Hello Woodcreek!
It’s a busy time for everyone now, and our community association is no exception. Our main hall is booked every weekend until mid-January. It’s wonderful to see our community hall so well used!
Skate with Santa on Saturday, December 14 from 1:00 to 3:00 pm is one of those events. Our ice crew is ready to go, we just need the weather to cooperate. As I write this, it’s sun-tanning weather.
One of our primary goals as a community association is to work with the City, and where appropriate, the provincial or federal governments, on programs and grants for the benefit of the community. I’d like to point out that Councillor McLean’s office, and other City staff have been enormously helpful in this regard. However, when it comes to providing feedback to the City, there is no substitute for citizens providing their input directly, as many did during the zoning changes earlier this year.
This process is not done. The City administration is working on simplifying the zoning bylaws, and are now in a Phase four of a process to simplify zones, and align the zoning bylaws, the street manual, and the Calgary Plan to each other. Look for an article by our Development Liaison on this topic elsewhere in this newsletter. Some of these changes are contentious, and we urge citizens to research the material on the Calgary.ca website and comment for themselves.
For actual developments, the board typically does not comment on Development Permits, in that many of these are minor changes to private property. If you see a City sandwich board publicizing a proposed change to property, it’s up to you to follow the links to find out more details and make whatever comment you think appropriate. As well, there is a development map to find out where changes are being proposed anywhere in the City.
Our community association is rolling out a Community Betterment (CB) program and is looking for people to take part in this as coordinators for their specific area. This might be a cul-de-sac or crescent, or part of a longer street. The intent is to create communication channels so that neighbours can get to know each other better, build trust, and efficiently deal with issues as they arise. It might be as simple as, “my cat is missing,” or “haven’t seen you for a while are you ok,” or “did anyone get doorbell camera images from last night?”
Initial goals and benefits related to our CB program include but are not limited to, better information sharing, building trust, making it easier to organize social events such as a Neighbour Day BBQ, and increased ability to team up with neighbours to take on projects of interest such as park area cleanups. We feel this will lead naturally to coordination related to crime prevention and reporting. Research tells us that getting to know your neighbours and having easy ways to communicate makes it easier to solve issues quickly when they arise, reduces stress/anxiety, plus increased feelings of community connection and happiness. If you are interested in learning more, please reach out to me at [email protected]. As we work with our community to find what communications channels are most efficient, the main contact address may change.
Keith and Jen
President and 1st VP
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