Supporters laud Calgary's Plan It; opponents to have say
By Robert Remington, Calgary HeraldJ une 24, 2009 7:23 AM
CALGARY - The score at deadline was Beautiful Dreamers 39, Evil Profiteers 0, but only because the Evil Profiteers had yet to take the field.
For 12 hours Tuesday, supporters of Plan It--perhaps the most crucial planning document in Calgary history--spoke eloquently about the need to create a more compact and less car-dependent city as envisioned in Plan It, which sets out how the city should develop over the next 50 to 60 years.
Widely criticized by the development industry as a utopian dream that forces people into high-density developments they don't want, Plan It, according to supporters and city planners, could save taxpayers $11 billion in lower infrastructure costs because it would require fewer roads and sewers in coming decades.
The development lobby, represented by the Urban Development Institute and Canadian Home Builders' Association, had yet to speak to the hearing at deadline. They were painted by some Plan It supporters as interested only in protecting their profits by continuing to build California car-culture suburbs.
But other Plan It supporters, including several young presenters, admitted they might want the white-picket-fence suburban dream 20 years from now. The Evil Profiteers, it seems, might not be that evil after all. It was a sensible message--that the city needs developments like Garrison Woods as well as Shawnessy.
Yet it is overwhelmingly clear that the status quo is not an option.
Several Plan It supporters, including Calgary author Chris Turner, rightly said the problem in that past has been that people in Calgary have only been presented with one model--the single family home in the suburbs, he said, adding that Plan It is simply bringing some balance with developments like the highly successful Garrison Woods.
Turner and others, including University of Calgary urban geographer Byron Miller, bluntly told council that Plan It is too timid, and that by the time its vision is realized, it will be too late.
"It's not ambitious enough," said Turner, who wrote the acclaimed book The Geography of Hope: A Guided Tour of the World We Need. "We are looking at a dramatically altered country and city and world in the next 20 years that will make the last few years of upheaval look mild."
Most North American cities were designed and built on a foundation of cheap and plentiful energy. Those days are at an end. As one presenter told council, gasoline in Calgary today is more than $1 a litre--in the midst of a recession, no less. In the long term, it is going only one direction. Up.
Turner has written views similar to those expressed by retired Calgary geologist Dave Hughes. Writing recently in The Walrus, Turner notes that Hughes speaks of the "holy trinity of fossil fuels whose flames have stoked the past 200 years of industrial growth --coal, natural gas, and especially oil--and that . . . there's no possible way to keep running the engine of a modern global economy for much longer at the pace we're burning them."
Turner gave the most animated presentation to council Tuesday, saying the message he is getting from exploration geologists is that the sense of urgency to redesign a more compact city "is more serious than the public realizes."
He, and they, are right. If you want more evidence, pick up Jeff Rubin's Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller. For the flip side of the argument, look up the writings of Randal O'Toole and Wendell Cox, two opponents of "smart growth." Or, listen to what one Calgary developer, Ken Toews, told council Tuesday about Plan It:
"It's a model that can work," said Toews, who built in Garrison Woods.
"We need to re-educate the development community that . . they can make more money," in higher density neighbourhoods, he said. One Garrison Woodstype development has taken off in Denver, even in the recession, said Toews.
"There is incredible opportunity. The market was there all the time, it's just that there was no product."
When the development industry speaks against Plan It, we will hear a lot about letting market forces decide what kind of city we should build, and that 72 per cent of Calgarians want single family homes.
If that's the case, why have prices risen faster in Garrison Woods--300 per cent --than in the suburbs? It was a project that many critics said would never work.
On Tuesday, it was hailed by a Marda Loop business lobby group as the best thing that ever happened to their bottom line.
© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald
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Blueprint for Calgary's growth triggers marathon debate
More than 150 Calgarians hope to speak
By Jason Markusoff, Calgary HeraldJ une 24, 2009 7:13 AM
CALGARY -
A controversial plan to make Calgary denser and more pedestrian-friendly over the next six decades has triggered the biggest, broadest public debate City Hall has seen in five years.
Council chambers were packed Tuesday morning, as more than 150 Calgarians were waiting for their chance to speak for or against Plan It.
"I think it's one of the most important subjects the city has to tackle," said Knob Hill resident Pavane Singh, registered to be the 81st person to speak (they were barely past the 30th Tuesday evening).
Singh said he'd try to monitor the progress, but if he can't, a friend will phone to let him know his turn is coming up.
Aldermen have set aside time until Friday--going to 9:30 p. m. each night--to hear the public's views, although some city officials say the hearing may wind down early, depending on public interest.
The last public hearing to draw this much interest was a three-day session in 2004 devoted to a proposed massive community next to Spruce Meadows.
Ald. Gord Lowe offered an old political saying to emphasize what this hearing means: "A failure to plan is a plan for failure."
Property developers and home builders are lining up to oppose the plan's encouragement of less suburban expansion, while many residents oppose the proposal for river crossings over Sandy Beach and Edworthy Park. But the first day of the marathon public hearing was devoted mainly to supporters of Plan It and its attempts to lessen Calgary's car dependence and create more walkable communities.
"Business as usual in this city has no future," said Chris Turner, a Calgary sustainability activist and author of Geography of Hope:A Guided Tour of the World We Need.
Some aldermen pointed out that new suburbs are denser and have more multi-family housing than ones built decades ago. But Turner said there's been minimal progress, lamenting that it's novel for residents of McKenzie Towne in the city's southeast to be able to walk to their neighbourhood pub.
Plan It predicts that Calgary will grow by 1.3 million Calgarians in 60 years, and that half of them can be housed in redeveloped and denser areas in existing communities, rather than in new suburbs on the city's fringe.
The transit network's capacity would quadruple, with several crosstown bus routes with frequent stops all day long.
Many supporters of Plan It argued the blueprint didn't do enough to curb sprawl, not making Calgary as sustainable as they had hoped.
"I wanted to come here and say Plan It should be tougher, but half a pie is better than no pie," Roy Wright said.
Community leaders from Sunalta and Victoria Park said intensification will greatly improve quality of life in those neighbourhoods.
David Low of the Victoria Crossing Business Revitalization Zone said the highrises there are attracting empty-nesters from the suburbs and young members of the city's "intelligentsia" who reject the popular notion that "living well means living big and living large.
Ald. Ric McIver stayed true to his earlier skepticism about Plan It's approach, asking university student Derek Pomreinke if people of his generation will still want backyards for their children.
"I don't think as many people will see it as a necessity," Pomreinke replied, noting good public amenities within walking distance are a good substitute.
McIver also suggested that Plan It's targets for density are so demanding that even Garrison Woods, often cited as the model for redeveloped land in Calgary, wouldn't be accepted.
Mary Axworthy, the city's manager of land use planning, told council Tuesday that the city won't use Plan It to determine which proposed developments it will approve or reject.
Although the blueprint doesn't mention an airport access tunnel, several community and business advocates for that $400-million project spoke at the hearing and demanded Plan It include that extra access to replace the Barlow Trail link.
jmarkusoff@theherald. canwest.com
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