
We Gather to foster a sense of community and collegiality.
We Review all development proposals submitted to the City, and we stay on top of proposed projects coming to our neighbourhood.
We Speak for our community perspective on everything that can impact our residents.
Gather
In 2024 we continued with our extremely popular LobbyFest events. The ECCA, funded by Downtown Strategy Grants, hosted a series of small community events in the lobbies of various buildings. This has been a great opportunity to get to know the people who live in the neighbourhood and to let them know that ECCA is here to help.
Ice skating was sidelined this year by a chinook that turned the rink into a wading pond. But our volunteers went out anyway and spoke to many of the people on the pathway about their vision of Eau Claire.
Over the past year, ECCA has hosted two meetings with Terry Wong to allow residents to get to know our Councillor, to ask questions, and to express concerns directly to our representative at City Hall.
Our volunteer base is small but we’re eager to add to our social events. If you have ideas and can provide a few volunteers to help we’d love to hear from you.
Review
We review how various projects are slowly chipping away at access, egress, and mobility within our community. ECCA is extremely concerned about getting the City of Calgary to look at Eau Claire, and the rest of downtown, from a holistic point of view when deciding on individual projects that will limit transportation (by all means).
Eau Claire is down to one last major residential property to be developed – the two full city blocks bounded by 4 Street, Eau Claire Avenue, 6 Street, and 2 Avenue. ECCA is excited at the prospect of development on this significant site. We are looking for residential development in keeping with our Area Redevelopment Plan (ARP) and the existing neighbourhood. The City of Calgary has invested heavily over the last five years on the Eau Claire Public Realm, and they, and the taxpayers, have a vested interest in a development of this size and location. We should be united in pursuing quality and legacy over extreme density and developer profit.
Hopeful as we are about this significant increase in residential development, we do have some concerns:
• The developer is asking for changes to our ARP and the Land Use Amendment that raise several red flags.
• Eau Claire Avenue is already basically 1.5 lanes when there’s parking on both sides (worse in the winter).
• Eau Claire Athletic Club is revitalizing the former YMCA building, but once this project begins there will be no parking for ECAC.
• Increased residential population due to the three new office-to-residential conversions opening this year. This process was fast-tracked and less transparent than most, so now that they have opened or are opening this year, we’re excited to learn more.
Speak
Over the past year volunteers from the ECCA board have attended a large variety of meetings, panels, and events, including:
• Safety Round Table
• Downtown community association meetings
• Ward 7 Council of Communities
• Green line meetings
• Meetings with developers
• RiverWalk West concept design walkthrough
• Virtual information sessions
• State of Downtown Report Launch
• Meetings with neighbourhood condos and Councillor
If you’d like to hear more about any of these issues, please join us at our AGM on May 21 at the Sheraton Suites, lobby level at 5:30 pm for registration and 6:00 pm for the meeting. There will be drinks and appetizers as well as several guests who can speak directly to projects, events, and developments in our neighbourhood.
Click here to the Eau Claire Community News home page for the latest Eau Claire community updates.
