Students see the future

JOEL MESSNER METRO CALGARY

June 25th, 2009

Two university students are capitalizing on their chance to help shape Calgary for the future.

Both Andrew Sedor and Derek Pomreinke presented their ideas to council on Tuesday during the Plan It Calgary hearing.

Sedor , 20, is going into his fourth year of the University of Calgary’s urban studies program, while Pomreinke, 23, has just graduated from the same program.

“I thought it was very important that people my age, and the younger generation who aren’t typically known for being very proactive in stuff like city governance, to point out that there are people from my generation that do care,” said Pomreinke.

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What do Calgarians think about Plan It?

The letters sent in by Calgarians about Plan are now available to the public. There were 585 letters sent to the city either in support or not in support of Plan It. After reading a portion of the letters it looks like some of the main opposition to Plan It involve the River Crossings, the Airport Tunnel or people from within the development industry.

We encourage you to check out the submissions for yourself.

Public Submissions 1-26

Public Submissions 27-52

Ottawa – Live in the past or plan for the future

Jeffrey Simpson’s editorial for the Globe and Mail.

A decision will be made in the chambers of Ottawa City Council that speaks to whether tomorrow’s city will look like yesterday’s. Cities across Canada make decisions like this all the time. Too many have made the wrong one, as Ottawa might do tomorrow.

At issue is urban sprawl, or the spreading suburbia of single-family housing.

Cities of yesterday planned for and encouraged sprawl.

Developers liked sprawl, because they made more money on single-family dwellings. Families liked sprawl, because it provided space for kids.

Municipal councils liked sprawl, because councillors believed in letting market forces prevail and market forces (developers and consumers) wanted sprawl.

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Gaining Ground

I am happy to report over half of the volunteers at Gaining Ground were UrbanCSA members.

The highlight of the conference was a speech by Robert Kennedy Jr. who spoke on the Obama administration, the declining health of America lakes, rivers and streams, electric automobiles and the future of sustainability globally.

The energy in the room during the speech was incredible.

There were also great speeches by:

Peter Tertzakian Author, A Thousand Barrels a Second

Daniel Lerch Author, Post Carbon Cities: Planning for Energy and Climate Uncertainty

Michael Cleland President and CEO, Canadian Gas Association

Gary Holden President and CEO, ENMAX Corporation

and many others…

For more information on the conference see http://www.gaininggroundsummit.com/

Plan It opinions

There have recently been some great letters in the Calgary Herald about Plan It. UrbanCSA encourages everyone to voice their opinions on this plan whether negative or positive. This is a time when your opinion can make a huge difference.

Here are some of the letters:

Plan on Plan It
Road map for the future

Youth participation urged in planning

Guillermo Guglietti wants a say in his future.

As the president of the Urban Calgary Students Association at the University of Calgary, Guglietti said he was dismayed by the overwhelming ratio of senior citizens to youth he’s seen at open houses for Plan It Calgary, the city’s long-term urban development strategy.

“We always saw the same faces and a lot of them were in their 60s and 70s,” said Guglietti.

“But I’m 23 right now and I’ll be 83 when this finishes, so I am the one inheriting this plan.”

Urban CSA approached Plan It Calgary last week, saying city planners should garner more feedback from teens and 20-somethings, as they will be affected by the 60-year-plan for most of their lives.

“We thought, ‘Why not bring this to the youth?’ ” said Guglietti.

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Young People’s Vision For A Better City; Forum urges foresight

When city officials promote a vision of Calgary’s future and developers jeer the long-range blueprint, they often jokingly admit they probably won’t be alive long enough to see that denser city which the document envisions 60 years from now.

Twenty-something university students are more likely to survive to see that future.

At a University of Calgary campus event Thursday, dozens of them embraced Plan It’s new vision for limits to further sprawl and a quadrupling of the transit system’s service levels.

To read more click here

Students get Okotoks solar lesson

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

By Tamara Neely staff reporter

University of Calgary students who have been travelling the world visiting environmentally progressive and sustainable communities made a trip to Okotoks when they realized there is a good example much closer to home.

On Feb. 28, members of the Urban Calgary Students Association (Urban CSA), who are studying engineering, environmental design and other disciplines, toured Drake Landing to look at the technology used to capture, store and use solar energy in that community.

Guillermo Guglietti, president of Urban CSA, and Andrew Sedor, vice-president external, both found it interesting some people bought solar homes in Drake Landing without even knowing about the innovative technology. The pair was also surprised to learn the conventional homes and solar homes were in the same price range when released onto the market.

To continue reading clickhere

Time Magazine, “Ten Ideas Changing the World Right Now” no. 2: Recycling the Suburbs

As big retail centers die out, suburbs have begun remaking them into libraries, schools and town centers

The American suburb as we know it is dying. The implosion began with the housing bust, which started in and has hit hardest the once vibrant neighborhoods outside the urban core. Shopping malls and big-box retail stores, the commercial anchors of the suburbs, are going dark — an estimated 148,000 stores closed last year, the most since 2001. But the shift is deeper than the economic downturn. Thanks to changing demographics, including a steady decline in the percentage of households with kids and a growing preference for urban -amenities among Americans young and old, the suburban dream of the big house with the big lawn is vanishing. The Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech predicts that by 2025 there will be a surplus of 22 million large-lot homes (on one-sixth of an acre [675 sq m] or more) in the U.S.

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Transit key to 60-year plan

Blueprint says city has space for 2.3 million

By Jason Markusoff, Calgary HeraldMarch 10, 2009

Calgary’s new long-range growth blueprint recommends quadrupling the transit network but no new major roads as the city fits 1.3 million more people within its current boundaries over the next 60 years.

It’s already being decried as an undesirable concrete utopia, but Plan It Calgary’s project manager said it will save taxpayers about$ 8 billion over the sprawling alternative.

“The further you push your roads out, the further you push your pipes out, the more it costs you,” Pat Gordon said Monday after releasing the draft Plan It report.

The plan says the city doesn’t need to annex any further rural land if it accommodates one-third of its population growth in the next 30 years, and half over the next 50. It envisions that more frequent transit with more crosstown routes, a better cycling system and a full Calgary ring road will help get that supersized Calgary moving.

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Plan It open houses

UBUD Update

The Undergraduate Bureau of Urban Design has been approved by the SU to receive $35,000.00 to upgrade the Craigie Hall bus loop area!

 

For more information see http://www.ubudcalgary.com/

 

Calgary, as the dreamers saw it (Calgary Herald)

February 28th, 2009. Calgary Herald.

From the Canadian Architectural Archives

Close your eyes and lean forward. You’re on the 66th and top floor of McIntyre Plaza in downtown Calgary.

To the west, tombstones at Shaganappi cemetery look like grey pebbles, and the monorail zooms above both Louise Bridges.

To the north, there’s the Prince’s Island Museum, just beyond the downtown penetrator freeway. East of City Hall, a canal traverses Mount Royal College.

Welcome to the Calgary that Could Have Been.

Continue reading the article at the Calgary Herald’s Website: Calgary, as the dreamers saw it.

Calgary plans two bridges – but not for cars

 

Vehicle taillights poke through the mist and icy fog rising off the Bow River under the lower deck of the Centre Street bridge. City planners are calling for two new bridges over Calgary area rivers - neither of which intended for general vehicle traffic.Photograph by: Ted Rhodes, Calgary Herald

By Jason Markusoff, Calgary Herald, February 23, 2009  

A major Calgary blueprint will revive calls for river crossings at 50th Avenue S. W. and Shaganappi Trail — only this time, they won’t be for cars.

The draft version of Plan It Calgary, to be released next month, envisions the bridges to allow only mass transit, pedestrians, cyclists and emergency vehicles. It’s one of many recommendations the city’s new master plan and transportation plan will include to give preference to transit over the automobile.

It comes 15 years after environmental and community groups forced car-friendly Bow and Elbow River crossings out of initial drafts of the Go Plan — Plan It’s predecessor — and those parties are mixed on whether the new proposal helps mute their concerns about the old one.

“I don’t think a cyclist would be more pleased it was a bus instead of a car going 30 kilometres per hour up the coulee trail as he was going downhill,” said Fred Fenwick, president of the Edworthy Park Heritage Society.

The draft plan envisions that in the next 15 years or more, the crossing will be needed to link Shaganappi Trail with the south shore of the Bow River, cutting through Edworthy Park. The 50th Avenue link would connect Altadore and Windsor Park in the east to Mount Royal College in the west, cutting across Sandy Beach and the Elbow River.

In both cases, the bridges would help create crosstown bus routes that get people to and from MRC and University of Calgary without filing them through downtown.

Wave Of The Future

By Marty Hope, Calgary Herald February 14, 2009

A proposed multi-million-dollar redevelopment of part of a northwest Calgary shopping mall has been called a “proving ground” for future mixed-use projects that will hug LRT lines.

Ald. Druh Farrell says the vision being proposed for the Brentwood community will be carried on to other transit-oriented developments (TODs) being considered by city officials.

“This area will be a proving ground for future, similar developments,” says Farrell. “The city is looking at it as a model for others to come.”

Events: Talk at noon

There is a Community Planning Association of Alberta meeting today (January 30th) at noon in PF3160.

Hope to see some of you there!

Events: ISEEE Students’ Association 3rd Annual Networking Dinner

 

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2009

MacEwan Hall (lower floor), University of Calgary

Cocktails: 5:30 p.m.; Program: 6:30 p.m.; Dinner: 6:45 p.m.

IN SUPPORT OF SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVES FOR THE COMMUNITY AND
THE UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY’S STUDENTS

• Portion of proceeds donated to the Light Up the World Foundation

• Delicious four-course dinner Book signing by Clint Wilder

• Stupendous door prizes Excellent networking opportunities

Events: Plan It Calgary Event- Public Health and the Built Form

Plan It Calgary is hosting an event to provide citizens with an opportunity to view a summary of the public feedback that has been collected over the past 18 months. In addition, attendees will have the opportunity to hear internationally renowned speakers Lawrence Frank and Dr. Gavin McCormack speak about the links between public health and the built environment.

Date: February 13, 2009

Location: Fort Calgary

Time: Doors Open 1 p.m.

Presentations and discussion 1:30 – 3:30 p.m.

Coffee and Reception 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.

To register for this event, please fill visit calgary.ca/planit, or call Stephanie (403) 268-5634.

New Holy Cross plan unveiled

By Jamie Komarnicki, Calgary Herald January 18, 2009

An open house on a proposal to redevelop the former Holy Cross hospital site in Mission drew more than 60 area residents and a mixed-bag of opinions on the revamped plan.

Howard Zarvie, who has lived across the street from Holy Cross for nearly three decades, said he’s concerned about the construction and intensified traffic tied to the development.

Zarvie said he’d like to see stronger mixed use, including more emphasis on bringing families into the community.

Geoff Granville, who lives in nearby Erlton, said he was pleased the developer was consulting with the community. “I believe we need a stronger inner city development,” he said.

The city held the open house Saturday for residents to view the long-awaited concept plan to turn the former public hospital property into a bustling mixed commercial and residential community.

New Semester

The Urban Calgary Students’ Association has completed its first semester with its great success. In one semester UrbanCSA members have:

• Had two interviews with CBC Radio
• Presented to City Council on the Brentwood TOD and Plan It (Calgary’s future growth plan).
• Reviewed the Brentwood MAP (Mobility Assessment and Plan) for the Calgary Transportation Department
• Attended the Plan It Summit
• Had letters published in the Calgary Herald
• Presented to the City of Calgary Transportation Department on bicycle lanes
• Presented to City of Calgary Planners on sustainable suburbs
• Set up an exam bank and an area in the collections room

 

That was just the first semester. This semester will hopefully be even better. 

We have two events that will be commencing within the next few weeks.  First, is a tour of the Drake Landing Solar community, which was postponed last semester due to horrible weather. The second will be a chance to meet the author of “The Geography of Hope” and Globe and Mail columnist Chris Turner. We will be going to the bar “The Hop n Brew” with Chris sometime in the up coming weeks.  If you want to get involved with any projects or have any ideas for projects or events contact us at contact@urbancsa.org.

Good luck in the new year!   

P.S. Everyone who paid for a membership in the first semester is still a member this semester.