Residents in southwest Calgary said they’ve been “blindsided” by new plans that state a proposed Glenmore Landing development would triple in size, prompting infrastructure and water concerns.

The area councillor, however, said that the submitted outline plan is a requirement to help “future-proof” the area from stress on the surrounding infrastructure potentially decades from today.

The land-use change for the RioCan Glenmore Landing project is set to come before the Calgary Planning Commission in September and area residents are after more information on the proposed project.  The area was scrutinized after city council approved a controversial land sale for grounds around the proposed redevelopment back in January.

In a media release sent out Wednesday, the group Communities for Glenmore Landing Preservation (CGLP) said that an updated plan proposing 15 towers of between 11 to 30 storeys, equating to more than 3,200 units has been submitted in the latest stage.

“These changes represent a new project, yet there has not been public consultations or notice to the surrounding community associations,” read the release.

“Previous public engagement was tightly controlled with the developer alone, not with the City.”

An attempt was made to contact RioCan media relations for this story via a published email on their website, however, that email bounced back saying that LWC wasn’t a part of their “allowed senders list.”

Jeff Wiggers, a spokesperson for CGLP told LWC on Wednesday afternoon that the group is after more transparency and a willingness on the part of the City and the developer to genuinely engage with area residents.

One of their biggest concerns is the inability to access environmental, hydrological and transportation studies for the project. They’re worried about the development being a short distance from one of Calgary’s primary water supplies – the Glenmore Reservoir.

 Further, in small print, Wiggers said there’s a caveat that the proposed plans are subject to change without notice.

“That is a little bit of a concern there as well because it raises a question that, what are we approving if we don’t really know what the plan is?” Wiggers said.

Lack of engagement a citywide issue: Wiggers

Ward 11 Coun. Kourtney Penner confirmed that the latest application that’s come before the development authority is new.

“The reason it’s a different plan is the development authority, aka the city, requires that an outline plan show the maximum potential on a site for the purposes of ensuring that the utility upgrades proposed would match the maximum versus what is realistically going to be developed,” Penner said.

She said that’s needed because, while there may only be a handful of towers proposed today, they need to build in the utility capacity and upgrades to the road network to accommodate a full future build-out. It’s not unlike other outline plans like the one for Midtown Station.

“Keep in mind the future growth potential is over the next, realistically, 40-plus, 50 years,” Penner said.  

“That’s the reason why the outline plan and why RioCan is presenting it as is, is because that’s actually the requirement of the city.”

Wiggers said residents know that RioCan wants to build more towers at Glenmore Landing, but they don’t know the specifics of the outline plan versus what’s being proposed for building over the next decade.

“I think the whole process in terms of engaging the community is lacking that. I think that’s a bigger city-wide issue. If you think about the average person, you go to work for eight hours, you come home, you’re exhausted…. you make dinner, you clean up, and you have a couple hours left to yourself before you have to prepare for the next day,” he said.

“It’s a very unfortunate part of what we have in society right now. There’s not a lot of time to dig into yourself if you want to learn about some of this stuff.”

That’s why he’s hoping for a proper engagement around what’s going on the in area, and seeing the defined project in terms of what’s actually going to be built. Further, he’d like access to the studies. He acknowledged that the City of Calgary has said they can come down to city hall for an hour to view them. No pictures and no copying them, however.

“The group here is deciding not to, as far as I know, go and take advantage of that,” Wiggers said.  

“But if you cannot take pictures and look and actually digest something and actually look at it, how is that fair access to any of the studies?”

Penner said that the City’s Water Services unit has reviewed the plans with particular interest due to Glenmore Landing’s proximity to the Glenmore Reservoir, and they don’t have any specific issues with the redevelopment.

Better communication needed

Coun. Penner said there’s obviously an onus on RioCan to present the information in terms of it being an outline plan, and it’s not what’s going to be built in the near term.

She said it’s been “tricky” for the developer to come forward with the plan to the community because of the misinformation, being called names, and the threats associated with the plan. There’s also pending litigation around this issue, Penner said.

“It makes it very difficult to want to continue to engage with the community when you have people actively spreading disinformation and you’re trying to combat it, and then you are told that I’m a liar,” Penner said.

“It’s been a very difficult and challenging file, because I’ve not been met with a lot of good faith in the community.”

Penner said there have been changes, particularly around building shadowing that directly respond to community input.

Wiggers said it comes down to better engagement. He acknowledges a couple of public information sessions being held, with the second one difficult to attend because it filled quickly.  He said if you don’t have the engagement, or you’re unwilling to do it genuinely, the project is going to meet roadblocks. He referenced a speaker from Interpipe at the citywide rezoning hearings that said any successful project they’ve done is due to the buy-in from citizens in the area.

“People do at the community there have valid concerns that they want answered, and these concerns are not answered,” he said.

“They feel like they’re not being listened to. They feel like they’re not being engaged. So that’s why they feel the way they do.”

The matter is expected to come to Calgary Planning Commission in September, and then to Calgary city council in October. Coun. Penner said that as each tower development permit comes in, the public will be able to provide their input on the buildings at that time.