Plans for a redevelopment of the Viscount Bennett site in southwest Calgary have changed, however, the president of the community association said it’s still too much density for the area.

The outline plan and land use amendments for the Minto Developments properties at 2505 and 2519 Richmond Road SW, will come to Calgary’s Public Hearing Meeting of Council on April 8.

The plan, originally projected to have as many as 2,500 units when first presented in 2023, now has 1,231 anticipated units, but as many as 1,500. The original concept also considered building heights of up to 30 storeys along Crowchild Trail SW. Those have been cut down to a maximum of 16 storeys, with a “contextually appropriate” transition towards the rest of the community.

The new plan also calls for a Municipal Reserve of 1.15 acres that will be built by Minto but owned and operated by the City of Calgary. It will be on the northwest corner of the site and offer pedestrian and transit connectivity.

Opportunity for commercial amenities on the property has also been included in the revised proposal, which, according to Minto’s project outreach summary, has gone through four iterations since November 2023.

Kevin Widenmaier, president of the Richmond Knob Hill Community Association, said that their biggest concerns rest in that they feel it doesn’t fit within the City of Calgary’s Municipal Development Plan or the approved Local Area Plan. He said that means acknowledging the existing community, the contextual appropriateness of a development, and the impacts that it will have on the area.

“Our communities are advocating for a thoughtful redevelopment of that site,” he said.

They’ve known for many years that redevelopment would come to that area. After hearing from residents all over the community, they put together their own workshops to create a redevelopment plan for the area.

That resulted in roughly 400 units in predominantly low-rise buildings that would add roughly 15 to 20 per cent more people to the area.

“We’re talking about adding a 40-unit-per-acre density level, which is 10 times more than what’s currently in the surrounding area,” he said, noting that the current proposed project density is about 150 units per acre.

Notable revisions made

The Minto Group didn’t make anyone available to answer questions, however, they sent a statement to LWC for the project.

“Following the initial proposal, notable revisions were made based on community feedback garnered through community engagement sessions,” the statement read.

“The resubmitted plan recently received unanimous approval from the Calgary Planning Commission, with a recommendation for approval from City staff. The proposal continues to be carefully evaluated against multiple existing City policies addressing density, open space, building forms and infrastructure.”

They said the anticipated buildout is roughly 1,200 units on eight buildings. The public park space will have a playground, a sport court and other gathering areas, they said.

“Minto is committed to responsible development that is well supported by City infrastructure capacity,” the statement read.

“As with all projects of this scale, transportation and utility planning will continue in coordination with the City of Calgary to support current and future residents.”

Widenmaier said, however, that the kind of high-rises being proposed is a better fit for locations like around the Westbrook LRT Station, or in Garrison Woods – a master-planned community that allows for such density.

There are also concerns about traffic in the area, with the introduction of potentially thousands of residents and the site being on a dead-end street, he said. The fact that there’s a nearby BRT doesn’t really make it a Transit-Oriented Development, according to Widenmaier. He takes it nearly every day, often in rush hour.

“It’s not really a BRT, frankly. It seems like a stretch to hang everything on what’s a painted bus lane on Crowchild, and sometimes in the winter, it’s snowed in. That’s just disingenuous,” he said.

“I do appreciate the city’s trying to move towards more transit-oriented development. This isn’t a TOD site in our estimation. It has bus access, but it’s not a TOD site.”

Area’s capacity is based on the infrastructure: Coun. Walcott

Ward 8 Coun. Courtney Walcott said, ultimately, this is a private piece of land that has a BRT nearby and is a five-minute trip to both Mount Royal University and the downtown.

“It’s a pretty hard sell to suggest that it’s not a place where we want people to live. The question was always how many people are going to live there?” Walcott told LWC.

“The limitation has to be more than subjective. It can’t be ‘what’s my preference.’ The limitation has to be based on something concrete, and that was always infrastructure.

Those were the overriding factors in bringing down the number of units, he said.

In terms of traffic, Coun. Walcott said the fear over more cars isn’t realistic. The reason is two-fold, he said. First, this was once a site that brought in nearly 2,000 students daily, and with that was often a substantial increase in traffic at peak times.

Now, there’s an assumption that with potentially that many residents that the vehicle traffic could be overwhelming, he said.

“That’s not a realistic thing that happens in residential areas. People will leave in 20-minute blocks, a few cars at a time here and there,” he said.

“People actually get really startled when we do traffic studies, and you see that major developments, because there’s so many cars on collector roads and other community roads in general, that major developments will sometimes only have a one- to two-per-cent uptake in traffic, and it’s just because all cars don’t leave at the same time.”

Coun. Walcott also said that the plan calls for a roughly $1 million upgrade to the BRT area near the site, and around $200,000 for upgrades to other nearby stops.

Economics in play?

Many redevelopments come with the commensurate pro forma; they determine how many units are feasible for a reasonable return on investment.

Widenmaier isn’t certain what the economic calculus is for this site. He figured the initial plan, with 2,500 units, would have made them a lot of money. He said talking about what makes economic sense isn’t a positive way to engage the community.

“That’s not an excuse to build the wrong thing there,” he said.

“You can’t force that down into people saying, ‘well, this company from out east won’t make money if they don’t put towers next to your home.’ That doesn’t make the community happy, and it wouldn’t impress anybody. So they’re welcome to try and make an argument like that, but I don’t know if it will fly.”

Coun. Walcott said that in reality, a developer can build anything, anywhere. It’s a question of property rights. The city has a legal responsibility to consider the validity of the proposal and whether it meets the city’s development and housing goals.

Walcott said he has an open mind going into the April 8 meeting. He’s been clear, however, that he supports more housing. He said his concern is the opposition to large scale developments like this one, and like the defeated proposal at Glenmore Landing.

“If we can’t build in places like that, and if we can’t build in places alongside Crowchild, and if we can’t build anywhere but the Greenfield, or at least if we put up enough fight that the only place any of these types of development will exist is in the Beltline, then the city is given a struggle to meet our goals,” he said.

“That has to be a part of all of our considerations.”