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 worked 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 was 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. When a neighbourhood reaches an age and stage when revitalization and redevelopment naturally start to happen, a local area plan is a helpful tool to have in place.

What is a local area plan?

A local area plan encapsulates a future vision for the area and provides development direction that residents, landowners, builders/developers, City Planners and Councillors can commonly refer to as new development ideas are proposed by property owners and landowners within the area. A local area plan includes the following sections, aiming to answer the accompanying question and includes the associated key components:

1. Visualizing growth – What is the vision for the area? (vision and core ideas)
2. Enabling growth – What type of growth makes sense where and what local/custom direction is needed to realize great development in this area? (future growth concept and development policies)
3. Supporting growth – If growth occurs, what physical and social investments are needed? (future infrastructure and amenity goals/objectives)

For more information on local area planning in Calgary, 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. 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

PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT

Public engagement is now complete.

We are currently in the final phase of the project, REALIZE. The final proposed plan will be shared with the pubic prior to being presented to the Special Policy Committee on Planning & Urban Development on January 13, 2021. Click through each of the tiles below to learn more about each phase of the project.