It is important to make the distinction between similar terms in the development process: Land sale – is about the sale of the City-owned lands. Land use – refers to how the City may prohibit, regulate and control the use and development of land and buildings in the municipality. Important upcoming dates: January 10 – Land sale at Infrastructure and Planning Committee (IPC) meeting. Committee will review the terms of the sale (this may be done in closed session which is common for such deliberations) and answer the question of whether this land should be sold for redevelopment. The Committees decision will then be forwarded to Council for consideration and final approval at the January 30th Regular Meeting of Council. The public will have opportunity to speak to the item on January 10. Note, the matter before Committee is the sale of the land, not the development, and as such, comments must be specific to the land sale and not the proposed land use application. You can register to speak at Public Submission to City Clerks (calgary.ca). The opportunity to speak is open until the public hearing is closed on the item. If you receive an automated message about speaking or having missed a deadline, please know you will be accommodated. I have worked with Councillor Sharp to ensure the item will be the first of the day. Committee starts at 9:30am and is held in Council Chambers. January 30 – After Committee makes a recommendation about the proposed land sale it will go before Council at a Regular Meeting of Council for final approval. Since the opportunity for public comments is accommodated at the earlier January 10 committee meeting, there is no public opportunity to speak at Jan 30 Council meeting. Depending on the outcome of the land sale, the next step would be for the land use application to go before Council at a yet to be determined Public Hearing of Council. The public will have the ability to speak to Council on the proposed land use at this meeting of council, the details of which will be shared once available. Having heard from many residents, I know there are outstanding questions with respect to a few items. You can review my previous responses to past common concerns here. I am pleased to state that after a lot of discussion with the applicant and City Administration, most of these are known and, having been assessed by the Detail Assessment Review Team (DART), can be shared below. Others will continue to be answered if the application progresses to Council for the land use application and further to Administration for a development permit application. (Italicized Answers Provided by Administration) With Respect to Environmental Concerns Utilities & Water Table The servicing strategy for the Outline Plan has not yet been provided, however, the site will need to tie into the existing storm system on 14 ST SW, which feeds into the Bow River at outfall B1. It will not feed into one of the existing outfalls into the Glenmore reservoir. The risk of stormwater being directed to the reservoir for this redevelopment is considered to be low. No overland drainage will be permitted to leave the plan area and discharge to parks and open spaces, except in conformance with an approved Stormwater Management Report (which will provide further details on how the project will contain stormwater run-off from the development site). In general terms groundwater will need to be managed around any foundations proposed within the site and would be collected as part of the overall onsite stormwater management. Downtown also has a high groundwater table and in those locations the expectation is that buildings are designed to manage groundwater in an appropriate fashion to protect the building and minimize any offsite impact. This would apply to this location too. There was no submission or a requirement for a submission for predictive modelling for groundwater. Wildlife The Glenmore Reservoir itself falls geographically within the Key Wildlife Biodiversity Zone (KWBZ), and the proposed development is approximately 230m away from the zone boundary. The KWBZ extends along the entire Elbow River reach that is upstream (west) of the Glenmore Dam, including the Glenmore Reservoir. In the screenshot below, the KWBZ is highlighted in purple. Reservoir Water Quality
Recreational use on the Glenmore Reservoir needs to be carefully managed to ensure future water quality is maintained. It is expected that with increased development near the Reservoir, there will be a corresponding increase of use. Bylaw regulations remain in place for the Reservoir which includes: no pets in water, on boats or on ice; pets must be on leash at all times in the Glenmore Park and on the shore of the reservoir, no stand-up paddle boards, no swimming in the reservoir, no inflatables, and no power motors. I am consistently in touch with the water management team to discuss use of the reservoir. As drinking water quality is our first priority, I am confident the team will continue to monitor use. No single application will put pressure on the use of the reservoir, however a naturally growing population may. Those who walk or wheel around the reservoir, both existing and future, need to ensure they’re respecting a healthy park and pathway environment. There are no indications that building in proximity to the reservoir will affect the water quality. Traffic The TIA is ongoing with further analysis underway to look at various improvements to serve the phased redevelopment and density proposed. Although it may appear the area is constrained, there are several improvements to the network that can provide efficiencies to suit the density. The design treatments and negotiations for those improvements, including relevance under this proposed density, are ongoing along with the overall site design proposal. This work is a critical piece in the process to ensure the future development will integrate cohesively with the existing surrounding residential and commercial area. Regarding the scope of the TIA, the existing site (as the traffic generator), future density on site, and the surrounding residential areas have been scoped into the traffic modelling within the network. This includes volumes and active mode activity created by the proposed development. Additionally, design review includes what is termed as background traffic for a specific horizon or future that includes 2039, for instance. This allows for the projection of capacity and potential improvements necessary to serve the affected roadways, pedestrian and transit connections, and associated network improvements. Additional link forecasts are included which are beyond the site boundary and a sensitivity analysis (surrounding area redevelopment) to ensure interconnecting development is acknowledged in the forecasted future impact to the network, whether auto based, transit, or pedestrian. At this time, as the question most immediate before us is should the land be sold yes or no, further comments about traffic will be saved for the land use application stage when final details about population projections will be presented. - Kourtney During this budget cycle we’ve talked a lot about affordability and the challenges of cost escalations over a number of daily needs for all individuals and families. Over the past year I’ve heard from many constituents sharing their stories of affordability, and what becomes clear hearing the many different stories of ward 11 residents, is that affordability is more than property taxes. This budget invests in our city services and public amenities (libraries, recreation, pathways, parks) in response to the most common requests from residents to tackle the major challenges and opportunities facing Calgarians. The investments brought forward were part of monthly sessions of refinements over the course of a year, where options were presented to Council for consideration. They advanced priorities brought forward by councillors (both individually and collectively) and Administration based on their knowledge of service needs and most importantly, direct citizen feedback. The resulting investments were those which received the most support from Council and Administration. I am proud to support this budget based on the communication my office has received from residents. The most frequent concern we hear from all communities are about improvements to pedestrian safety. Data shows that those who live close to services and amenities incur less costs, especially transit and active transportation. There are multiple line items in this budget to improve active mobility and make it more affordable for Calgarians to get around including:
We’ve also clearly heard the need for better transit safety. There is a $15 million new investment ensuring more Peace Officers on transit for quicker service call response. This also comes with funding for social-service agencies to work alongside Peace Officers to provide support and access to services for vulnerable persons. Other investments included in this budget help Calgarians with low-income, including $10 million in funding for emergency support for vulnerable Calgarians. This funding will be allocated to non-profit service providers to provide basic needs funds for those requiring relief supports. The budget includes over $75 million for housing, with a particular focus on creating and delivery more affordable housing. This will add more housing to our city in the short and long term to provide much needed relief for Calgarians. As we continue to evolve the budget process, we will continue to look for both savings and investments to deliver a spectrum of quality services for Calgarians. As always, I’m committed to a long term vision for Calgary and making smart investments that build on our current successes. The budget adjustment package for 2024 was released publicly today November 7, 2023. The investments put forward are a direct result of listening to Calgarians and asking us, collectively, to invest in a secure and safe future.
In 2023, I championed free transit for youth under 12. Due to overwhelming success and support of Calgarians, transit would like to make this permanent and I’m very supportive of this change. All transit fare increases are also paused in this budget. The presentation from administration outlines the budget, the factors in the decisions before us, and a breakdown of the recommended tax increase resulting from previously approved direction, tax shift, and new investments (page 27). The presentation also benchmarks the City against other jurisdictions, especially with regards to the tax ratio. In many ways, Calgary is a leader, remaining one of the lowest taxed jurisdictions both provincially and nationally. However, our competitive edge with regards to business property tax is quickly declining. A course correction has been recommended for a second year in a row. It is good policy and governance to use this data to support the shift even knowing the costs to non-residential rate payers. As always, I encourage you to read through the budget and send in your comments. You may also make a public submission to council or apply to speak. KourtneyOctober 25 Update Additional Glenmore Landing redevelopment engagement webinar added, comment closure date extended. In response to requests from the Ward 11 Office, the Glenmore Landing applicant, RioCan has announced an additional online engagement session, supplementary to the sold-out in-person Oct 25th session. Additional public engagement details from https://glenmorelanding.community-developmentinfo.com/ : Date: November 14, 2023 Time: 7 – 8pm Location: Online [Link to be provided once you register] PLEASE NOTE: The information provided in this webinar will be the same information prepared for the in-person Information Session. Please register for the webinar through Eventbrite. We have also confirmed with City Planning that whilst the November 13, 2023, date is published as the last day to submit comments (the standard 3-week consultation period for all applications like this one), residents can submit comments and they will be accepted up until the public hearing of Council. Further public hearing information available on the Application Summary via DMap, https://developmentmap.calgary.ca/?find=LOC2023-0130. October 23 Update The revised application for Glenmore Landing was posted last week and is available to the public. Notably, the proposed maximum heights have decreased from the original proposal of 36 stories to 20-25 stories. City Administration is carefully reviewing the revised application from RioCan with respect to the land use changes at Glenmore Landing. As with all proposed developments, the application is going through an extensive detailed review by subject matter experts within the City including Mobility/traffic, Planning, Environment, and other business units. We encourage you to review the revised application and submit comments by November 13, 2023. You can view more details about the project in two places:
In response to our request for an added engagement session to supplement the sold-out in-person engagement, RioCan is exploring hosting an additional online open house. Any further update would be shared on the RioCan project page (noted above) and as we know more, those details will be shared. As with all applications, the Ward 11 office is reviewing the revised application to examine its alignment with broader city objectives balanced with community comments and providing our feedback to both the applicant and city planning. We have received requests for access to studies provided by the applicant such as:
Upon inquiring with Planning about release of these documents, we have confirmed these reports are the intellectual property of the applicant to be used by specialists within the City to evaluate the proposal. The City uses these reports to make requests for improvements to the land use application (including suggested heights, density, and project phasing) and, if land use is approved, to create conditions as part of the Development Permit application. As these reports are the intellectual property of the applicant, our office is unable to release them to the public. Requests to review these studies should be made directly to the applicant, RioCan. Further, as there is public conversation about the agreement on title regarding the surrounding lands, we noted that it wasn't widely available so want to ensure the public has access to it. You can read the agreement below.
The following information is to help interested parties to understand the process and legality of the sale of the lands in question.
Comments about the land sale are separate and distinct from the land use application. Comments about the land sale are due to the City by October 23 and used only by the City of Calgary, not RioCan. (realestateinquiries@calgary.ca) RioCan is returning to the community with revised plans on October 25 from 10am-8pm based on feedback submitted from the community, my office, and the planning review team. You can register to attend that session here. Kourtney |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
March 2024
Categories |