| Greater Forest Lawn could be the next area in Calgary to undergo a dramatic makeover if members of the International Avenue Design Initiative (IADI) have their way.
The initiative, which is a partnership between the International Avenue Business Revitalization Zone (BRZ) and the University of Calgary’s environmental design faculty, released its vision for the neighbourhood this week. It includes plans for a streetcar system, a world-class promenade along the Bow Escarpment from Memorial Drive to 26th Avenue S.E. to take advantage of views of the Rockies, and a whole-scale redesign of 17th Avenue S.E. (International Avenue) to make it a more vibrant, pedestrian-friendly street and not just a major traffic thoroughfare. The plan also proposes building a cogeneration plant at the landfill site near Elliston Park, which would harness energy released from the landfill and use it to heat surrounding development. The next step will be to determine how much it would cost to make the vision a reality, and where the money would come from.
"Our mandate is to revitalize International Avenue. bring beauty to the avenue and greater pride to the citizens of Forest Lawn," says Robert Kirby, a retired University of Calgary professor in the faculty of environmental design. "We see International Avenue becoming one of the premier streets in Calgary."
Gian-Carlos Carra, a masters student in environmental design who has been working on the initiative, says now is the time to address the bad planning that led to Greater Forest Lawn’s current woes. He says Forest Lawn, which was once a town, was cut off from the rest of the city by Deerfoot Trail, and then a disproportionate amount of social housing was created in the area, leading to "ghettoization."
"It became the rug where (the city) swept all their problems."
Carra says what’s amazing about Forest Lawn is "in spite of all this it has become an incredibly vibrant, ethnically diverse community and really is poised to represent the future face of Calgary."
What is likely to be one of the more controversial aspects of the plan is a recommendation against proceeding with nonstop suburban expansion from the edge of Forest Lawn all the way to Chestermere. The City of Calgary and the Municipal District (MD) of Rockyview are currently at odds about what should happen with the land on Calgary’s southeast boundary. The city wants to annex it and develop it into suburban communities, whereas the MD wants to see country residential. The design initiative proposes a series of villages rather than nonstop development or country residential, which sucks up agricultural land and is actually less environmentally friendly than high-density suburbs.
"We’re saying let’s see if we can find a way to preserve the sense of countryside being right at your doorstep," says Kirby.
Alison Karim-McSwiney, executive director of the International Avenue BRZ, is confident the new redevelopment vision is attainable in Greater Forest Lawn. She says the area is changing and that’s not reflected in local media coverage, which tends to focus on Greater Forest Lawn’s problems with prostitution and crime. Karim-McSwiney points out that there are new condos going up on the eastern edge of Forest Lawn, and she estimates local businesses will invest $17 million into International Avenue in the next year. She adds plans for a new Forest Lawn arts and cultural centre are well underway and organizers are hoping the building will be up and running by 2008.
"This vision will become reality," says Karim-McSwiney. "There’s no question this will become the most exciting area in Calgary."
She says developers have already responded positively to the vision and she’s hoping that the city will consider tax increment financing (TIF) for some areas where redevelopment is proposed, as has already been approved for the East Village and Victoria Park.
"Our time has come. This community has worked so hard. There’s a lot of people that really need to see some major changes," she says.
Under a TIF system, the city would borrow money to fund infrastructure improvements and to clean up contaminated sites, with the expectation that developers will then find the area attractive enough to build in. If successful, the city would then recoup the borrowed money through higher tax revenues from the new development. |
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