Where does your perfect day begin? Where do you go to meet your neighbour for a walk or compete with your pals in a pickleball round-robin? Where do you train for your next sporting event or just to try something new? If you live in South Calgary, the answer is likely Glenmore Reservoir Parklands.
• City parks encourage active lifestyles and improve mental health.
• City parks increase community engagement and provide opportunities to socialize.
• City parks help clean the air and improve public health.
• City parks are tools to help cities achieve their equity goals.
Great cities are almost synonymous with their great parks: Vancouver/Stanley Park, Toronto/High Park, Montreal/Mount Royal, New York/Central Park, San Francisco/Golden Gate Park, London/Hyde Park, and the list goes on.
Do you know what these parks in cities where rents are exorbitant and land values are sky-high all have in common? They have preserved their parkland aesthetic and integrity by having either roadways or waterways that buffer these parks from urbanization encroachment. Effectively, these cities have used these perimeters to preserve and protect parklands and the precious nature of their environments.
Calgary’s has a few great parks (Nosehill and Fish Creek are notable examples) but I would argue that Glenmore Reservoir Parklands (combining North and South Glenmore parks, Weaselhead and Heritage Park) represent Calgary’s unique gem. With mountain views, tennis courts, splash pads, spacious public event sites and quieter picnic tables all integrated with scenic bike paths surrounding our lake-like reservoir, we Calgarians love this park. Summer and winter (do we have any other seasons) the Glenmore Reservoir Parklands are well-loved and well-used.
Imagine the effect on the Reservoir Parklands when Rio Can undertakes construction of six high-rise, high-density towers and an ‘intensified’ commercial development at Glenmore Landing. With a fifteen-year build out plan, we can anticipate a lengthy and high-volume impact from the numerous pile drivers, back hoes, dump trunks and cranes required to excavate, prepare and build the development. While we want to encourage folks to use parklands, after completion this development would likely create areas of extreme congestion and overutilization. The effect of shading, noise and human impact will alter biodiversity and migration corridors. This kind of habitat destruction will have permanently affected Calgary’s “Great Park”.
Calgary’s population is growing rapidly. Throughout this densification process, Calgarians are expected to live in smaller and smaller living accommodations. This transition to smaller living spaces makes public spaces, and parklands in particular, of increasing importance for our recreation and mental health. Calgary’s parklands and greenspaces must be off-limits to developers. Inflicting a ‘mini city’ upon the doorstep of sensitive Glenmore Reservoir Parklands will fundamentally alter this precious environment.
To help preserve and protect Calgary’s “great park” for all Calgarians, we must block the sale of parklands to Rio Can and deny the application for a change in land use to build residential towers and an ‘intensified’ commercial development.
The City of Calgary has proposed density to protect our environment from urban sprawl, yet development at this sensitive location threatens the very land and environment that density was meant to protect.
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