City Council has approved 14 new suburban communities to be built over the coming years, including four communities in Ward 2 within the Glacier Ridge Area Structure Plan. This includes the redevelopment of the Symons Valley Ranch, which will be moving forward very soon. The new market will support 140 vendors and provide over 220 jobs. There will also be opportunities in the Ag-Tech industry to establish new businesses. In total, there will be over 1300 jobs created within the full build out of the new Symons Valley Ranch and over 2400 construction jobs.
The three other communities approved within Glacier Ridge are north of 144th Avenue. The approval of these communities will provide over $1 Billion of investment in Ward 2 and nearly $200 million of developer funded levees to support infrastructure in our communities. This includes the connection of 144th Avenue between Evanston and Symons Valley Road. These projects will also help advance my priority infrastructure projects—the 14th Street Interchange and twinning the Shaganappi Trail Interchange on Stoney Trail. I hope to be able to announce construction timelines of these projects this fall.
While Council continues to move forward with the potential Olympic Bid, I continue to be very concerned with the cost to taxpayers. On July 30th, I voted against spending an additional $5 million on the Bid. Furthermore, Councillors Chu, Farkas, and I put forward a motion to make the work of Calgary’s Olympic BidCo subject to the same freedom of information laws that apply to public bodies in the province. Unfortunately, Council did not support our motion for greater transparency on the Olympic Bid.
As our kids get back to school, please use extra caution on our roadways. Please also respect traffic and parking restrictions around schools so that our kids will be safe.
