Heritage Local Area Plan is the latest to face stiff Calgary established community test

It hadn’t happened as quickly as they would have liked, but Guy Buchanan thought that as public hearings on the Heritage Local Area Plan approached, they would gain support for restrictive agreements in the area.

According to a social media post by Ward 11 Coun. Kourtney Penner, the Heritage Local Area Plan (LAP) is now due to appear at the April 5 Infrastructure and Planning Committee meeting.

The Heritage LAP consists of the communities of Eagle Ridge, Kelvin Grove, Kingsland, Fairview, Haysboro, Acadian, Southwood, Willow Park, Maple Ridge and Chinook Park.

Back in November 2022, the communities of Eagle Ridge, Kelvin Grove and Chinook Park in southwest Calgary began searching to prevent compaction on their lands through the application of a restrictive agreement. The restrictive agreement could prevent any development other than single family homes in the prescribed area.

When LWC spoke to Buchanan in February, the campaign had achieved more than 50 percent. Their goal was for 90 percent of owners to work approximately.

“We’ve got some time, I was hoping it would happen sooner, but the reality is for a lot of people who are like, ‘hey, this, this is coming out, some of what this group is telling us is happening to us,'” he said Buchanan, one of the campaign organizers and a member of the Chinook Park, Kelvin Grove and Eagle Ridge Community Association (CKE), told LiveWire Calgary in February.

It involves the use of a local neighborhood designation (local planning language) that clarifies the building scale of up to three stories and three or more dwelling units in parts of these communities.

Some refer to it as a blanket rezoning, as this designation is applied to large areas. However, it should be noted that these types of systems are already permitted under current planning law, but are approved on an ad hoc basis.

Restrictive agreements for the area

Buchanan said they want to be able to protect the freestanding single-family neighborhoods in the area. They are willing to do this through the use of a restrictive covenant.

In layman’s terms, a restrictive contract is registered against the title of real estate in Alberta. It is an agreement between property owners in an area that mandates the use and development of those properties. A restrictive federation binds the present and future property owners to the federation. It can be for almost anything – from house color to fence type and number of houses per lot.

Some restrictive agreements include an expiration date, while others do not.

According to the Kahane Law Offices website, removing an agreement can be difficult because any change applies to all properties of the document. If a change or removal is requested, all owners must attend. They said it usually requires a court appearance.

Buchanan said a professional survey showed that 80 percent of the people it reached wanted the community’s individual homes to be protected.

“That wasn’t my opinion, I don’t have to agree with her, but it just confirmed what I saw; It would be what the majority, the vast majority, wanted for our community,” he said.

Not everyone does that, however.

An Eagle Ridge resident speaking to LiveWire Calgary, who asked not to be named because there are only a handful of homes in the neighborhood, said covenants are an undemocratic, outdated tool.

“It basically means we’re going to take power away from our elected officials, who were elected by a majority of Calgarians,” the resident said.

“‘We will take matters into our own hands and make decisions that we believe will benefit us, our property and our neighborhood without regard to the rest of the city.'”

Provincial wedge edition perhaps?

The resident has viewed literature from both the restrictive Covenant campaign and the City of Calgary at the Heritage LAP.

He said City One showcases the work that went into the plan and the vision for redeveloping communities to make them more vibrant and accessible to all Calgarians.

“Then I saw the documents that the association sent out and my reaction was instinctive. It makes me kind of sick,” the resident said.

“I saw the brochure and felt this was a new low.”

The local resident said he was concerned this was the ideal type of property rights wedge to find its way into a provincial election.

The province answered questions about possible changes or additions to property rights related to restrictive covenants. They said the province has no role in developing or implementing a restrictive agreement, other than registering it with the Land Title Office.

“The creation, approval and enforcement of a restrictive agreement is the responsibility of the parties to the agreement, and in cases where a restrictive agreement is made a condition of a subdivision permit or a development permit, it can be enforced by the communities,” it said in an email reply from Michael Francour, A/Asst Communications Director, Alberta Municipal Affairs.

“Concerns regarding the use of restrictive agreements for certain neighborhoods in the City of Calgary should be directed to the City or landowners/developers for the affected developments.”

The density is fine in the right areas

Buchanan said he hopes councilors remain open-minded on the issue. Also, they hope to get a rationale for opening each neighborhood to density. He said no one has been able to tell them how many homes would be needed in Calgary to meet the city’s goal of 50 percent urban area growth (the 2070 urban development plan target).

He said there are huge corridors – Macleod Trail or adjacent transit stations – ripe for high-density development. Buchanan cited projects like Midtown Station as an example of achieving crowd density.

If they quantify the need, the city could work to support those larger projects that would add thousands of units to Calgary, he said.

“There are more options along the Macleod Trail. Some of the old, worn, tired commercial properties, single story, could be repurposed to accommodate the density we need to accommodate,” Buchanan said.

When asked if someone in Calgary could live in any community, Buchanan said people could choose where they wanted to live. He said there are many options for living in different areas around Calgary depending on what stage of life you are in.

“We don’t have to worry about single-family homes, which at the end of the day are at the top of the real estate chain when it comes to desirable family locations; They want a patch of grass in the back and stuff like that,” Buchanan said.

When asked if they would accept the density in busy corridors or neighborhood main streets, Buchanan said a conversation had to be had. But he said there wasn’t one yet. According to him, a plan was presented to them. No real discussion.

The city’s engagement page summarized what they heard and how it is reflected in the plan.

Densification percentage compared to the original plan

District 11 district. Kourtney Penner said the working groups that provided community interests with an opportunity to review plan maps were conducted throughout the making of the Heritage LAP.

She compared it to changes in the Westbrook Local Area Plan.

“What originally started, like the original extent and scope of compaction, is a fraction of it. It’s actually, I mean, I’d say it’s disappointing,” Coun said. said bum.

“I think I think they’ve backed off too far and it’s actually not going to help us meet our goals.

“I also recognize that this was a community-led initiative. That was thousands of submissions to a community-wide plan, and the community says it can tolerate that.”

Regarding goals and how to quantify them, Coun. Penner said that would require a lot of assumptions about what the market will build. There are many factors to consider – including the number of people in each unit – that are difficult to pinpoint.

She said the current Heritage LAP is doing exactly what Buchanan wants. Density is along major corridors and near transit stations.

As far as the restrictive covenant goes, Coun. Penner hopes they’ll take a step back and look at the positives of how this has taken shape. She said she would not discourage anyone from walking this route and having conversations with their neighbors.

“I encourage them to do that — and I think their neighbors have spoken,” Coun said. said bum.

“I would encourage them to just think about their efforts and think about the conversations that are happening in the community and maybe try to steer them towards something that brings people together for positive and net benefit of the community and not something that that might be a bit controversial and divisive.”