Calgary's $8 BILLION Transit Plan - The RouteAhead

[H.E.Pennypacker]

It's been stated but TOD's take time to develop - even decades as we've seen with Kensington .. That's not to say we should shy away from them or deem their irrelevance with building a new LRT

An underlying factor with these TOD developments is the amount of land available for redevelopment in Downtown/Beltline and the cost associated ... As the amount of land and cheap redevelopments in the core deminish, the cost to develop in that area will increase substantially - to the point where only the big boys will consider it ... Furthermore the cost to lease/own in these areas will be much higher, so the demand will spread out to other areas

Once this happens it will become more cost effective for developers to look to these TOD areas to maximize profits, and we'll see those areas increase in density - much like we're seeing with Kensington now

Build an SELRT leg would give Inglewood and Ramsay potential to become the next Kensington in 20-25 years ... Same thing with a NCLRT on Centre St

Westbrook could suffer the same fate as North Hill .. But that doesn't mean there will never be development there - both locations offer prime land with astonishing views of downtown .. Eventually the economics will make sense to build there