Thank you to everyone who provided feedback in
Phase 3: Refine.
Opportunities to provide feedback as part of this phase were open September 17 - October 15, 2024, and have now closed.All feedback provided will be shared in a What We Heard Report in the next phase, anticipated for Winter 2025. A What We Did Report will also be shared outlining key themes raised and outlining how feedback was considered and used.
Stay connected and subscribe for project updates to learn about future opportunities to get involved.
The local area plan is not finalized. Your input is needed to help make changes to the draft maps and community improvement ideas.
Project Information
Get Involved
- In-person Engagement Session
- Wednesday October 2, 2024 - 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- Marda Loop Communities Association (3130 16 St SW)
- Registration not required. Drop in anytime.
- Thursday, September 26 from 7 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
- Wednesday, October 9 from 7 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
- A brief presentation, followed by the opportunity to ask questions and provide input.
- REGISTER HERE for virtual engagement sessions.
This video presentation gives an overview of Phase 3 Engagement.
Engagement booklets will be mailed to homes and businesses starting the week of September 17, 2024. These Engagement Booklets include a feedback form on the back page that includes pre-paid postage to mail back to us. Drop the feedback form in the mail by October 15, 2024.
A digital version of the Engagement Booklet is available if you did not receive one and/or you can find a booklet at an Engagement Station (see map) nearby.
Provide your feedback online from September 17 to October 15, 2024.
There are multiple topics open for feedback:
- Topic 1: Heritage Guidelines
- Topic 2: Draft Urban Form and Building Scale Maps
- Topic 3: Community Improvements
Click the tabs below to review information and provide feedback on each topic.
Introduction
Change is Inevitable. Let's Create a Plan to Guide It.
It's not about if things will change, but how things will change.
Property owners and landowners can propose to make changes to their land, like adding a new deck or building a new home. These changes are often a result of people’s needs and preferences evolving over time.
When someone proposes a change or a new project, a local area plan helps guide decisions on how the area should develop. This plan is used by residents, landowners, builders, developers, city planners, and councillors to ensure that new developments fit well with the community's needs and goals.
The purpose of a local area plan aims to offer flexibility for people who want to make changes, provide certainty for current residents, and guide development proposals in a way that benefits the community.
Redevelopment is a natural part of a community’s life cycle, which often begins when communities reach a certain age and homes, buildings and amenities need to be refreshed and revitalized or renewed and replaced.
The first 20 years
New communities tend to draw many young families and typically reach their peak population within the first 20 years.
Years 30–40
Population begins to decline as children begin to move away from home.
40–60+ years later
Homes and buildings age while the population continues to drop or flatline. Schools and businesses often struggle to stay open.
Redeveloped and revitalized
The community is revitalized through private redevelopment and public reinvestment, bringing increased population growth and enabling local businesses and amenities to thrive.
FAQ
It is anticipated that the West Elbow Communities Local Area Plan will be presented to City Council in spring 2025. In the meantime, while the draft Plan is being developed and until Council makes a decision on the proposed Plan, active land use amendment and development permit applications will be reviewed against existing Council approved policy plans, such as the Municipal Development Plan and existing area redevelopment plans.
Those details are not in the scope of a local area plan; however, at the development permit stage details such as building design, site constraints, landscaping, parking, utilities and waste and recycling staging areas are discussed and carefully looked at. Privacy is also discussed as part of the design of the new development. For example, glass blocks or frosted glass can be placed when side windows are proposed. All discretionary development permits include the opportunity for the public to provide comments during the review of the proposal as well as to appeal the decision about the proposed development.
Most mature communities, especially those built prior to 1980, are below their historical peak population, so most communities are already designed to handle more people than live here today. Due to the decline in population and higher efficiency houses being built, there is now infrastructure capacity. This includes roads, transit stops, water and wastewater management, etc. to handle more types of housing.
That being said, through the local area planning process, we plan for reinvestment along with redevelopment. Chapter 3 of the local area plan (Supporting Growth) highlights key community improvements desired within the West Elbow Communities. We are looking for feedback on community improvements now to ensure we are capturing all the ways we need to support growth and change in the area.
A local area plan sets the vision for growth and change in a group of communities and takes into considerations the need to balance population across both new and established communities.
As Calgary continues to grow and evolve, the number of school-age children in each community changes. This means some schools may meet or exceed their capacity. As a result, some schools may be expanded or modernized to meet demand, while others may face decreasing enrolment.
The City works with the public and Catholic school boards to provide information such as: demographic composition of new and established communities, community growth/decline rates, birth data, and census data, which can help with capacity and school utilization planning.
Council voted to approve citywide rezoning with amendments on May 14, 2024. Please visit calgary.ca/RezoningforHousing for more information. Approved local area plans, those currently underway, as well as all future local area plans must align with Council direction.
- Local area plans will align with Council's decision to support rowhouses across local area plans.
- Through the citywide rezoning, Council has decided where small-scale homes are appropriate and this is no longer a topic that we will engage on within the local area planning process.
- The focus will now be on helping people understand how the citywide rezoning fits with local area plans.
Have Your Say
Click on each topic tab, review the info, and submit your feedback!
Topic 1: Heritage Guidelines
You can read the Heritage Guideline policy in detail. The policy is also found in Draft Chapter 2 of the West Elbow Local Area Plan pages.
Heritage Guidelines Areas
Heritage Guidelines Areas have concentrations of heritage assets (homes built prior to 1945), sometimes known as character homes. Concentrations of heritage assets have been identified in the communities of Bankview, Cliff Bungalow, Elbow Park, Lower Mount Royal, Mission, Roxboro, Rideau Park, Scarboro, South Calgary, Sunalta, and Upper Mount Royal.
Draft 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 Heritage Guidelines are in place, any plans to build or renovate homes within the boundaries must meet the Heritage Guidelines.
Review the Draft Heritage Guidelines here.
Heritage CharacteristicsHeritage guidelines will address |
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| Roof pitch or style and general massing | Front facade projections | |||
| New Development | ||||
| 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 that new development have an historic appearance nor to prevent redevelopment. Instead, the Heritage Guidelines are written to encourage modern development that echoes the unique history established by existing heritage assets. |
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| Site access, design, and front yard setbacks | Window and/or door pattern |
TOPIC 1: PROVIDE YOUR INPUT
Your input and the input of others will help inform refinements to draft Chapter 2 of the local area plan (including the draft Heritage Guidelines and supporting policies). Local area plans help guide decisions about development if/when proposals are brought forward by property and landowners in area.
Topic 2: Local Area Plan Maps
Draft Local Area Plan Maps
There are two maps in a local area plan that show where buildings should go based on their use (urban form) and their size (building scale).
| Map 1: Draft Urban Form Map The Urban Form Map shows types of buildings and what they should be used for. These can include primarily commercial/business areas, primarily industrial areas, primarily residential areas and parks and open space. |
Map 2: Draft Building Scale Map The Building Scale Map shows the maximum height and size buildings can be in a specific area. Scale categories contain policies that outline building heights and other design considerations such as stepbacks (where higher floors are setback from lower floors). |
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These maps are intended to be read together to fully understand the future direction for a specific area.
Help refine the DRAFT maps
Lots of great input has been provided so far to help create the draft maps. These draft maps are not finalized and we need your feedback to help us refine them.
- These maps are draft and currently open for discussion. Feedback provided will be used to help refine the maps.
- Local area plan show where buildings should go based on their use (urban form) and their size (building scale). These maps help guide decisions property owners and landowners want to develop their land in the future.
- Property owners and landowners are the ones who decide if and when to propose building something new on their land.
- If a property owner or landowner wants to build something that doesn't fit with their current zoning, they need to apply to rezone their land. If there's a local area plan in place, it will be reviewed to help inform the decision on the proposed rezoning.
- Land isn't rezoned as part of the local area planning process or when a local area plan is approved by Council. Rezoning happens through a different process that includes a detailed City review and recommendation, public notification, chances for people to give their feedback, and a public hearing of Council.
To review all the policies regarding Urban Form and Building Scale, please refer to the draft Chapter 2 of the West Elbow Local Area Plan.
Legend - Urban Form Categories and Building Scale
| Urban Form Categories | Building Scale | |
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You can also view these maps on pages 11 and 12 of the Phase 3 Engagement Booklet.
TOPIC 2: PROVIDE YOUR INPUT
Your input and the input of others will help inform refinements to draft Chapter 2 of the local area plan (including the draft Urban Form and Building Scale Maps, and supporting policies). Local area plans help guide decisions about development if/when proposals are brought forward by property and landowners in area.
Topic 3: Community Improvements
Local area plans provide direction on potential future community improvements such as changes to amenities, services, parks and open spaces, public spaces and public facilities.
Examples could include projects such as:
- upgrades to parks
- wider sidewalks
- new bikeway/pathway connections
- increased tree canopy
Community improvements should link to the core values created for the area. They are meant to be actionable and should be of benefit to the whole of the West Elbow Communities area. Community improvements may be implemented by various groups including The City, developers, communities, etc. in connection with redevelopment if and when funding becomes available.
Core Values and Community Improvements
Do you have any additional ideas for community improvements that would help support growth and change in the West Elbow Communities?
To help frame this discussion, we will refer back to our core values. To review all the policies and suggested improvements in the West Elbow Local Area Plan, please refer to the draft Chapter 3 of the West Elbow Local Area Plan.
TOPIC 3: PROVIDE YOUR INPUT
Your input and the input of others will help inform refinements to draft Chapter 3 of the local area plan (including priorities for investment in the West Elbow Communities). Priority investments and options are identified in the Local Area Plan but do not have associated funding. Investment priorities may be implemented by various groups including The City, developers, communities, etc. in connection with redevelopment or if/when funding becomes available.
Additional Feedback
Additional Feedback: Draft Chapters
The draft Chapter 1, Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 of the West Elbow Communities Local Area Plan are available for review.
Please click on the links to review the draft chapters and give your feedback below.
- Draft Chapter 1 - Information about the history of the area, the area as it exists today, and future vision and core values to help guide growth and change are included in draft Chapter 1.
Chapter 1 draft content was created and refined through engagement in Phase 1: ENVISION.
- Draft Chapter 2 - A refined draft Chapter 2 has been created for review. The Draft Heritage Guidelines and the draft
Urban Form and Building Scale Maps, as well as supporting development direction
(policies) are included in Chapter 2.
Initial Chapter 2 draft content was created based on engagement in Phase 1: ENVISION and was further refined based on feedback provided through Phase 2: EXPLORE. A refined version of Chapter 2 is now available above along with Draft Chapter 3, which will also be refined.
- Draft Chapter 3 - An initial draft of Chapter 3 has been created for review. Priorities
for investment, that support growth and change in the area, are outlined in
Chapter 3.
Chapter 3 draft content was created based on engagement through all phases of engagement and will be further refined based on input collected through Phase 3: REFINE
Next Steps
All feedback will be compiled and included in a What We Heard Report. The project team will use the feedback provided, along with other inputs (see below) to make refinements to the draft local plan area. A What We Did Report will also be created and shared.
The next phase of the project, Phase 4: Realize, is anticipated to launch in early 2025. In this phase an updated final draft version of the West Elbow Communities Local Area Plan will be shared and a variety of opportunities will be available to get involved.
