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Heritage Implementation Guide

This Guide demonstrates the various ways that new development can respond to existing heritage assets in Heritage Guideline Areas.

Post-Committee Update

On Wednesday, April 2, 2025, the proposed West Elbow Communities Local Area Plan was presented to Infrastructure and Planning Committee (IPC). The Plan was recommended for approval with amendments in an 8-2 vote. A detailed list of the amendments approved by Committee can be found in the IPC Minutes from April 2, 2025. The Committee-approved amendments can be found here. The proposed West Elbow Communities Local Area Plan will be brought forward to a Public Hearing of Council for review and decision on Tuesday, May 6, 2025.

What are Heritage Guidelines?

The Heritage Guidelines will help ensure new development respects the historic character of existing homes and positively contributes to the ongoing historic nature of these areas. When the Guidelines are in place, any plans to build or renovate homes within the boundaries must meet the Heritage Guidelines.

The intent is that the Heritage Guidelines will address general characteristics of buildings rather than enforcing strict architectural rules. Although the design of new development needs to be sensitive to and respect existing heritage assets, the intent of the Heritage Guidelines is not to require new development to have a historic appearance or to prevent redevelopment. Instead, the Heritage Guidelines are written to encourage modern development that is highly contextual and echoes the past context established by existing heritage assets.

Communities in Calgary have sought these types of area-based heritage conservation tools for a long time. In July 2020, Council approved a series of conservation tools and incentives to offer that area-based approach. More information on the Heritage Guidelines will be released along with opportunities to provide feedback as the plan is further developed.

Heritage assets are privately owned structures, typically constructed before 1945, that significantly retain their original form, scale, massing, window/door pattern and architectural details or materials.

Concentrations of heritage assets have been identified in 11 communities in the West Elbow Local Area Plan: Bankview, Cliff Bungalow, Elbow Park, Lower Mount Royal, Mission, Roxboro, Rideau Park, Scarboro, South Calgary, Sunalta, and Upper Mount Royal.

Calgary’s Land Use Bylaw can make certain uses discretionary in specific areas of the city. New development in the identified Heritage Guideline Areas will be made discretionary to allow the Heritage Guidelines to be applied to planning applications proposing new development and significant exterior renovations. The Heritage Guidelines for West Elbow Communities will only apply within the defined Heritage Guideline Areas.

The Calgary's Land Use Bylaw lists what types of use and developments are allowed for new developments in a location.

Some uses and development types are automatically allowed for a property, and these are called permitted uses. If the proposal meets all of the Land Use Bylaw rules, development permits for permitted uses have guaranteed approval by The City.

The Land Use Bylaw also lists discretionary uses for a property. Even though there are restrictions on the type of use and development allowed, development permits for things in the discretionary uses list might be approved by The City at its discretion. The discretion is often based on guidelines or other special conditions.

Any plans to build or renovate homes within the Heritage Guideline Area boundaries must meet the Heritage Guidelines. Development plans will be approved at the discretion of The City to ensure the Heritage Guidelines have been adhered to. The current development permit approvals process doesn't require the same level of scrutiny and approval.

Alongside existing heritage tools and incentives, a set of three new related tools are being developed to maintain the character of heritage-rich areas in Calgary. The Heritage Incentives Area, Heritage Guideline Areas and Direct Control Heritage Area tools are intended to build upon each other to make it more desirable to keep identified heritage assets and character homes in areas where these buildings are more concentrated.

The opportunity to apply for the working group was open from Sept. 19 to Oct. 24, 2023. Successful applicants were notified on Nov. 14, 2023.

This Working Group provided feedback on Heritage Guidelines so that new development complements identified heritage assets within the West Elbow Communities.

The Working Group included a range of people with diverse backgrounds, perspectives and experiences with an interest in heritage assets, including:

17 general community members

  • Community members participate in dialogue as it pertains to someone who lives in the area and brings lived-in community perspectives and viewpoints to the table, and acts as a sounding board for The City.

8 community association representatives

  • Community association representatives provide insight as community experts and bring forward the perspectives of their community association.

3 heritage advocacy group representatives

  • Heritage advocacy group representatives provide insight as experts in raising awareness and appreciation, identifcation, research and policy development with respect to buildings and areas of historic significance.

3 development industry representatives

  • Development industry representatives are expected to bring knowledge and perspectives of the development industry as a whole and not to speak about an individual parcel(s) they may have interest in.

In total, there were 31 people on the West Elbow Communities Heritage Guidelines Working Group.

The Heritage Working Group participated in four to five focused workshops over approximately 12 months.

The West Elbow Communities Heritage Working Group was selected through an application process. In order to stay neutral in the selection process:

  • All personal information was removed from the applications and community and industry members were selected based on the merits of their responses alone.
  • This is intentional as we sought to recruit a mix of owners, renters, youth and business owners in the working group, varying ages, genders and bring all of these perspectives together in the creation of the plan.
  • We utilized a rubric system aligned with the 4Cs at The City - The 4 Cs are the essential behaviours of our organization, which translates to our LAP working group efforts. We look for character, competence, commitment and the ability to collaborate when seeking working group community members.
  • A team of City staff reviewed the applications one by one – and each application was scored based on responses to the application, as outlined above. Those scores determined who would be selected and that is how the working group was formed.
  • Community members, heritage advocacy groups, and industry representatives went through an application process, while community association representatives were allowed to select a representative of their choice from their Board membership to join the working group.
  • The Heritage working group is an inclusive group where people with diverse backgrounds, varied perspectives skills, abilities and experiences collaborate in the creation of the West Elbow Communities Local Area Plan.

Session 1

Session 2

Session 3

Session 4

Session 5