UrbanCSA Brentwood MAP Review

Earlier this year, UrbanCSA was asked by the City of Calgary Transportation Department to review the mobility assessment plan (MAP) for the Brentwood TOD.

Since the Brentwood TOD MAP has now been made public, UrbanCSA can publicly post our comments on the MAP (Click the image to view the document) .

UrbanCSA would like to thank: Trent Loosemore, Ken Lin, Samuel Boisvert, Steven Petersen, Elton Gjata, Riley Iwamoto, Linda Pham, Dana Martin, Tom Schloder and Adam Fajner for participating in the project.

The City of Calgary Planners and Engineers  also thanked UrbanCSA for the review stating:

Thank you all for your comments on the Brentwood MAP report draft.  The comments provided are some of the most thoughtful ones I have received from any of the stakeholders so far – I can tell you really thought about the ideas in the draft and weren’t afraid to challenge ones that were vague.

I attempted to challenge the status quo with discussion of some of the negative aspects of transportation in the area and like how some of the comments latched onto that by agreeing that more could be done to improve things in the area.

Thanks a lot for your assistance with the review.  I’m glad that groups like yours exist in Calgary.



Time to re-think the way we build cities

New model means growing up and not out, and swapping private space for public spaces

Terrence BelfordFrom Friday’s Globe and Mail

It may be time to ask a key question: Are Canadian cities marching in the right direction? Many very smart people say no.

And it is not just academics either. About this time last month, IBM Canada, a company not known for taking a keen interest in housing, decided it was time for all stakeholders in the future of this country to start talking about the issues we face when it comes to building cities that will maintain top quality of life as they grow.

It conducted a cross-Canada survey about the issues surrounding cities that people are most concerned about. Not surprisingly, about half rated traffic and public transit as No. 1. Almost one-third said their city was not on the path of long-term livability and nine out of 10 said we have to change the way we manage cities.

So why would the company want to raise these issues?

“We think it is time we start discussing the future of our cities,” says Pat Horgan, vice-president of operations for IBM Canada. “By 2050, almost 70 per cent of the world’s population will be living in urban centres, compared with about 50 per cent today.

“That means making big changes and IBM thinks we all have a responsibility to work together to ensure their future as livable places.”

James McKellar, professor of real estate and infrastructure at York University’s Schulich School of Business, says hats off to IBM for wanting to generate discussion but he thinks the company is placing the focus in the wrong direction.

“Talking about roads and traffic is the wrong paradigm,” he says. “That places the focus on the old way of growing cities in North America. To ensure livability, we have to embrace an entirely new model.”

Click here to continue reading

urban farms of the future?

Fresh off the heels of our urban agriculture review comes this article on the future of urban farms. Pretty neat idea: from an engineering perspective, this may be a good way to, ahem, beef up our food security and grow crops in a manner that is efficient enough to allow us to rededicate existing cropland into more effective carbon sinks.

The future of urban agriculture, or the ultimate greenwash?

As Peter Marcuse points out in this trenchant artcile, however, we need to view sustainability initiatives such as this with a critical eye. Should we be creating a room with a view for rows of corn stalks, or should we be tackling social justice concerns (such as urban poverty and homelessness) before we pour money into projects like these, which are sure to absorb large amounts of increasingly scarce public funding? Is this a way to gloss over social justice concerns with glitzy technology, or is this a valuable step towards sustainability, and if so, what is the true cost of sustainability?

You decide.

Montreal Public Space Design Competition

Are you a Urban Design inclined/interested student? Want to flex your design muscles?

The Ville de Montréal is pleased to announce a nationwide ideas competition for the redesigning of the area around the Champ-de-Mars métro station. The purpose of the competition is to solicit explorations and illustrations of a variety of development concepts made possible by the planned covering of the Ville-Marie expressway and the potential reconfiguration of its exit ramps.

This would be a great opportunity for UrbanCSA members to gather together and get the creative/productive juices flowing! Why wait for someone to organize a project when you can organize it?

More about the competition here…
http://www.realisonsmontreal.com/en/projet/Redesigning-of-the-area-around-Champ-de-Mars-metro-station

Calgary: The Events Leading Up To Sir Norman Foster

In my girlfriends apartment there are a bunch of issues of the Walrus lying around. I saw that there was one called “the cities issue” that examined the history of Calgary. It was one of the best articles I have read about the city’s past. The article really made me hopeful for Calgary’s future. It is a bit of a lengthy read, but it is not very often where you really get a sense of why Calgary is the way it is and where it is going (hopefully).

Calgary: The Events Leading Up To Sir Norman Foster

A British architect, oil barons, an urban vision, and creeping liberalism: what is the future for Cowtown?

By: Don Gilmore

In 1970, the year I moved to Calgary, the oil boom was just beginning to flower. Our house was in a new development at the northwestern edge of the city, and I walked past horses on my way to school, and past an isolated shack that stood on a few bare acres, waiting for a developer to raze it. The small house contained a large family of porridge-eating hillbillies, to use the phrase of a friend who was one of them. Their father was one of those handsome, hard-drinking, capable, wild-haired western archetypes who wore one pant leg inside his cowboy boot and the other outside. On good days, my friend and his father rode horses in the foothills adjoining the rented property, among the evergreens and stands of poplar that have long since become suburbs and malls. On bad days, of which there was no shortage, there was alcohol and violence.

During a particularly savage winter, a jerry-rigged addition to their house fell off when the cinder blocks it was propped up on split and collapsed in the cold of a 56°C night. The bedroom containing several children separated from the main house, leaving the father standing at the opening, wondering what forces had brought him to this. He eventually went blind, and on those occasions when he was in an alcoholic rage, intent on strangling their mother, the children piled on him like bluetick hounds on a grizzly as he flailed in his darkness. During the 1970s, the house was razed and the clan dispersed.

I think of them when I think of the oil boom of those years, a boom that brought an undeniable energy to the city, and a consuming blindness to certain notions of civic responsibility. What buoyed and defeated us was the same curse every lottery winner carries: sudden possibility. Newly rich, the city thrashed around, defining itself in a drunken spree as the Jed Clampett of urbanism.

In 1973, the Calgary Tower (formerly the Husky Tower), a Jetsonian spike that sits in the centre of the city, was still the tallest building in town. Its revolving restaurant was frequented by tourists, and by university students on lsd who watched their untouched steak sandwiches turn to carrion and observed the city passing below in a sluggish panorama. It would be an exaggeration to say that the landscape changed from one revolution to the next, but not much of one. The price of oil jumped from $3 a barrel to $17 that year due to the opec embargo, and during the height of the ensuing boom 600 old buildings were torn down annually in Calgary, and roughly $1 billion in building permits were issued each year. What we saw from the vantage point of the Calgary Tower was the residue of the 1947 boom, when oil was discovered at Leduc. There were office buildings that were ten or so storeys, a few skyscrapers (Calgary’s first skyscraper, the Elveden Centre, was built in 1960), and some graceful older structures, such as the Burns Building, the Lougheed Building, and the Palliser. Most of the original sandstone buildings from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries had already been torn down. The residential streets that bordered downtown featured modest postwar homes, and the odd Eaton’s bungalow, sold through catalogue by the department store in the 1920s, delivered by train in pieces, and assembled by the owner. Most prominent, though, were wrecking crews and construction cranes, poised in clusters: the beginning of another swift transformation.

more fallout over planit

Critics Charge Council With Selling Out to Land Developers Over PlanIt

Markham Hislop, for the SE Calgary News
November 3rd, 2009

Nine units per acre versus 11.3.  That little formula represents changes to the municipal development plan recently adopted by City Council as part of Plan It.  It is also the subject of a huge debate in Calgary.  On the one side is the development industry, and its supporters on Council, who argued that 11.3 UPA was too high, that not enough Calgarians want to live in multi-family dwellings.  Or that the lower number is a floor and that many new communities are already being planned for higher density without the City dictating it.  On the other side are the critics who say Calgary can no longer grow in a great suburban sprawl, that the city must have a higher population density in the future, and more dense communities actually save taxpayers money and lead to a more advanced infrastructure, such as public transit.  Critics also allege that civic governance is not transparent and accountable, and that developers exercise too much influence on Council.

Continue reading and watch a video here

Score one for grassroots democracy

Civic Camp still young, but could influence 2010 election

Markham Hislop, for the S.E. Calgary News
October 26th, 2009

All Saturday long my Twitter account hummed with Tweets from the CivicCamp get together at the Epcor Centre.  At the #civiccamp hash tag (hash tags allow a Twitter comment, called a Tweet, to be posted to a special web page dedicated to a particular topic), those who couldn’t attend were begging those in the know for regular updates.  The excitement was palpable.

In today’s story on CivicCamp, organizer Peter Rishaug called it a “democratic movement.”  Pretty heady stuff, really.  The last movement to come out of Alberta was Reform, and while it never formed goverment in Ottawa, it had a profound effect on Canadian politics.

So, if CivicCamp really is a movement, what are we to make of it?
Continue reading here

McIver strikes back

Working on policy is called democracy

By Ric McIver, for the Calgary Herald
October 26, 2009

I read with interest Naheed Nenshi’s trip into fantasyland. With a civic election now less than a year away, it would appear he was unable to restrain himself, and unfortunately his column reflects a perspective on the history of this council that is so pathetically at odds with reality, it’s hard to know where to start.

But I’ll try with what is perhaps the most important issue, one that Nenshi conveniently missed and one that most Herald readers are probably unaware of. The Herald has previously reported that Nenshi is considering running for council. He has already run once, unsuccessfully, on a slate of candidates under the banner of The Better Calgary Campaign.

Continue reading here

Know someone who lives in a Secondary Suite?

As mentioned at the General Membership meeting last week,  the City of Calgary is taking a look at the secondary suite debate once again.  Do you or someone you know living in a secondary suite?   If so, the city would like to here from you.

What’s a secondary suite?  Glad you asked!

To quote Wikipedia:

Secondary suite is an urban planning term for an additional separate dwelling unit on a property that would normally accommodate only one dwelling unit. A secondary suite is considered “secondary” or “accessory” to the primary residence on the parcel. It normally has its own entrance, kitchen, bathroom and living area. Such a suite often is one of the following types:

• A suite above a rear detached garage,
• A suite above the main floor of a single-detached dwelling,
• A suite below the main floor of a single-detached dwelling (a “basement suite”).
• A suite attached to a single-detached dwelling at grade, or
• A suite detached from the principal dwelling (a “garden suite” or “guesthouse“).

So if you, or someone you know lives in a situation such as this, fill out this survey the City of Calgary has commissioned and have your voice heard!

Countdown to 2010 elections begins

One year to go before possibily radical city election

By Naheed Nenshi, for the Calgary Herald
October 22nd, 2009

In just under a year, Calgarians (or at least 18 to 30 per cent of us if voting patterns hold) will go to the polls to elect a new city council. In the past, this was a pretty perfunctory affair. In fact, with the exception of the Ward 10 scandal in 2004-05, no incumbent had lost a seat in my memory.

Things started to change in 2007, when two incumbents lost and a third, presumably afraid of losing, dropped out at the last possible moment.

I think that this pattern may continue in 2010. In fact, I would argue that no incumbent is safe, and that a result like that in Guelph, Ont., in 2006, when voter turnout hit 50 per cent (from 36 per cent) and voters sent the mayor and more than half of councillors packing is not out of the question.

Continue reading here

Free Tour of Victoria Crossing BRZ this Friday!

The local favorite "The Drum and Monkey" Bar is located in Victoria Crossing

Formed in 1997, the Victoria Crossing Business Revitalization Zone (BRZ) is a collaboration of merchants and businesses working together to promote and improve the community of Victoria. The area lies just south of Calgary’s downtown core, between 6th Street SE and 2nd Street SW and between 10th and 17th Avenues.

We are going to meet at 12:55 Friday October 23rd at the prairie chicken (big middle structure in the middle of campus) and leave no later than 1:05. The tour will only take about an hour, but some have expressed interest in  hanging out in the area and going for a brew after.

The tour will be given by David Low, the Executive Director of the Victoria Crossing BRZ.

Personally, this is one of my favorite areas in Calgary, especially for the night life. The area is still in the midst of developing, so it will be amazing when it is done. We will have a first hand look at what it takes to create a vibrant urban area and the problems one can encounter along the way.

The tour is free for all UrbanCSA members.

Please contact andrew.sedor@urbancsa.org to confirm attendance.

CIVIC CAMP 2.0 – October 24th

One week to go and there are still spaces available for CivicCamp 2.0, Saturday, October 24, 2009 from 9:30 AM to 3:30 PM at the Jack Singer Concert Hall, EPCOR CENTRE for the Performing Arts. This daylong event will recap our accomplishments of the last six months and will focus on how we can continue to make positive change and build a citizen movement in Calgary. It’s all about translating ideas into action. For details about CivicCamp 2.0 and to register online go to http://civiccamp2.eventbrite.com/

A few more volunteers to help with morning registration and feeding the masses at lunchtime would be much appreciated. Reply to this email if you’re willing to pitch in with a couple of small chores.

Ditto for experienced facilitators who would like to help with breakout groups on the 24th: reply to this email if you can help in this way.

Building a city that works for us all…join us October 24th!

Sincerely,
The CivicCamp 2.0 Team

For more info check: http://www.civiccamp.net/blog/

Tour teaches students about urban planning

Adam Nordquist
Gauntlet News

October 15th, 2009

Garrison Woods has proved to be one of Calgary's most innovative communities.

Last week University of Calgary students had the chance to go on a guided tour of one Calgary’s most innovative communities: Garrison Woods.

This was the first of several tours the Urban Calgary Students’ Association is putting on this month. The students were guided by one of Garrison Wood’s planners and Ken Toews, Urban Development Advisors Inc. president.

The unique community was designed with the goal of creating streets conducive to interaction between community members.

“How we live and where we live has a huge impact,” said Toews. “People are a bit starved for socialization by phones and the Internet. If we can set up communities so that people can socialize, it causes a huge impact.”

There is a massive demand for new developments like Garrison Woods. House values in the innovative community have increased by 300 per cent in the 10 years since opening.

“There is demand for communities like this, but developers are not making them,” said Toews.

Continue reading here

… and the PlanIt controversy continues.

By Noel Keough And Bob Morrison, For The Calgary Herald
October 13th, 2009

Late last month, city council hit Calgarians with a tax hike of at least $2 billion and probably much more. This wasn’t an increase in the budget. It wasn’t an increase to pay for an emergency or somebody’s pet project.

Instead, a majority of council, led by Mayor Dave Bronconnier, slipped the tax increase by us with a surprise amendment to the new Municipal Development Plan (MDP). They didn’t consult with the public. They didn’t even discuss the impact on our taxes — either because they had no idea of the financial magnitude of their decision or they wanted us kept in the dark.

Continue reading here

Sitopias… food shaped cities!

Drake Landing Tour

Hello, Hello….

Last Wednesday, the UrbanCSA took 21 students to Drake Landing Solar Community in Okotoks, Alberta. In 1998, Okotoks made a decision about its future, becoming one of the first municipalities in the world to establish growth targets linked to infrastructure development and environmental carrying capacity when it adopted a Municipal Development Plan. They called this innovative initiative the ‘legacy plan’. Okotoks has successfully integrated Canadian energy efficient technologies with a renewable, unlimited energy source. Did anybody guess what that source is? I know you all did, it’s the Sun. The main idea behind the functionality of this community are the principles surrounding the district heating system. This is designed to store abundant solar energy underground during the summer months and re-distribute this energy to homes in the community for space heating needs during the winter months. Ultimately, this requires less dependance on finite fossil fuels to provide the community with heat. For those that did not attend the tour, there is a vast amount of information regarding the numbers and feasibility of such an ambitious endeavor and I encourage you to find out more about this community. Alright, details.

Naheed Nenshi on PlanIt

Gutted Plan It Mortgages City’s Future

By Naheed Nenshi, for the Calgary HeraldOctober 7, 2009

“I don’t know why you’re so mad,” said the alderman, speaking to some grass-roots citizens. “If it weren’t for groups like yours, we would not have been able to pass Plan It at all.” Despite the last-minute backroom deal, despite shutting out all Calgarians who are not also campaign donors, despite council reverting to its old-school crony ways, we should be happy with the crumbs we got.

I don’t particularly feel like celebrating. In approving a gutted planning document, council mortgaged the future of Calgarians and ensured that our infrastructure costs will increase by at least $2 billion over time.

Continue reading here

UrbanCSA Tours

UrbanCSA is touring various communities and developments around Calgary. The tours are all free with UrbanCSA membership and will be guided by a developer or planner who has expertise in the community or development.

The first community toured will be Garrison Woods . Garrison Woods is arguably the most innovative community in all of Calgary and has won numerous awards including:

Garrison Woods

• Best Community (Calgary Region Home Builders Association)
• Best Innovation (Calgary Region Home Builders Association)
• Award of Excellence – Environmental Design (Alberta Association of Canadian Institute of Planners)
• Comprehensive Planning Award (Real Property Institute of Canada)
• Best Practices Award (Real Property Institute of Canada)

This tour will commence on October 7^th. We will meet around 3:15 inside the Education building lobby (by the U of C Bus Loop). The tour will be given by one of Garrison Woods Planners and the President of Urban Development Advisors Inc. Ken Toews.

The second tour will commence on October 21^st and will be a tour of the Victoria Crossing BRZ (The area by the Drum and Monkey).

The Third Tour will commence on October 28^th and will take place in the redevelopment Bridgeland.

The goal of the tours is for students to learn what is happening around Calgary and what problems do developers and planners face when trying to build innovative developments.

There will be more information posted as the tour dates draw closer.

Developers win compromise in city growth plan

CBC News, September 29th, 2009

The city's Plan It blueprint aims to curb sprawl in the growing metropolis and build density in new developments. (CBC)

Calgary council has made a concession to developers and softened a key density target in the blueprint to guide long-term growth in the city.

Plan It Calgary, a massive planning document to guide development for the next 60 years, aims to prevent urban sprawl by focusing on building up — with condos and townhouses close to public transit stations, schools and retail businesses — rather than building out through single-family homes.

The ambitious plan calls for a network of carpool lanes across Calgary, improved bike paths, amplified public transit and more green spaces, along with a reduction in the number of vehicles on the road.

The original proposal called for a minimum target of 70 residents per hectare in new suburban developments.

However, after a private weekend meeting with developers, Calgary city council agreed to lower that target on Monday to 60 people or jobs per hectare, arguing that it gives builders more flexibility.

Keep reading here

‘Unfortunately, citizen members weren’t present at that negotiation. It was between the industry and the city.’— Ald. Druh Farrell

Drake Landing Tour UPDATE!

If you intend on attending this event, you MUST READ the following.

Members of the Urban Calgary Students Association, predominantly University of Calgary students, tour the Energy Centre at Drake Landing’s solar community in the Fall of 2008. The students were interested in seeing how solar energy technology is being used to provide heat to homes in Okotoks. photo by Tamara Neely

Those of you that paid from a Platinum Membership ($10.00) have first pick at a spot on the Drake Landing Community Tour this Wednesday, 30th. The itinerary for the day has changed slightly, but we will still be leaving and arriving at the same time:

2:30 – Meet in the Education Building Lobby beside the Craigie Hall Bus Loop

3:00 – Leave for Okotoks

3:45-4:00 –  Arrive in Okotoks at the Drake Landing Energy Centre

4:00-4:30  -  Tour remainder of Drake Landing Community and Solar Community

4:30-5:00 – Tour Recycling Centre

5:00-5:30 – Tour Elements Show Homes

5:30  - Depart for Calgary

6:30  - Arrive in Calgary

7:00    After-mixer at the Kilkenny

Due to an increased interest in this event, we will need confirmation from all of you who have paid, and who intend on coming. Please send a quick email to Heather at heather.oliver@urbancsa.org stating whether or not you will make it. If Heather does not hear from you before Tuesday night, your spot may be given to another student.

If you have not paid but are interested in attending, you may also contact Heather to put your name on the wait list.

Please see the attached table to see your status on the Drake Landing Tour.

Brandon Arthur    Confirmed- is attending
Jeff Baker    Unconfirmed
Toby Bennett    Unconfirmed
Samuel Boisvert    Confirmed- is attending
Michaela Bojes    Unconfirmed
Riley Braun    Unconfirmed
Trent Charles    Unconfirmed
Layne French    Confirmed-is attending
Fiona Hamilton    Confirmed- is attending
Sarah Hogstead    Unconfirmed
Stephanie Hong    Confirmed- Not attending
Jessica Janze    Unconfirmed
Kyla Jewett    Unconfirmed
Angela Keaton    Confirmed- Not attending
Leah Kyllo    Unconfirmed
Homyang Lee    Unconfirmed
Magnus Keith    Unconfirmed
Nathon McCarroll    Unconfirmed
Michael Meyer    Confirmed- is attending
Jack Moddle    Unconfirmed
Colton Nickel    Unconfirmed
Adam Nordquist    Unconfirmed
Steve Peterson    Confirmed- is attending
Connor Stevens    Unconfirmed
Brad Stone    Unconfirmed
Sarah Sy    Confirmed – Is attending
Michael  Wald    Unconfirmed
Amy Soepoto    Unconfirmed