by Brenda Erskine, Director, Planning Committee
In the first five months of this year, CHCA’s planning committee has reviewed at least five applications to change the land use bylaw from RC2 (single detached or semi-detached) to RCG (row houses up to 11 metres high) on corner lots within our Heritage Guidelines Areas.
CHCA’s planning committee believes that most of these applications will destroy our heritage assets, and the green space that supports the tree canopy. We believe this is a short-sighted strategy to densify, with long term impacts on the environmental, social, and economic health of our residents. We believe gentle/modest densification is possible, and we’d be happy to work with planning officials and developers on how to achieve it.
That’s why we are making submissions and presentations at City Council. At the latest public hearing on May 16, eight Crescent Heights residents, including four planning committee members, spoke against a proposed land use change at 201 7 Ave NE. We achieved some success, in that Councilor Terry Wong successfully proposed an amendment prior to second reading, to “Withhold second and third readings of Proposed Bylaw 58D2023 until a development permit is at the point of approval.”
The proposed land use change will now go before Council at another public hearing (date to be determined) along with details on building design, setback, landscaping, etc. The developer’s representative said he is willing to work with CHCA’s planning committee on a multi-family unit that isn’t a standard four-unit row house with secondary suites below.
While we didn’t “save” the pre-1945 bungalow on the corner of 7 Avenue and 1 St NE, we have created conditions where the developer will have to listen to neighbourhood concerns about shadowing, massing, loss of privacy, parking, traffic, and overall destruction of green space and tree canopy before he takes his application back to Council for approval. How successful will this be? Stay tuned!
Did You Know?
• Nearly two dozen sites on the City’s Heritage Inventory of Evaluated Historic Resources (Inventory) are in Crescent Heights, including Crescent Heights Senior High School, a Collegiate Gothic landmark built in 1928, and several tree-lined boulevards that reflect the influence of the City Beautiful Movement.
• Our oldest known house, the Steinbrecher residence at 720 1 street NW was built in 1904, 10 years after the Van Wart house in Inglewood, considered one of the oldest houses in Calgary.
• Crescent Heights has the largest number of heritage assets north of the Bow River, according to Calgary’s 2019-2020 Heritage Asset Windshield Survey.
• There are two ways to protect heritage assets (homes):
o One is by the property owner requesting an evaluation by Heritage Calgary, to have their home placed on the Inventory of Heritage Resources. If placed on the Inventory, the owner must then apply for Heritage Designation through City Council. This can take a few years.
o The other way is Direct Control, where at least 90% of heritage asset property owners on a block with at least 50% heritage assets request Council create a special land use bylaw for that block.
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