A bold new vision for the inner-city Beltline area in Calgary has brought together local businesses, community activists and politicians in an alliance to re-energize the heart of the city.

The Beltline Initiative is the cornerstone of a plan developed by the communities of Victoria and Connaught in collaboration with three business revitalization zones (BRZs). The city’s economic future, the report suggests, will primarily rest upon the image of Calgary as an exciting place to live and work.

“When I read the report, I kept whispering to myself ‘yes, yes, yes,’ ” said former Tory senator Ron Ghitter, a longtime resident of the Beltline and inner city who introduced the initiative at a press conference Thursday.

In recent years, says Ghitter, it seems like more attention has been paid to the challenges faced by new communities in Calgary’s sprawling suburbs. “Often, I have thought the inner city has been forgotten.

“We seem to have been stuck with old and outdated planning and transportation principles,” he added. Low-density residential areas, unrealistic parking requirements, and the treatment of sidewalks and open spaces “are all issues that have been treated in the past, I would submit, without vision by our communities and our civic decision-makers.”

Three area business groups, the Victoria Crossing BRZ, the Uptown 17 BRZ and the 4th Street BRZ, united with the communities to promote their vision, which calls for action by both the communities and the private sector. The Beltline region encompasses the area south of the downtown between 17th Avenue S. and the CPR railway tracks, the Elbow River and 14th Street West. It is named after the old electric railway route, the “Belt Line,” which first linked the communities in 1909.

“Local businesses are a big part of where residents go and what residents do in the Beltline area . . . it only makes sense that we work together,” said Connaught community association president Rob Taylor, who helped lead the redevelopment initiative.

The Beltline, he told the meeting, “is the small-business engine of the local economy.”

But the area is also facing significant social challenges, the report notes, including a large number of homeless panhandlers, drug dealers, prostitutes and associated crime. In fact, just outside the Cantos Music Museum at 134 11th Ave. S.E. where the press conference was held, several apparently indigent men dozed among a pile of dirty sleeping bags in the litter-strewn grass.

The report calls for the renewal of the residential-commercial district through improvements to streets and boulevards, parks, zoning regulations and parking standards. Other recommendations include:

* launching a special crime-prevention program
* installing overhead wires underground and paving back lanes
* restoring two-way traffic to 11th and 12th Avenues
* setting a population growth target of more than 40,000 residents over the next 20 years. The area is currently home to about 17,000 people.

Victoria Crossing BRZ chair Heesung Kim said businesses in the Beltline realize they must make the most of what they have, as opposed to favouring unchecked growth. “There’s no question more people in the area will add to the viability of your business,” added Kim, owner of Ed’s Restaurant on 17th Avenue S.E.

Building developer George Schluessel said he believes the Beltline area has the same potential as busy Robson Street in downtown Vancouver.

But current minimum parking stall requirements are one of the factors handcuffing the development of more affordable inner-city housing, said Schluessel, president of ProCura Real Estate, which is building a 22-storey, 162-unit condo project in Connaught.

“Parking regulations shouldn’t be the same as you see in the suburbs,” Schluessel said.

The city has conducted its own study into land-use and development issues in the Beltline, and is expected make its recommendations to city council in June.

“Finally, there is hope,” Ghitter said. “The city is recognizing the importance of a vibrant and dynamic centre and steps are now being taken to do something about it.”