PROJECT UPDATE

On July 27, 2020, Council directed Administration to revise the Guidebook for Great Communities (Guidebook) and the North Hill Communities Local Area Plan based on feedback received from stakeholders (outlined in the report and attachments found on the Council Agenda at 7.6 and 7.7.) and return back to PUD no later than January 2021.

For the North Hill Communities Local Area Plan, a key area of focus will be completing refinements to the plan (noted in the Attachment 2 of the North Hill Communities Council report), including an update to the future growth concept based on the new Urban Form Categories that are created through the Guidebook work. Updates on the Guidebook revisions can be found at Calgary.ca/Guidebook.

Based on direction from Council, the scope of the revisions and background understanding that is required, we are engaging with targeted stakeholders and citizens who have been closely involved in the creation of the North Hill Communities Local Area Plan.

North Hill Communities Local Area Plan – Update on Revisions (October 2020)

In parallel to the Guidebook refinements, the North Hill team has been refining the North Hill Communities Local Area Plan. Focus areas for refinement are based on previous stakeholder feedback and direction provided by Council (captured in Attachment 2 of the North Hill Communities Council report). Three North Hill engagement sessions were held in late September with key stakeholders (North Hill Working Group alumni, community association representatives and development industry representatives). They reviewed and discussed changes to the draft plan, as well as recent updates to the Guidebook. The engagement sessions focused on the following key areas:

• Urban Form Categories: discussing updates to the draft plan to accommodate the Guidebook’s revised urban form categories.
• Transit Station Areas: incorporating Green Line’s new 9 Avenue N. station, and new subsections of the plan dealing with specific station areas.
• History and Heritage Planning Areas: reviewing the revised History section and discussing the revised data set and boundaries for Heritage Planning Areas within the draft plan.
• Chapter 3 – Supporting Growth: reviewing the revised chapter including the newly consolidated set of implementation actions.

The North Hill team is currently working on additional refinements to the plan, based on input received through the stakeholder sessions and additional Guidebook refinements. The next steps include: sharing the revised draft plan with Calgary Planning Commission (November 5) and making any additional refinements; sharing the final draft plan with key stakeholders (mid-to-late November); publishing the revised proposed plan on Calgary.ca (likely December); and returning to PUD with the revised proposed plan in no later than January 2021.

The North Hill Communities Local Growth Planning initiative includes the communities of: Highland Park, Mount Pleasant, Tuxedo Park, Winston Heights-Mountview, Crescent Heights, Renfrew, Rosedale, Capitol Hill and Thorncliffe Greenview (south of Mcknight Blvd).

Through the local growth planning process, we’ll work together to create a future vision for how land could be used and redeveloped in the area – building on the vision, goals and policies outlined in Calgary’s Municipal Development Plan and the Guidebook.

The North Hill Communities Local Area Plan will be informed by the proposed Guidebook for Great Communities. To learn more about this Guidebook, please click here.

Why is this happening?

Communities change and evolve over the years. Buildings gain character, community demographics change, trees mature, local amenities and businesses change ownership and offerings. A big part of a community’s life cycle is redevelopment, which often begins when communities reach a certain age and homes, buildings and amenities need to be refreshed and revitalized or renewed and replaced.

Looking more broadly, across the whole city, we need to consider where and how growth and development should happen. We need to consider the sustainability and our city’s urban footprint, we need to ensure existing infrastructure can be maintained and amenities and facilities in established neighbourhoods have the population needed to support them to ensure they continue to thrive. We also need to balance the need to grow and develop with the need to retain and enhance the unique character of our neighbourhoods, historical resources and the natural environment.

The City is responsible for managing growth and development across Calgary and looks at how and where growth should happen. There are key areas where growth and development is encouraged and a city-wide plan for growth to be distributed between developed and new communities.

What is local growth planning?

Through local growth planning, we look at the fabric of a specific local area, the community’s vision for the evolution of the community, the ideal places to accommodate growth, and how to make the best use of limited land – balancing the need to increase density, improve mobility and enhance places and spaces to live, work and play.

Increased growth and redevelopment is anticipated in the communities of Greenview, Highland Park, Mount Pleasant, Tuxedo Park, Winston Heights-Mountview, Crescent Heights, Renfrew, Rosedale, Capitol Hill over next few decades.

Working together, we will create a local area plan(s) to help guide growth and redevelopment in a way that integrates and enhances existing community character and ensures the area is vibrant and thriving in the future.

For more information on the City of Calgary's Local Area Plan strategy, please click here.

Through the local growth planning process, we’ll work together to create a future vision for how land could be used and redeveloped in the area – building on the vision, goals and policies outlined in Calgary’s Municipal Development Plan and the Guidebook for Great Communities

A new local area plan(s) will fill gaps in communities where no local plan currently exists and replace other plans that are largely outdated.

Currently, the North Hill Communities area has ten local policy documents, each covering different portions of the area. These documents were originally created between 1977 and 2017 including:

• Highland Village Green Design Guidelines (2017)
• 16 Avenue North Urban Corridor Area Redevelopment Plan (2017)
• South Nose Creek Site Plan (2008)
• Winston Heights / Mountview Area Redevelopment Plan (2006)
• North Hill Area Redevelopment Plan (2000)
• Crescent Heights Area Redevelopment Plan (1997)
• Centre Street North Special Study (1989)
• North Bow Special Study (1979)
• Inner City Policy Plan (1979)
• North Bow Design Brief (1977)

(date in brackets indicates year of original adoption or when an entire new version was adopted)

Updating and consolidating policies in the above plans will provide a more comprehensive picture of where growth should occur in the future. This is particularly important for growth corridors such as Edmonton Trail NE, Centre St N, 16 Avenue N and 4 St NW that are within or adjacent to multiple communities. The City is preparing to invest in upgrades to the streets and sidewalks of Edmonton Trail NE and Centre St N to provide more options for safe travel by pedestrians and cyclists while still accommodating vehicle traffic. Further, identifying local growth opportunities along these corridors and within communities is important in order to support existing schools facing declining enrollment, retain and expand the variety of commercial and retail services and support recent and future investment in transit infrastructure, including the Green Line and North Crosstown BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) services.

For those wanting to do further reading, here are some helpful background documents on the project, City planning processes and/or growth and redevelopment. As the project progresses, this library will be added to.

Background handouts:

• Why developed neighbourhoods need to grow and evolve
• How we will grow - MDP Map and Goals
• How we guide growth and redevelopment
• Raising a smart city - Smarter Growth Initiative
• Land Use Redesignations - How it works
• Changing Housing Preferences & Needs - Area Statistics
• North Hill Communities - Main Streets Summaries

Background videos:

• What is Urban Planning?
• Planning for Growth in Established Areas

Background maps:

• North Hill Communities - Building Age Map
• North Hill Communities - Existing Land Use Districts
• North Hill Communities - MDP Map
• North Hill Communities - Parks & Open Space Map
• North Hill Communities - Development Activity (2012-2017)

Other projects in the area:

• Learn about Main Streets
• Learn about Green Line

GET INVOLVED

Get involved today by learning more about why developed communities need to evolve, how growth and redevelopment is managed and why local area plans are important – DISCOVER and learn more now.

We have completed all three phases of public engagement. The final proposed plan will be shared prior to being presented to the Special Policy Committee on Planning & Urban Development at the end of February. Stay tuned for more details or click through each of the buttons below to see what we have accomplished.

There will be multiple opportunities to get involved and provide input within each phase. Learn more about who can get involved and how public input will be used by clicking on the tabs below.

Opportunities to get involved online will be linked below and details about event in the community will be shared in the "Key Dates" section on this page.

Anyone who is interested in the project can get involved. This includes anyone who lives, works or visits in the area, anyone who owns property or land, anyone who is considering opening a business in the area or proposing a new building or development in the area.

Having a broad range of participants and input will help ensure a variety of perspectives are considered in the development of the local area plan.

The City defines engagement as:

Your input, and the input of other citizens and stakeholders, helps City decision makers understand people’s perspectives, opinions, and concerns. Input collected in each phase of the project will be compiled and share through a What We Heard report.

Decision makers will consider public input and aim to demonstrate how input has influenced decisions or if decisions were not influenced by public input, explain why.

Although it would be a great outcome, the goal of public engagement is not to reach consensus or make everyone happy. Public engagement is also not about voting or collecting representative information. Public engagement is about considering the input, ideas and perspectives of people who are interested or impacted by decisions, before decisions are made.

Public input is an important part of local area planning, but is one of many areas of consideration in the decision-making process.

Learn more about engagement at The City, visit engage.calgary.ca/about.

Multi-Community Local Area Plan Engagement Program Overview

The engagement program created for the multi-community local area plans will provide the opportunity for citizens to participate in meaningful engagement and have input into the decisions that determine how their community will look and function in the future. As we developed our program the following considerations were made to help influence the overall process.

1. Phased Program

The engagement process for the multi-community plans has been designed as a multi-phased approach where we will collect input at key intervals throughout the planning process.

First we will look to gain a high-level understanding of the strengths, challenges, opportunities and threats about future redevelopment in the area from the broader public. This high-level input collected will be used to inform conversations with the project working group where we will do a deeper dive into technical planning matters to develop draft concepts and ideas.

Then we will share the draft concepts that have been created and informed by the public feedback previously received. The public will be asked to provide feedback that helps evaluate the proposed concepts to inform the final plan.

Lastly, we will share the final proposed plan and demonstrate how what we heard throughout the engagement process has been considered in the final plan.

2. Inclusive Process

Throughout our engagement we will ensure an inclusive engagement process that considers the needs of all stakeholders and seeks to remove barriers for participation. We will do our best to make public engagement accessible to all, despite their resource levels or demographics that might prevent them from being included in the process. We will ensure that, at the very least, they are aware of the opportunity to participate and know we are interested in hearing from them. Accessibility accommodations will be made available for engagement events by request. Participants can request accommodations in advance through 311.

3. Participation Interests & Intensity

Our engagement program has been designed to cater to the different participation interests and intensity that stakeholders are willing to commit to a project. This includes having a variety of communications and engagement tactics available for involvement so that people are able to get involved at the level that best suits their needs. Every project and its corresponding stakeholders require a different mix of online and in-person techniques. The techniques selected for a project will be informed by the local context of an area, where we will look to balance the needs of all of the stakeholders in the multi-community plan area, and how involved they are willing to get.

4. Grassroots Conversations

Throughout our engagement we will look to take a grassroots approach and create a sense of community, positive advocacy and grassroots community participation. We will look to achieve this by empowering stakeholders to have conversations and ignite interest about growth and redevelopment with their fellow community members. We will look to engage with citizens while they are out at various destinations or events through the community and ignite interest in the planning process.

5. One City/ One Voice

During our engagement we will look to better serve citizens, communities and customers through our program approach in a way that is cohesive, collaborative and integrated and works together as “One” for “Calgary.” Where timelines and resources allow we will ensure coordination and collaboration with other City departments and projects to ensure a One City/ One Voice approach.

6. Clear Stakeholder Reporting

We will achieve transparency through clear stakeholder reporting and ensure that we connect the dots between the input being sought and how this is used to inform decisions through the entire process.