The True Story of the Highland Park Valley

The following is a letter written to Calgary City Council by Janice Deere in response to requests to develop Highland Valley.

How an Environmental Crime was Committed on Private Property Using Calgary Taxpayers’ Money

In this age of instant information the Public is under the misguided impression that we can discover our Community’s history with a simple Google search. This is not the case. The following history of Highland Park can only be discovered by researching the documents that are available at the City of Calgary Archives.

In the mid 1950’s, construction of the suburbs to the NW end of Calgary were underway. Rental housing and boarding houses stretched from downtown along Centre St. N. The residents were mainly people with low incomes and people who were new to the country. The Highland farm and valley were sold for development. The steep-sloped valley below the farmland was bought by Charles M. (Pat) Adderson and Adderson Holdings Ltd. The valley was subdivided into 6 parcels.

Adderson’s construction company and his partners were tasked with building numerous suburbs including Brentwood and Cambrian Heights. They understood that cities were trying to preserve open green space with golf courses and they needed a place to dump the mountains of fill that had been excavated from basements in the communities they were building. The fill was dumped all along the hills bordering the Highland valley, particularly along 4th St N from 40th Ave to McKnight, and along 44th Ave from Centre St N. Beside the slopes they also dumped the fill in the valley, over artesian springs, wetlands and creeks that existed there since the ice age. Grass was seeded over the fill and the wetlands were molded into fairways.

At the time McKnight Blvd was being constructed over a creek which drained into the valley. Another creek, between Trafford Dr. and Symons Rd NW, which also drained into the valley, was being vaulted to create space for further residential development in Thorncliffe and North Haven.

The city planners in the 50’s understood that the Nose Hill wildlife migrated along the creeks in the direction of the Bow River. So when they vaulted two creeks draining into the Highland valley they created an immense green-space, stretching from Nose Hill to Nose Creek, along the course of the water that the City had buried. The wildlife from Nose Hill continues to use this corridor to this day.

On June 30, 1958 a Residential Development Agreement was signed by Adderson Construction Ltd. and the City to develop the Highland Park Subdivision including streets, roads and utilities. On December 23, 1959 a Memorandum of Agreement was signed between Adderson Holdings Ltd. and The City of Calgary to permit the development of a golf course on the valley floor, in agreement that the valley was low lying and unsuitable for development. Along the perimeter of the valley, on newly created square footage, Adderson and his partners constructed rental properties (duplexes and 4- plexes). Rental housing on a golf course ensured tenants, and a guaranteed source of income.

In 1961 Confederation Creek under 4th St at 40th Ave NW was interred to create the James Fowler High School property. This had the effect (according to Adderson) of increasing the flow rate through the valley particularly after any rainfall. In 1962-63 the historic creek bed (which remained open in the valley on private land) was enclosed in a 6’ X 8’duct from Centre St. east of the property to the main Nose Creek channel 1 km away. Every time it rained the Highland valley would flood, washing out fairways and bridges over the creek. The surrounding slopes were undermined.

According to an April 2, 1971 letter from the City’s Engineering Department to the Commissioner of Operations and Development “On August 15, 1962, a detailed report was made to the Commissioners by this Department on the serious defects in this subdivision and it was indicated at the time that it would cost some $124,980 to bring the subdivision up to acceptable standards. Although every effort was made by this Department to have the Developer undertake the necessary works, he did not, and in consequence, this subdivision was never officially accepted and no final certificates either for concrete or asphalt works, were issued by the City.”

In a report to the Commissioners dated September 1, 1970 from the Engineering Department “From early June 1963 onward extensive correspondence was forwarded back and forth between the City and Adderson Construction Ltd. and numerous meetings appear to have been held, all aimed at getting C. M. Adderson, the President of Adderson Construction Ltd., to commit to the City sufficient of his personal assets to guarantee the performance by Adderson Construction Ltd. of its obligations pursuant to the Development Agreement, including negotiations between the City and C.M. Adderson for the acquisition by the City of Highland Golf Course. These efforts however were not fruitful.”

Around this time the Calgary North Veterinary Clinic bought the property on which they now reside from the Highwood Esso Station. The documents suggest that no remediation occurred, and perhaps was not required, after the purchase. It may be a possibility that the oil and gasoline reservoirs remain untouched and buried under the former Highland valley driving range land.

In 1964 the 44th Ave NW roadway on the east side of the valley had a serious collapse. The City refused to repair it. In February 1965 the developer (Adderson Construction Ltd.) gave notice of bankruptcy. The bankruptcy did not apply to Adderson Holdings Ltd., which continued to own the valley and run the golf course. The City was left with a sub-par neighborhood and $10,500 proceeds from the bankruptcy with little further recourse.

In 1967-68 Eric Musgreave and The Centennial Ravine Park Society had the foresight and vision to protect the creek valley extending from Nose Hill to Queen’s Park Cemetery by imagining Centennial Park, now known as Confederation Park. This was also when the last duplexes were built on 44th Ave, on the top of the steepest slope bordering the valley. Once those properties were built the City was forced to repair the road that was left unfinished since 1964 “because of the legal complications involved”. The City continued to refuse issuing final certificates along the perimeter of the Highland valley for numerous reasons, including improper compaction and improper construction sloping toward the valley.

Unfortunately the road on 44th Ave NW collapsed again in 1970. Fifty yards of asphalt and sidewalk dropped 15 feet down the slope in front of those last duplexes on 44th Ave, necessitating immediate action by the City to stabilize the slope.

The Commissioners Report dated September 1, 1970 addressed to His Worship the Mayor and Members of Council clearly states that “All parties concerned agree on the causes of the slide which, briefly, may be described as follows: as the Ice Age glaciers melted, a water course with very steeply sloping sides was created in the valley of what is the Highland Golf Course. In the centuries that followed, these steeply sloping banks successively slumped, creating a number of slide planes which, unfortunately, are not self-healing. The bank eventually assumed a stable condition, and with the action of rain and weather over the centuries, all evidence of sliding disappeared from view. However, when the present residential subdivision was developed, the toe of the stabilized slope was disturbed, and the loading was changed on the upper portion of the slope, so that, in effect, the original condition of instability was once again created. Slippage is now occurring along at least one of these ancient slide planes. In evidence of this, as 44th Ave has dropped, the level of the water course at the toe of the slope has risen, clearly indicating a “rotation” of a large volume of earth.”

“The consultants are agreed that the original slide planes exist beyond the present slide, so that perhaps a dozen residences could be affected if the hill slide is not stabilized”

Finally, after 10 years of misadventure and hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money, the City decided to buy the valley property, or expropriate, in order to remediate the slopes of the Highland valley and protect the residents on the perimeter. The City expropriated the land on May 10, 1971 with Bylaw 8196. Adderson Holdings Ltd. sued the City and the Bylaw was quashed on a procedural technicality. The title was returned to Adderson Holdings Ltd. and the City was forced to spend even more taxpayer dollars on Adderson’s private property to enclose portions of the creek in an attempt to stop the hill slide and stabilize the perimeter properties.

In a City of Calgary Engineering Department report dated August 22, 1972 it states that “Because of the large sums of money that have already been expended on this area and the potential problems and maintenance of the works already undertaken and the need for future and continued access to the Golf Course area, we would strongly recommend that this area be acquired for City purposes.” The report also indicated that there were 12 unstable areas within the Golf Course property itself. Again in 1973 a motion came before Council to expropriate, it was defeated.

Throughout the 70s and 80s Adderson Holdings Ltd. continued to operate the golf course and the rental properties on the slopes. Water-sucking poplar trees were planted below the steepest and unstable slopes to hold the hill in place and absorb the storm water runoff. Trees were planted in the laneway behind the 4 duplexes at the tip of 44th Ave., and at the base below where the creek used to run. Yet the City has had to repair and re-grade 44th Ave. every 8 years or so because of continuing sinking and sliding.

In 1993 C. M. Adderson passed away. The family sold off the income properties and continued to run the golf course. The duplexes along 44th Ave and along the east side of 4th St were sold to individuals and investors who had no idea about the poor compaction and sliding problem or the contentious history of the valley. Around 1995, 3 duplexes on the west side of 4th St were torn down and redeveloped into a condominium for elderly residents. The units encroached onto the laneway so the City issued a caveat for public access behind the property. That City laneway has now slipped into the valley and no remedial action has been implemented.

In 2001 the family wanted to sell the valley to a developer. The City Council deemed the land undevelopable and passed a motion for an ARP for the area. Presumably there were still some high-ranking public servants who retained the “Institutional Memory” about the valley and spoke up. The ARP never came to pass however and Highland Park continues to have the lowest tax base of every district in Calgary.

Around 2005 a golf ball on the driving range made it over the fence and hit a man in the parking lot of the City-owned subsidized housing along 40th Ave N. A lawsuit was launched against the Golf Course and the City. Some settlement was made and the driving range was closed forever.

In 2008 the valley was assessed in the “Highland Golf Course Site Stormwater Quality Retrofit Study” which states that the property is undevelopable. It has been rumored that the City was offered the site at that time for 1 million dollars and it was refused. The Nose Creek Water Management Plan recommended in 2008 that “internal drainage areas should remain isolated from the effective watershed areas as they play an important role in maintaining the hydrological regime, in particular for groundwater recharge and evapotranspiration processes.”

Due to the death and retirement of so many Department Supervisors within the City the “Institutional Memory” of this property has been lost. The valley’s intrinsic value as a watershed and wetland has been forgotten. The City’s liability issues are lost within an expensive labyrinth of FOIP requests.

In May 2013, The West Nose Creek Watershed Partnership issued its Nose Creek Internal Drainage Areas Study Final Report, bearing the signatures of its City of Calgary and Alberta Provincial partners and multiple non-profit groups including Calgary River Valleys. It recommends investigation and reporting procedures and stormwater management considerations guiding future development in the Nose Creek catchment and internal drainage areas. In June of 2013 the great Calgary flood brought watershed issues to the front and center. In 2013 Maple Developments purchased the property for less than half the $11 million dollar asking price.

I have lived near the end of 44th Ave since 1994. I have noted multiple times in the past 23 years when the road bed and sidewalk have collapsed in front of my house, necessitating major roadwork and repaving and months of parking problems. These properties are built into a steep hill, above a steep hill, and on uncertified subdivision land. The street and sidewalk was recently rebuilt in 2010 and it is again sinking about 1.5 feet in front of the storm sewers and the fire hydrant. Cars routinely have to be towed from the sinkhole every winter. The road is currently tilting into the valley and numerous fractures into the sidewalk and 44th Ave are apparent.

Since I have become aware of the imminent dangers that exist on these properties I have notified my immediate neighbors. I have driven around the perimeter of the valley through boundary laneways and noticed excessive slopes and slipping in the backyards all along 4 Street NW and in front of 44th Ave. The condominiums, from 4506 to 4520 – 4 Street NW, are undergoing major foundational repairs to prevent the building from continuing to move off of its footings. In the valley below where that work is being done a deep sinkhole has developed inches beneath the surface over another buried creek.

My questions are as follows:

1. Who is liable (The City of Calgary or Maple Developments) if the construction and removal of mature trees on or below the perimeter and adjacent slopes of the valley causes settlement and slippage along the “ancient slide planes” or on the “12 areas of concern” identified on the site? What happens if a perimeter property slips or drops into the valley as a result of stripping, grading or filling and pounding?

2. The developer proposes to remove 95% of the private trees on the site. How does this loss of stormwater and carbon absorption get calculated and who pays for the loss to the Highland property owners? The developer proposes to remove 86% of the City trees on the site. Does Bylaw 23M2002 (a bylaw to protect public trees) not apply in this situation?

3. According to Section 664 of the MGA “a subdivision authority may require the owner of a parcel of land that is the subject of a proposed subdivision to provide part of that parcel of land as environmental reserve if it consists of:
   a) a swamp, gully, ravine, coulee or natural drainage course; or b) land that is subject to flooding, or is in the opinion of the subdivision authority, unstable; or c) a strip of land, not less than 6 meters in width, abutting the bed and shore of any lake, river or stream or any other body of water for the purpose of i) preventing pollution, or ii) providing public access to the bed and shore. Why can’t an Environmental or Municipal Reserve be taken on the site?

4. Is the City trying to mitigate its liability to Highland Park residents on the perimeter by adding “public access greenspace” on the steep slopes to the developer’s plans?

5. The developer proposes to build a wall along the perimeter of the valley. This will have the result of segregating the valley and not integrating into the community, as well as adding weight to unstable slopes. Does the developer understand the risks of that proposal?

6. The wetlands on the site are being illegally drained which gives the false impression that they do not require protection by the Alberta government. Why can’t the provincial government do a complete Environmental Impact Assessment before more damage is done?

7. This valley drains 5000 hectares of NW Calgary’s water and purifies storm water in the present for no cost, if development occurs in the valley how much more will taxpayers have to pay in water management and flooding liability? Can the new property owners get or afford flood insurance?

8. Should the property owners at risk of losing land on the perimeter of the valley be notified?

I have walked through the valley property many times with a certified Master Arborist and he has assured me that both the naturalized and native trees on the property have more than 50 years of life left and have created a micro-climate that protects the surrounding areas from intense storms and lightning, in addition to being a mature carbon sink. Each tree’s canopy has the volume of 30 shrubs and each tree absorbs the equivalent of one car’s yearly carbon emissions. Each one of these mature tree’s root infrastructure absorbs thousands of liters of water during high water events.

When will the City of Calgary pay attention to best practices based in science and accept the Highland valley for what it is right now? It is, and always was, a dynamic water and air purifier that is integral to the vitality and well-being of the original Highland Park subdivision and its residents.

How ironic it is that when we celebrated the achievement of Confederation Park this year the destruction of that same valley goes unchecked only 10 blocks downstream.

I trust that if the City Administration checks its own archives regarding the above history then it will agree that this valley is (as was determined in 2001 and 2008) far from suitable for development and should be reappraised.

Trusting the process,

J.M. Deere