2023 was a busy year for your ECCA.
ARP Amendments
An Area Redevelopment Plan (ARP) is an overview document that helps guide all development in the neighbourhood and should only rarely be changed for significant purposes, it’s not meant to be amended by individual developers who want to make passage of their future Land Use application easier.
Our ARP was hard-fought and hard-won long before any of the current board members were in place, but we were aware of the work that had gone into determining how our residential neighbourhood should look, particularly along the edges where it interfaces with the commercial towers of downtown, and we weren’t willing to give up on a gradation which included mixed use.
Fortunately, our Councillor, Terry Wong got everyone around one table, and we were able to express our deep concerns around how each major project (Green Line LRT, redevelopment of the Eau Claire Market site, and redevelopment of the former YMCA site) was asking for fundamental changes to our ARP without any consultation with ECCA or each other.
Once the right people were in the room, we found the city to be very responsive to our concerns. Everyone agreed that certain changes were required, such as allowing an LRT station, and we managed to more clearly define what “mixed use” and “transit-oriented development” mean and how the use of those terms would impact the outer edges of our neighbourhood. The vision for our neighbourhood has not substantially changed while the terms have been updated to recognize changes that had to be made now that our furthest eastern edge has transit being developed.
Land Use Application Reviews
• Greenline Lands DC – they have created a DC that complies with the Commercial Residential District (CR20-C20/R20) and adds everything they need for transit. Our only concern was that they are allowed a maximum of 124 short-term parking spots. Their vision is a surface lot after the underground construction is done but before the surface construction begins. We requested they explicitly exclude Park and Ride at this location.
• Eau Claire Market Lands – this DC is in line with the formerly approved project and the currently imagined project. We also requested they explicitly exclude Park and Ride at this location.
• YMCA Lands – the DC is quite different because it’s based on the Centre City East Village Mixed Use District (CC-EMU). They chose that format because this site is more in the residential part of Eau Claire than the other two developments.
While we attended the City Council hearing to express our concerns, mostly about parking and a clause in the CC-EMU that would allow an increase in office use under certain circumstances, all three DCs were approved as presented.
This experience confirmed that our impact is greater earlier in the process, so we’ll continue to pro-actively represent Eau Claire’s residents.
Office to Residential Conversions – Updates from the Downtown Strategy Group
• There are five approved projects in or very near to our neighbourhood.
• The agreements with each developer are confidential and the process is fast tracked which eliminates the usual consultation process with CAs.
• Not every project is low-cost housing.
• None of these five projects were expected to have a social-services component like the Inn From the Cold conversion has.
• In order to keep these conversions affordable, new construction mandates, such as street-front interfaces with the community are not required.
• They look at these developments in concert with one another and with the neighbourhood they are in.
• They will ask the developers to speak to us as plans are finalized.
Our directors attended many meetings to improve communications and express our concerns and our visions for our neighbourhood. This includes the following:
o Quarterly meetings with all Ward 7 CAs, with various city departments represented.
o including transit, CPS, Downtown Strategy, and many others.
o Addressing wicked problems: Digging at the roots of crime and disorder.
o Downtown programming and activation meetings.
o Downtown safety leadership.
o Green Line quarterly business insights panel.
o Safety and security meetings.
o Follow-up meetings with active developers to get updates.
o Project Manager of the Eau Claire Public Realm.
Mural
Eau Claire’s first mural was completed this year by Calgary artist Sarah Slaughter. Sarah has helped us to commemorate our 30th anniversary as a community association with a colourful mural depicting the heritage of The Eau Claire Lumber Company from which we got our name.
We are very grateful to the City of Calgary for funding this project through their Downtown Strategy Programming Funding. This heritage project includes a second part which will be available on our webpage within a few months. This project will commemorate many more points in our history, from the initial use by local First Nations communities onwards.
LobbyFest
2023 saw the first of what we hope will be many annual LobbyFest events.
Community members had a chance to meet each other and various ECCA board members while enjoying appetizers and beverages.
Communication
This newsletter remains our primary communications tool, but we’ve been working on others too.
• We improved our building contacts and are getting posters into more buildings.
• We’ve begun posting more on Instagram and are working to reactivate our Facebook, Threads, and Twitter profiles.
• We’ve resolved our issues with email, and you can once again reach us reliably on [email protected].
Overall, this has been an active year, and we are looking forward to a great 2024. Please feel free to let us know your concerns and interests.
Click here to the Eau Claire Community News home page for the latest Eau Claire community updates.
