I hope that everyone in Eau Claire had a great summer and in particular got a chance to enjoy our community’s newest amenity—the new West Eau Claire Park and river pathway system, even as it’s being completed in mid-September. My impression is that the pathway is already getting a lot more use and that it and the Peace Bridge are major attractions drawing people from the whole city to enjoy our neighbourhood.
Last month I noted that the City was conducting an update of its official Plan for the Centre City—that’s the Downtown Core plus the immediately surrounding neighbourhoods. That includes Eau Claire of course but also our neighbours such as Chinatown, Downtown West, Beltline, and East Village. It was just at the first of the workshops held by the City to get input from a wide variety of stakeholders interested in the future of the centre city.
We spent a lot of time discussing the basic principles of the existing 2007 version of the Centre City Plan and how they might need to be changed. These included such things as enhancing the Centre City as Calgary’s centre for culture, information exchange and communication along with being the location of choice for business. But foremost, and most important for us was the principle of building livable, inclusive distinct neighbourhoods, providing for significant residential growth in the Centre City. Protecting that principle and trying to see it implemented will be a priority for our participation in this project. In the past we’ve sometimes had to resist tendencies to favour commercial over residential development in our neighbourhood and to consider Centre City communities as a homogeneous mass, overlooking the distinct character of neighbourhoods such as ours.
Interacting with the city’s planning processes and with developers in activities such as this has always been one of the top priorities of your community association and will continue to be. However, to make sure that we are properly reflecting the views of Eau Claire residents, we need to hear from as many as possible. So, if you have comments or concerns, get in touch with the appropriate ECCA contact in your building or drop by one of our regular Board meetings.
