Quote:
Originally Posted by DizzyEdge
How politically deadly would drawing a line in the sand as far as permanent city limits be, along with maybe a 100 km green belt around it so development doesn't just go on outside the city limits?
I would support it being set where the city borders would abut the limits of Lake Chestermere, Airdrie, Cochrane, and Okotoks. This way those cities wouldn't be swallowed by Calgary, and the build out wouldn't be for many many years, allowing the city to deal with this eventuality in an orderly fashion without worrying that property values will skyrocket upon the news.
As well, they are already part of the Calgary region so it only makes sense.
I would also politically not announce it as 'we want to limit the city limits', and more 'we are creating a farming reserve around the city' or something of that nature, ie focus on the WHY, rather than the WHAT.
Is there no alternative than infinite growth?
What about something similar, but no greenbelt to the north (so a U shaped green belt) so that any exurban expansion occurs in the Calgary/Red Deer/Edmonton transportation corridor?
Now even a 100 km greenbelt might still cause town outside of it to start growing as they otherwise would not. However I would assume that
a) more people would choose to live in Calgary (ie densify it) than live 100km outside of the city b) even if it did cause growth to far away towns, Calgary itself would still densify faster than if it had been allowed infinite sprawl, achieving one of the two goals (densification and sprawl abatement)
Thoughts?
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Yes, no question. Many other cities have done this based on the fact that most cities are located on some of the most prime arable land. Im sure we will get the usual responses about "this is canada, we have excellent farmland everywhere" but that is false. The best land is always in the valleys and near rivers, lowlands etc......right where cities are built.
Yes, they have to be extremely careful not to upset the disneyland vision of todays city as so many people see it when they announce the greenbelt.