The City of Calgary has begun preliminary plans to execute the first-ever redevelopment of a southeast LRT parking lot into potentially hundreds of units of affordable housing.

Between two- and three-hundred units could be in store for the Franklin LRT south Park and Ride Lot, using city land that over the years has had a vehicle utilization rate of between 50 to 60 per cent (2023 data). The plan would leave the north Franklin LRT Park and Ride intact. Between the two lots, there are more than 570 parking stalls.

(Editor’s note: The story was first published with a document showing 2010 utilization data. LWC has since had updated data provided on the parking lot utilization.)

The housing would be part of an overarching plan to invest resources into the entire corridor along Radcliffe Drive SE, including a green space and safety improvements to area roads, plus better connections to Calgary’s 5A network.

David Couroux, Planning Lead, Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) with the City of Calgary, said the site is close to four schools, it’s next door to a church, and it’s less than a kilometre to retail along 17 Avenue SE. Further down the street (within walking distance) to the east is a major activity area with large box stores and other commercial centres along 36 Street NE.

Couroux said that having some advance planning done on the project helped them allocate grant funding to shepherding the project along.

“In this case, the action for us to encourage and support transit-oriented development is using underutilized city-owned land, and converting that into something that can be developed, and providing investments in public infrastructure,” he said.

“It’s not just to say, ‘hey, let’s just put up buildings, and the rest of the community stays exactly the same. We’re trying to improve an adjacent park. We’re trying to improve the street.”

Couroux said the site is an exceptional one from an equity perspective, too. 

That’s something the City of Calgary was looking for when it approved a housing strategy last September.

“By prioritizing this and not just going through the market analysis, we can accomplish a wider range of goals when you redevelop this site,” Couroux said.

Mini town centres: Coun. Carra

Ward 9 Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra, whose area covers this site, said that his master’s thesis, which was on transit-oriented development – and involved Greater Forest Lawn – found that the Franklin station was an ideal spot for this kind of redevelopment.

He’s said he’s exasperated it’s taken this long for it to take shape. Still, it’s incredibly gratifying that the city will “roll up our sleeves” to get to work on it, Carra said.

“What we’re seeing now is a convergence of a couple of things. We have a TOD strategy, we have a declared housing crisis,” he said.

“Franklin makes its way to the top of the list because it is so infrequently used for a purpose, which is parking. You can go there on any given day, any time of day, even on the busiest days, and it’s mostly empty. So, it’s a great opportunity to really start the work in earnest.”

Carra said he’s been a big advocate for the vast swaths of parking lot around Calgary’s LRT station that are ripe for development. He like to see more of them become mini town centres for the adjacent neighbourhoods.

“As a creation of this, a poly-centric city where it’s possible to live, work and play without having to get into a car to do everything.”

Community response

Couroux said that they’d begun soft notification of area residents last October and November with information boards set up during public engagement on the Greater Forest Lawn Local Area Planning.

They expect to get deeper into public engagement through the rest of the winter and into the spring.

Joel Schnell, who is an associate pastor with the Grace Baptist Church, which shares the parking area and is adjacent to the proposed lot, said that he knows there’s a stigma among some when you talk about large areas of affordable housing.

He described a feeling of hesitancy among some residents, particularly because the plan is light on details at this time.  Schnell said, for some, it’s a question of, “what will affordable housing bring because there’s a lot of stigma or stereotype that plays into that.” 

Schnell also said he’s heard concern from nearby schools that more families could increase capacity issues. According to the CBE’s school utilization data, the Radisson Park School directly across the street was projected to have a utilization rate of 82 per cent in 2022.

The high school, Sir Wilfred Laurier, which is across the field from Radisson Park School, had a projected utilization rate of 95 per cent, the data showed.

Still, from his personal perspective, Schnell’s seen firsthand the need for affordable housing in the area. The Grace Baptist Church works regularly with vulnerable people in the area. They’re a regular target for break-ins for people to keep warm, or people using drugs and then trying to break in.

“As a pastor and someone who is working with people in the community, when I hear the possibility of more affordable housing going up, and creating opportunities for people who need affordable housing and newcomers to Canada, it’s an automatic win in my life,” he said.  

“That is one of the number one things that we deal with is people who can’t afford rent, who can’t find a place to live, who are living on the street while they’re working a job, but they can’t find a place to live – especially in this neighbourhood, where it’s easily accessible to transit.”

Less pushback?

Coun. Carra expects there to be less community pushback than other potential TOD sites across Calgary. He compared it to the recent conflict in Glenmore Landing, where there was already a group mobilized to oppose a land sale and redevelopment after the MAX Yellow BRT line debate from years ago.

“There are people in the neighbourhood who don’t want to see anything change – we will hear from them,” Carra said.  

“There are people who are very supportive of this and we will hear from them.  I think the vast majority of the population out there is going to be silent because they are very consumed with their day-to-day lives. I don’t think anyone will push back too heavily on what is inherently a very sensible thing to do.”

There’s still some heavy lifting ahead, according to Carra. They have to determine how the land will be developed and by whom. They’re batting around whether to develop it right down to the lot level like in Bridgeland or the East Village, or hand the project over to a private developer – he said like Westbrook.

“P.S., that didn’t work,” he said.

It’s probably a happy medium between the two, Carra said.

Couroux said they have a consultant on board for the project to start site planning and design work.  He confirmed they still need to nail down the specifics that Carra had mentioned. It is moving forward, he said.  

“It’ll be a pretty quick timeline on this project, but really excited this will be the first project where we’re converting a park and ride in the city into a higher and better use,” he said.

Carra said he believes this is the kind of needed response to Calgary’s housing crisis.

“I’m glad Franklin’s first out of the gate,” he said.

“I’m exasperated in taking this long, but I’m hopeful that this will be the start of a new level of movement.”