Calgary downtown building owners and operators, businesses and builders have come together with stiff opposition to the Government of Alberta’s proposed above-ground alignment for the Green Line.
NAOIP, BOMA, the Calgary Downtown Association, and the Calgary Construction Association sent a letter, dated Jan. 24, to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and to Alberta Transportation and Economic Corridors Minister Devin Dreeshen, outlining major concerns with the province’s above-ground option for the proposed line.
The letter comes as the City of Calgary and the Government of Alberta are amid ongoing working group discussions to hammer out a final alignment for the $6.25 billion transportation project. There is an upcoming deadline of March 31 to ensure federal funding remains in place.
These groups said they’ve reviewed the alternative alignment and engaged with members to determine their response.
“Based on the report delivered to the community, we are not seeing any new information, data and/or financial details that would negate the previously identified challenges with an elevated alignment in the Beltline and the downtown core,” the letter read.
“As such, the risks and financial impacts have not been mitigated in the recent report. We feel it would be reckless to support the proposed elevated solution in the beltline and downtown based on the concerns as follows…”
The letter then lists assessment and market values, property taxes (and the impact on City of Calgary budgets), pandemic recovery, tenant loss, business interruption, connectivity to the Green Line, sound, vibration and other impacts. See the full letter below.
“This being said, Transit development is critical and key in ensuring Downtown Calgary continues on its economic growth and remains competitive in a national context making Calgary a great place to live, work, play, learn and shop,” the letter reads.
“It needs to be built in a manner that addresses the overall economic growth of the Beltline and downtown with little to no impact on businesses, buildings, property value and access needs of a multimodal core.”
Blended message important, said CCA president
Bill Black, President and CEO of the Calgary Construction Association, said that the four groups coming together is a strong signal. He said it’s often easy to dismiss opposition to the downtown alignment when it comes from “special interest” groups on their own.
“There’s a decade of history that we all painfully know on the Green Line,” Black told LWC.
“It is frustrating. It’s been eye-opening, and I think this was an 11th-hour step into the situation by the province. The circumstances surrounding their concern were not new, and I’ve been there since day one.”
Last week, Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek said the City of Calgary was continuing to work with the province on the alignment with no new details.
“The update that I can offer you is that we continue to be engaged with our provincial partners when it comes to the Green Line,” she said.
“We have had a working group meeting that was quite productive, and we continue to move forward to figure out how we can get the Green Line moving and what that alignment will look like.”
Black said a big concern for the groups signed on to the letter is the unknowns connected to the project, particularly around construction costs.
“Have they truly exhausted the costs associated with elevated? Elevated in a straight line is, on average, about a third of the cost of tunnels, when tunnels are straightforward, but our tunnels are not straightforward, and this elevated line is not a straight line. It has to navigate several major aspects of downtown. It is interfacing with the Plus-15, It needed to go to Eau Claire.”
Black said that these groups could have all written to the province with their own separate, narrow vision on the project. They could have been focused on just the construction, he said. There are issues with the impact to buildings, the streetscape below and a downtown vacancy that’s still recovering from COVID.
Calgary Downtown Association Executive Director Mark Garner said that while each of the groups came at it from a different perspective, they all landed on common ground.
“We didn’t see anything new that would change all the work that was done previously and the research that was done previously that said elevated wasn’t the way to go,” Garner said.
From the downtown business perspective, Garner noted the impact to investments made by local businesses, like a planned major restaurant and patio at 2 Street and 8 Avenue SW.
“All of a sudden it’s like, now you’re going to put a train over top of the patio? Well, that doesn’t work. So, it’s those types of things,” he said.
Building a transit line for the future
Ultimately, Black said the goal is to get the right transit project built for Calgary.
“The real job is to connect Calgarians and provide communities with a means of connection that reduces their dependence on vehicles,” he said.
“If this is not done right, the biggest risk of all is we could end up with nothing. How does anybody escape politically from that outcome if it were to come to pass?”
Garner said that the investment in the project had to be generational.
“I think that was a common between us all, is we have to make sure that this is generational, that you don’t want to come back when you’re retired and look at this and say, ‘You know what, we did the wrong thing for this city,” he said.
To that end, Garner said all of the groups, who did have a chance to speak with the provincial government about their concerns before the new alignment was released, support the portion of the line from Shepard to a Grand Central Station near the Calgary Event Centre. It’s the downtown aspect they think needs to be changed.
“That’s why our recommendation is to build what you can build today, and then we’ll continue to work with you on what’s best for downtown, and we’ll even help advocate for the money to build it right,” Garner said.
In a response to the letter provided on Monday afternoon, Minister Dreeshen said that both he and AECOM officials met with the four signatories to ensure their perspectives were brought to the discussion. He reiterated that this current proposed alignment saves a billion dollars, which allows them to reach further south with five more stops and serving 60 per cent more Calgarians.
“Time is of the essence to move this project forward. Many of the challenges identified regarding downtown alignment can be addressed through progress of the design,” read an emailed response.
“Delays or re-evaluations risk jeopardizing federal funding, increasing costs, and leaving Calgary without the transformative transit solution it urgently needs.”
