Out the back door of City Hall lies the part of downtown that doesn’t rise from the streetscape in glittering glass and steel.
The East Village’s time of renewal is coming – not in the form of office towers, but as a pedestrian-friendly residential and mixed commercial neighbourhood.
The east end’s image has been one obstacle to redevelopment of the area, which runs from 3rd Street S.E. to 6th Street S.E. and the from the Bow River to the CPR tracks along 9th Avenue S.E.
Ian Fawcett, the city’s head of downtown and inner city planning, says another challenge is the fact that most of the 15-block area is situated in the Bow River flood plain. Even with the dams upstream, the flood-plain definition exists for a once-in-a-century event, he told a lunch meeting of University of Calgary MBA alumni last week.
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| An artist's rendering of how Canal Street will look in the plans to redevelop Calgary's East Village, near City Hall. |
The positive side is that much of the land is empty, so it will be easier to develop. The buildout would take 10 to 15 years to complete.
Engineering studies show that the best way to deal with the flood-plain problem is to raise the land and reinstall the services beneath the roadways. That imposes a major infrastructure cost on East Village redevelopment, he says.
Brett Young, general manager of Progressive Engineering Ltd., says raising the roads and service is a major challenge. Existing buildings have people living or working in them, so access must be maintained during the work. It will have to be done over a period of years, he notes.
Many of the existing utilities are old and too small for the next stage of development, such as the pipes dating back to about 1910.
The other major challenge is the engineering design of the proposed canal and river promenade.
Fawcett says East Village divides in two at 4th Street S.E. The eastern portion is residential and the western part a commercial transition area. (Long-time Calgary landmarks such as the Cecil and St. Louis hotels, as well as the King Eddy, are part of the East Village.)
The residential target market would be low- and middle-income. Commercial space east of 4th Street and north of 6th Avenue is limited to 16,000 square metres. South of 6th Avenue, it’s limited to 17,000 square metres, and there is no limit west of 4th Street. The west side of the area is a transition zone to commercial and administrative area beyond City Hall.
The northwest corner of the Fort Calgary site – once a natural wetland – will have a storm water management area (a new wetland). When the redevelopment is complete, 9,500 people could be living in the East Village, mostly east of 4th Street S.E. Density would be about 200 units per acre, similar to the west end of downtown. By comparison, the Beltline’s residential sector runs to 160 units per acre.
Fourth Street could be rerouted on top of or under the railway track – possibility, but not a certainty, Fawcett stresses. “It’s the only potential change in the road pattern in that area.”
Fifth Street is mandated as the major pedestrian route into the heart of the village from the river and will boast “pedestrian-oriented features.” One option is to have the canal curving slightly at the 8th Avenue end, where it will open into a pond and public plaza.
The north end of the canal would be at a highly commercial, urban river edge, “like Eau Claire, only more so,” Fawcett told the MBA lunch.
Commercial and retail development, as well as townhouses, could front the pathway.
The developer for the area, East Village Development Corp. (EVDC), is a joint venture of the city and a consortium of three private sector companies, Pointe of View, Royop and UBG Builders.
The city owns about half the land in the area, which it has vested in the EVDC, and the rest has a variety of private owners. Zoning could go to city council for approval in March.
Debbie Graham, manager of residential planning and development in the city’s corporate properties department, says initial projects could be under way by this fall and major work could begin in the spring of 2003. The eastern end will likely be developed first and the commercial area later.
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