| Both environmental and community concerns greeted city council this week as it revived the debate over whether to build a new road extending 37th Street S.W. in order to help ease traffic congestion in the city’s deep south.
During discussions earlier this month about the expansion of Glenmore Trail, a city committee recommended that council give up trying to build a major north-south thoroughfare through the Tsuu T’ina Nation southwest of Calgary and focus on city-owned land instead. That could open the door to an expansion of 37th Street S.W. through Lakeview, including the construction of a road through, or near, the Weaselhead natural area – something environmentalists say could spell disaster.
"This bridge would pave over the most diverse ecological environmental area in the city parks system," says Brent Johner, chair of the Weaselhead/Glenmore Park Preservation Society. "We don’t want to stand in the way of transportation progress, if that’s what you want to call it, but we’re not going to stand for a bridge through Calgary’s rainforest."
Johner says he also isn’t impressed with some of the suggestions that have come forward that aim to build a road through the Weaselhead while trying to maintain its ecological integrity. He says a bridge in the vicinity could destroy a vital migratory bird staging area, and the idea of skirting the area with a road is "nonsense" because it would still have a major impact on the area. He also thinks a tunnel under the Weaselhead would be too expensive.
Johner says the city should stick to the options of either building on Tsuu T’ina land or improving 14th Street S.W..
"These people who believe 37th Street is the silver bullet may find it’s a bronze turtle," he says. "We’re prepared to fight. We’re prepared to raise a big stink and delay this as long as we can."
Similar vows were made by residents who live along 37th Street in Lakeview who are concerned that turning their sleepy road into a major thoroughfare will destroy their community.
Lakeview resident George Reti says the plan would hurt long-standing communities like Lakeview as well as those further along the proposed traffic corridor, such as Glamorgan, for the sake of residents in new suburbs like Evergreen.
He says people who bought property in Lakeview did so with the expectation that 37th Street would stay the way it is, and residents in the southern suburbs bought property fully aware of the traffic woes that awaited them.
"Anybody that bought property did so based on the knowledge of the statutory documents in place at the time.... All of sudden, because of political pressure, they’re changing the rules?
"There is the potential for a class-action lawsuit here," Reti says.
Lakeview Community Association president Craig Cheffins is urging the city to keep negotiating with the Tsuu T’ina to build a road that would leave both Lakeview and the Weaselhead in peace.
Some city councillors, however, say their constituents in south Calgary are simply fed up with the traffic problems and need a solution immediately to improve their quality of life.
Ald. Ric McIvor says the city should only look at building a road on its own property so it has more control over its construction and operation.
"(This motion) will not stop our neighbours from building their own road," Ald. Ric McIvor wrote in a news release. "What it does establish is the principal that Calgary tax dollars for roads should only be spent in Calgary."
Council was also criticized by those who think this latest stab at expanding 37th Street was a backdoor move that emerged from an unrelated committee meeting.
Council agreed to table the issue until a committee meeting in September when submissions from the public will be accepted. |
