Are We Being Too Critical Of Calgary’s Urban Planning?
A great thing about travel is that in experiencing other cities, it helps put your own city into perspective.
This summer, while sitting around the pool in the huge backyard at my niece’s inner-city London, Ontario house, a neighbour shared her thoughts on Calgary (having recently visited to see her sister). I was a bit in shock when she said “I loved Auburn Bay! It’s so walkable,” and even more shocked when this comment was followed by “But Mahogany Bay is even nicer with those condos along the lake.”
As a mother of a young son, she had also visited the Seton Recreation Centre. I was impressed she knew it was the world’s largest YMCA. She also shared with me they had breakfast at Dairy Lane (West Hillhurst) and loved the mix of the old and new homes in the inner-city neighbourhood.
After further chit-chat she said, “Calgary seems like such a well-planned city.”
The privately funded and maintained, waterfront pathway in Mahogany, in resembles the city-funded Bow River promenade in downtown.
Why so much negativity?
I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. Yet, I probably shouldn’t be surprised by her comments given Calgary for years now, has been ranked as one of the most liveable cities in the world. But I was. Perhaps it’s because living in Calgary, all I seem to hear and read these days is how our road network is so bad, transit is horrible, new suburbs suck, infills are destroying the charm of our inner-city neighbourhoods and downtown is dead.
Over my one week stay in London, exploring its downtown and other neighbourhoods, the comments about Calgary being a “well-planned city” kept haunting me. Calgarians are constantly being reminded by planners and politicians of all of the faults of our city’s past and current planning, especially in the new suburbs.
If we want to attract new businesses and entrepreneurs to our city we need to realize that while our city has lots of room for improvements (what city doesn’t), it also has many great things going for it.
We should do more celebrating of our planning successes and less lamenting about our failures. We should be proud of the fact Calgary has a plethora of infill projects. From single-family, duplexes and rowhouses in 25+ inner-city neighbourhoods, as well as new urban village – Bridges, Currie, East Village, Quarry Park, Westman Village, West District and University District.
Calgary’s University District includes a major grocery store integrated into a residential building that will anchor a Main Street surrounded by a spectrum of housing included an major aging-in-place facility all within walking distance to the University of Calgary.
For those who complain about our lack or heritage, let’s remember Calgary boasts the Glenbow (Western Canada’s largest museum/art gallery), National Music Centre, Fort Calgary, Heritage Park, Military Museums, dozens of preserved and still in-use sandstone schools and buildings, as well as three historical districts - Stephen Avenue in downtown, Atlantic Avenue in Inglewood and 10th Street and Kensington Road in Hillhurst.
For a prairie city with few natural trees, Calgary now has an impressive urban forest, with over 7,000 parks and green spaces. Instead of criticizing the loss of hundreds of trees as a result of infill development in the inner-city, let’s focus on the thousands of new trees being planted in the suburbs, creating an ever-expanding urban forest.
When it comes to urban parks, it doesn’t get much better than Memorial Park, Prince’s Island, St. Patrick’s Island and Riley Park. Nor does it get much better than Calgary’s Eau Claire Promenade and East Village RiverWalk.
Westman Village is just one of dozens of a master-planned developments in Calgary’s suburbs. They all incorporate a variety of housing from single family to low-rise apartments.
Truman Homes’ is West District (on the west side of the city) includes a Central Park with a number of amenities that will appeal to Calgarians of all ages and backgrounds, including a Main Street with shops and service, all within walking distance.
The new community of SETON by Brookfield Residential is a master planned community that includes everything from regional hospital to high school, from low-rise residential for young professionals, families and seniors, to retail and retirement buildings. It will be the terminus of the Green Line LRT.
At the northern edge of Calgary, Livingston, also by Brookfield, homes are clustered in a manner that looks very similar to the new row-homes in the inner-city.
Calgary’s East Village is an award winning master planned urban community.
Calgary is home to one of North America’s biggest urban renewal projects - The Rivers. It includes a new arena, expanded convention trade show facility, LRT expansion, new Central Library, Bell Studio (National Music Centre), parks, pathways, plazas, main street, and housing for 10,000+ people.
The master plan for East Village which is part of The Rivers includes pedestrian oriented commercial spaces at street level i.e. cafes, shops, professional services.
Calgary: An Early Adopter
Calgary has great history of being early adopters for new ideas when it comes to city building. In the early ‘90s, when New Urbanism (mixed-use neighbourhoods, with pedestrian-friendly streets, mix of housing types, access to public transit and a commercial town centre) was in its infancy Calgary began building McKenzie Towne (est 1995). It was one of the first new communities to be developed based on New Urbanism principles. It is recognized by the Urban Land Institute as one of 26 exceptionally planned communities worldwide. Since then, every new Calgary suburb and inner-city new community has been developed based on a master-plan e.g. Bridges, Currie, East Village, SETON, Quarry Park and Garrison Woods.
Calgary was an early adopter of LRT when back in 1981 the South Line opened. Calgary had LRT long before Vancouver or Portland. It was soon followed by the Northeast and Northwest Lines, and resulting in Calgary having the highest LRT ridership in North America by the end of the 20th century.
Calgary was also one of the first cities in in Canada, perhaps the world, to create a city-wide pathway system creating walkable neighbourhoods with links to local and regional parks, playgrounds, rivers, lakes and creeks. Today, Calgary has 1,000+ km of pathways that are popular community gathering places for people of all ages and backgrounds.
When it comes to major mixed-use recreation centres, Calgary has also been a leader. The City’s impressive collection of major recreation centers includes the Repsol Sport Center in the City Centre to the largest and second largest YMCA in the world – Brookfield Residential YMCA at SETON and Shane Homes YMCA at Rocky Ridge respectfully. The Genesis Centre in the northeast, Westside Recreation Centre, on the west side of the city and Vivo in the north are also impressive.
Let’s not forget in the early ‘80s when the City of Calgary opened two new leisure centres with state-of-art wave pool – some of the first in Canada. And in 2000 Calgary opened Shaw Millennium Park, which at the time was the largest skatepark in the world and still is the largest in Canada.
Quarry Park is a master planned community with an office park anchored by Imperial Oil in the middle surrounded by homes, recreation centre, and retail centre anchored by Co-op grocery store. While there is abundant surface parking today, the plan is to redevelop the parking lots when the Green Line LRT is built.
Quarry Park YMCA and library includes a major public artwork and plaza for outdoor activities.
Quarry Park offers a range of housing from single-family to low rise multi-family homes all within easy walking or cycling to work, shop or play.
Last Word
I love how Calgary has preserved its small town structure and sense of community even with its ever expanding new suburbs. Planners and politicians too often get caught-up in the “best practice syndrome,” i.e. always wanting to be the best! Best transit. Best bike network. Best public realm. Best arenas. Best libraries. Best…you name it.
Perhaps we are being a little too hard on ourselves. Yes, we need to push ourselves to be better, but at the same time we recognize no city can be the best at everything.
If you like this blog, you might like these links:
Calgary Urban Planning Successes: Unicity Advantage