Support For The Green Line Stage One Plan
Mayor and Councillors,
We, the Board of Directors of the Highland Park Community Association, would like to voice our support for the Green Line Stage One plan. This plan is the first step to address the mobility and community development needs for Highland Park and North Central Calgary.
Our residents, our seniors, our students, and our workers need the reliable, far-ranging transportation that only a well-connected train can bring. High-quality transit is a critical component to the equitable, sustainable, environmentally responsible community we cherish in Highland Park.
Highland Park has watched for years as Centre Street has fallen into decline and become overwhelmed by vehicular traffic. The Green Line and its high-capacity, accessible and dependable trains will take vehicles off Centre Street and provide true mobility choice for our residents.
We understand that BRT and bus service alone will not keep pace with growth in North Calgary. Even today Highland Park residents experience firsthand the frustration of full buses, or buses that drive by, or those that don’t arrive at all. We need the capacity and reliability that only the Green Line will provide.
We need a well-connected train running downtown and beyond to get to the services and destinations we depend upon in our day-to-day lives. Stage One does not deliver this to us just yet, however, we know it will cement the commitment to our train by crossing the Bow River now. This critical bridge must be built while billions in provincial and federal funds are available. In these uncertain times, to delay the Bow River bridge means we may lose it, and our train, possibly forever.
Highland Park recently participated in the North Hill Growth Plan. This plan builds on a long-term vision for all of Calgary that encourages walkable, liveable, complete communities. We believe in this vision. A key support for the North Hill plan and this vision are the Green Line stations along Centre Street and in
particular the TOD site at 40th Avenue. Without the Green Line, we fear this long-overdue blueprint for North Central communities like Highland Park will be hobbled.
We understand a group of councillors have proposed a kind of lower-cost, undefined BRT option to deliver transit to the far north. We are not in favour of this alternative, for the following reasons:
Centre Street is already the most active bus corridor in the city. More buses will not address long-term capacity needs. Significant investment in this new BRT will be lost as the line inevitably will need to be replaced by an LRT.
Building transit infrastructure on Centre Street will be disruptive. We do not want to see our businesses disrupted twice – once to build a BRT, only to rebuild it later with an LRT.
We have no assurances that anticipated savings by removing the Bow River bridge will be applied to this new BRT. We may end up with no bridge, and no new BRT.
The Green Line plan is ready to go. This BRT idea is not. Highland Park residents have contributed to Green Line charrettes, Mainstreet workshops, North Hill Plan sessions and more, for years and years. It is time the city made clear its commitment and its contribution to our community now.
Finally, we would like to add that Highland Park residents along with thousands and thousands of Calgarians have willingly participated and contributed countless hours in many, many Green Line engagement sessions and workshops, as well as online. The result of our contributions is before you. We hope that council will not disrespect these citizen contributions by giving undue consideration to a small group of well-funded Calgarians with a particular agenda. We participated in the Green Line consultation process in good faith, and we trust council will do the same.
We live in extraordinary times. Calgary faces uncertainty. But Highland Park is a community that believes in Calgary and believes in our future. We ask that you demonstrate your belief in our future and approve, unamended, the Stage One Green Line plan.
Thank you,
Highland Park Community Association Board of Directors