Calgary Plan

KEY IDEAS

Building a strong downtown

The Calgary Plan supports a future-focused downtown that is a resilient and vibrant place for everyone, with welcoming neighbourhoods, active streets, and well-used public spaces.

Downtowns play a diverse and important role in cities. They are centres of culture and commerce, neighbourhoods that are home to thousands of people, and nodes that reach far beyond the city’s boundaries. Thriving downtowns are also:

  • Social, aesthetic, and institutional hearts for their cities
  • Places that support the movement of many people, services and goods
  • Home to a vital public realm made up of streets, parks, and plazas
  • Beacons that broadcast the economic health of the entire region, impacting investment and growth
  • Ensure residents have access to a diverse range of amenities
  • Clean up the downtown area
  • Attract new businesses to expand job opportunities
  • Enhance the economy and education through strategic initiatives
  • Create new parks, with a focus on downtown
  • Prioritize public safety and security

CITY STRUCTURE

Greater Downtown

The Calgary Plan sets out the overall structure of the city and high level land uses for each area, including the Greater Downtown.

Role: Identifies “the heart” of urban living, employment, arts and culture, tourism, mobility, and entertainment activity for the city and the region.

What does the map show?

  • Calgary’s greater downtown, made up of Downtown West, the Downtown Core, Eau Claire, Chinatown, the East Village, and the Beltline

Mix of uses:

  • Civic / cultural
  • Employment commercial / institutional
  • Residential

Form and experience:

  • High density multi-residential, employment and mixed use buildings
  • Downtown quality and provision of multi-functional parks and open spaces (including access to regional open spaces)


City Structure Map

Zoning Bylaw

CORE

Downtown is one of the most dynamic and complex parts of the city. Because of this complexity, zoning rules are required that responds to its context. The Zoning Bylaw concept considers a set of Core zones that enables the continued development of a vibrant, urban, mixed-use community that is the civic and cultural heart of our city.

What is the idea for new zoning direction?

  • Enable the greatest mixing of uses and innovative urban building types
  • Provide special rules for distinct areas including Stephen Avenue and the Plus 15 Network
  • Uses statutory plan modifiers to establish maximum height and density
  • The only zone that allows for density bonusing

What zones have been consolidated?

In the downtown, a distinct set of Core zones will enable large-scale housing, mixed-use, commercial and office high rises.

The Core zones are a consolidation of over a dozen existing land use districts in the Greater Downtown. This would dramatically reduce the number of zones and instead leverage the Greater Downtown Plan and Beltline Area Redevelopment Plan to guide development beyond Zoning Bylaw regulations.


Survey

Greater Downtown Plan

From 2018 to 2021, The City embarked on a process to create a new plan for the Greater Downtown area. That process included extensive engagement with the public and interested parties to inform the direction.

The Calgary Plan will modernize the Greater Downtown policy direction to support the Greater Downtown Plan and reflect the results of engagement.