| City council took the first step towards the massive new Symons Valley suburban development in northern Calgary on April 7, but some aldermen expressed concern about the long-term viability of such suburbs.
Although the issue gained controversy thanks to a diatribe by Mayor Dave Bronconnier against the development industry for the length of negotiations over a new levy to help pay for infrastructure, the larger issues surrounding suburban developments raised the eyebrows of other members of council.
Ald. Druh Farrell expressed concern about the long-term viability of the proposed suburb, which will eventually house as many people as Red Deer, thanks to a lack of transit support and its automobile-centred neighbourhoods and shopping centres.
"This community is going to look the same in 100 years as it does (when it’s first constructed)," Farrell says.
A city administrator says planning for the project invoked some measures of the city’s own sustainable suburbs plan, but admitted there isn’t much significantly different than past suburb projects that have worried sustainability advocates.
Council, however, voted to move forward with the plan, even though it hinges on a deal with developers over the new levy. The Symons Valley plan was originally postponed last year because council said it couldn’t afford to pay for the infrastructure, and it worried about the cost of burdening existing facilities with such a large expansion of the city.
However, city administrators now say that if a new levy deal is reached to force developers to fork over more money for infrastructure costs, the city can afford the development.
Bronconnier says the only thing standing in the way of new suburban approvals is that deal.
"(The levy deal) seems to be on the rails one day and off the rails the next," Bronconnier says. "Now we’re caught in the bind of not wanting to approve certain sized developments because we don’t have the money to build the necessary infrastructure."
But even with that deal, Ald. John Schmal expressed worry about the most high-profile problem with Calgary’s suburban development model – traffic.
The new development may provide too much traffic for a planned Stoney Trail expansion and could throw the area into stagnant gridlock like other suburban areas of the city. Schmal also worries tentative federal and provincial funding for Stoney Trail may be at risk because that money was predicated on the route being a free-flowing ring around the city, but to avoid traffic lights, as many as nine expensive interchanges would have to be built.
"We’re headed into exactly the same situation as in south Calgary," Schmal says. "We’re starting all over again making the same mistakes." |
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