More buildings and more open space could grow out of a City of Calgary study of the Beltline.
The Calgary planning department and the communities involved showcased possible concepts recently at open houses in the Memorial Park Library.
The concepts grew out of public input at an earlier open house on the area’s future in March. How Calgary deals with growth in terms of density and diversity of suburbs and inner-city neighbourhoods will determine our future as a vibrant metropolis or a paved desert.
The worst possible outcome is a ring of dreary housing tracts around a dead, concrete centre. The best possible case is a necklace of vibrant, sunny residential neighbourhoods around an urban core that never quite goes to sleep in an eclectic hum of arts, oil, technology, accounting and retail.
If you think those are two ways of describing the same thing, you’re right. The difference is how well we do things over the next few years.
The Beltline includes pre-First World War treasures such as the Lorraine Building, the Lougheed House and the Memorial Park Library itself. It also includes a range of apartments, the urban neighbourly face of 11th Street and the business hum of 11th Avenue.
The Beltline has been around a long time and like all neighbourhoods, it’s always a work in progress. City figures show the population of West Victoria and Connaught is weighted to 25- to 34-year-olds, with few school-aged children in the mix.
Half the residents walk to work. City planner Don Schultz says the study focuses on the residential parts of the area. That’s West Victoria from 1st Street S.E. to 4th Street S.W., and Connaught from 4th Street to 14th Street S.W., and from 12th Avenue S. to 17th Avenue S.
The area from 1st Street S.E. to the Elbow River is East Victoria and west of 14th Street S.W. is Sunalta. The Beltline communities also include the Warehouse District from 12th Avenue to the railway tracks.
The study looks at the prevailing residential use in the Beltline. Rules now require an almost suburban level of standards in the middle of the city, Schultz says.
After the March open house, the city engaged Sturgess Architecture to provide concept illustrations showing how things might look based on various scenarios. They include some creative concepts.
“Some might be provocative, but you don’t stimulate debate by being cautious,” says Schultz. A building might include two or three storeys closer to the sidewalk with a tower set back above that.
Proposed policies and regulations for the Beltline will go to city council by the end of 2002. In the meantime, there will be another open house in the fall with a draft policy. Asked about parking in the inner-city neighbourhoods, Schultz says one question might be how much developers should have to provide.
In the future, some urban dwellers might be carless by choice, so the public’s desires have to be considered. If parking affects the unit costs of buildings, the public may rethink the issue in terms of less parking for more affordability.
Cameron Gillies of Sturgess Architecture says a key idea in the Beltline is to build density – retain public spaces, but frame them better. There is a lot of open space if you look around the Beltline, but it’s often not well defined or it’s an odd patch, he says.
Rob Taylor, president of the Connaught Community Association, says Calgarians are interested in an urban lifestyle. The core area defines a city and its success.
“People don’t go as tourists to a city to see its suburbs,” he says. Neighbourhoods should have their own character, as Bankview is different from Connaught.
“You should know when you’ve left the Beltline and gone into Inglewood,” he adds.
Taylor says the community needs density to support the lifestyle and a diversity of building forms. The Beltline neighbourhoods also want quality in development. They don’t want to be defined by those multiple-unit, residential building tower styles of the 1970s, which better resemble concrete blocks.
