Calgary City Council reviewing the new “North Hill Communities Local Area Plan” which will be used to decide how to densify our city. This plan will significantly affect Highland Park and we have written another letter to City Council expressing the board’s thoughts. Click here to download a PDF copy of the letter.
To read our first letter click here.
Additionally, HPCA’s president, Jeanne Kimber, spoke to members of city council about the guidebook on March 22. You may read her speaking notes here.
June 14, 2021
Councillor Sean Chu, Ward 4
City of Calgary
RE: North Hill Communities Local Area Plan
As current President of the Highland Park Community Association, I am writing this letter in support of the North Hill Communities Local Area Plan. We urge you, the other Councillors, and the Mayor to vote for the amended Plan when it is presented to Council on Monday June 21.
For the past 15 years, Highland Park has been experiencing redevelopment on a piecemeal basis – a lot here, a parcel there. We have been fortunate that much of the redevelopment has been compatible with the surrounding properties. Regardless, there has been no overarching vision of how, where and to what level of intensity redevelopment should occur. The North Hill Communities Local Area Plan provides that visionary high-level view and offers the residents greater assurance of where higher density development will likely occur.
We are aware of the informal group “Calgarians for a Great Calgary” who are distributing door-hangers and small posters which claim “Blanket Densification is Coming to Your Street”. This is nothing more than a scare tactic. The plan depicts areas and streets where redevelopment at a higher density would be encouraged, but by no means does it mean every street or every avenue in a community will be subject to that level of intensity. In fact, if a developer were to propose a 6-storey apartment building within the middle of an area designated as Neighbourhood Local with Limited Scale, we would have a stronger case for opposing that type of redevelopment within the interior of a community. It also needs to be kept in mind that just because something can be built doesn’t mean that it will be built. There is a tendency for people to interpret “up to X storeys” as meaning that X number of storeys is the minimum.
We are also aware that some residents of Crescent Heights and Renfrew have expressed concerns about the plan, especially with regard to 8th and 12th Avenues. No plan will ever be perfect, and for that reason the Highland Park Community Association would like to learn that the City administration has a plan on when and how future amendments will be made. One small change we would like to see in the plan is the redesignation of 40th Avenue NW, from 1st Street NW over to 3rd Street NW from Low Scale to Low – Modified Scale. In this short stretch, there are already 3 rowhouse developments proposed or underway. There is also a new semi-detached and the remaining buildings are older bungalows. Immediately abutting 40th Avenue are streets with semi-detached and bungalows. Although this is a significant route to the northeast industrial areas, and within 600 m of the future Green Line station at 40th Avenue, the local context is such that future building heights should be limited to no more than 4 storeys. Troy Gonzalez (Senior Planner, Community Planning) is familiar with this request.
When Highland Park and adjacent communities were built 70 years ago, the social and economic conditions were hugely different from what they are now. What was desired in a home then is not necessarily what people want or need now. The fact that semi-detached homes, townhouses, and apartment condominiums in inner-city communities sell readily indicates that the change happening in our neighbourhood is happening in response to the market. For that reason, we very much need the North Hill Communities Local Area Plan to provide the vision and guidance to redevelopment which we are currently lacking.
Thank you for your thoughtful consideration and support of the North Hill Communities Local Area Plan.
Yours truly,
D. Jeanne Kimber
President, Highland Park Community Association
Cc: Mayor Nenshi
Cc: Councillors Carra, Chahal, Colley-Urquhart, Davison, Demong, Farkas, Farrell, Gondek, Keating, Magliocca, and Woolley
Cc: City Clerk via online Public Submissions