| The controversy over development next to Spruce Meadows that has dominated city hall recently has galvanized many Calgarians concerned about urban sprawl.
Of the hundreds of Calgarians who crammed into city council chambers on February 9 , many oppose the plan, not because of concerns about protecting Spruce Meadows, but because of worries about the city’s increasing urban sprawl – a problem that has been long downplayed by Calgary Mayor Dave Bronconnier.
"I don’t like how Calgary is developing… Do we want the
city to continue to stretch out like this?" asks Maura Graham, a Calgarian who attended the meeting to express her opinion to city council. "We need to plan these subdivisions… before they start willy-nilly eating up farmland and ducks and wetlands."
The loss of wetlands is a big part of the Spruce Meadows debate, and is a concern in many suburban developments. If the Spruce Meadows plan – officially named the Southwest Community ‘A’ and Employment Centre Area Structure Plan – is adopted, the city will allow a residential development designed for 17,000 people to be built adjacent to Spruce Meadows and the expansion of Spruce Meadows Way to a four-lane road. City staff admitted that two acres of the Radio Tower Creek Wetland would have to be paved over to build the road. Area developers are planning to preserve 60 acres of the wetland as a park.
But many say the loss of such land is only one of the problems with the city’s sprawl.
Graham, an inner city resident, says the city should focus on creating a more vibrant inner core rather than creating more suburbs on the edges of the city.
"People don’t come to a city to visit suburbia," she says.
Dominique Kelly says she’s concerned about Calgary "having a footprint larger than New York City," with a population one-eighth as large, Kelly says she believes urban sprawl contributes to a lack of culture in the city.
"I want to live in a city that’s interesting and cultural," she says. "The rest of Canada sees Calgary as a hick town and we’re not doing anything to change that… If we just plunk down these new communities we can’t expect anything to happen. The suburbs don’t encourage diversity."
Kelly says the city should be looking at ending urban sprawl and should instead start investing in the inner city to create a vibrant downtown core.
Maureen Luchsinger describes herself as a strong supporter of Spruce Meadows but says she also came out to the public hearing to express her concerns about Calgary’s rapidly expanding boundaries.
"All (the city) is doing is building further out," says Luchsinger. "We don’t see any vision or planning at all."
(I have to add detail about what the city is doing with the development plan but can’t yet because the public hearing is ongoing.) |
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