Calgary city councillors voted in favour of moving forward with a proposed development on the former site of the Viscount Bennett school in southwest Calgary.

The item was heard at the April 8 Public Hearing Meeting of Calgary city council, with nearly 50 combined speakers both for and against.

Calgary city councillors voted nine in favour to five against for the proposal—originally 10 to four after Councillor Sean Chu mistakenly voted for the project, which would see a planned 1,231 units added to the site, with up to 1,500 total.

The area community association had told LWC that, despite substantial changes made by the developer, Minto Group, they felt that it was more than three times more units than should be on the site.

Primary concerns with the added density were traffic, largely because there is no direct outlet to Crowchild Trail, and the narrowing of Richmond Road through a largely quiet residential area.

Traffic studies were done in 2022, with COVID vehicle levels largely being recorded, residents said. Construction traffic, particularly over the life of the project, also posed an issue for residents.

Other concerns were 1970s infrastructure that could present problems with overloading, a lack of green space compared to the population being added, and a lack of what they felt was meaningful engagement on the project.

“The Viscount Bennett site offers an opportunity for smart, sustainable growth, but the Minto proposal is not it,” said area resident Marnie Evans.  

“The density is too high, the green space is too low, infrastructure analysis is incomplete, and the community has not been heard. This is not the way we should be building Calgary’s future.”

Richmond resident Amanda Fraser has lived in the neighbourhood for 10 years and said the density was just too much.

“It’s not about the number of people; it’s the sheer volume of units being squeezed into a limited space that will overwhelm our infrastructure. I support growth, but we need it to be smart and sustainable,” she said.

Fraser felt like the plan ignored the community’s desire for sustainable growth. She also said she felt the initial Minto Group proposal, which included more than double the current units (2,500) along with 30-storey towers along Crowchild Trail, was done deliberately.

“This was never a viable option for our community, and now this was never a viable option for our neighbourhood. Now to call the revised proposal pared back to address community feedback is disingenuous,” Fraser said.

“It appears the initial proposal was deliberately excessive, designed to make the current plan seem more palatable. This is not real community engagement.”

Sizeable contingent in favour of the plan

While Calgary City Council has seen many similar public hearing matters where the speakers opposed tend to outnumber those in favour, there was a considerable number of citizens who attended the public hearing in support of Minto’s plan.

Noah Davis said that while many citizens opposed to this feel they have a lot to lose, he believed they were overlooking the loss to other Calgarians by rejecting the plan.

“By denying this proposal, we would be denying investment in our communities, and we would be damaging the city’s economic and social welfare. Along with providing new housing options in a desirable area, the most obvious benefit the applicant is also proposing upgrades to transit infrastructure, public space and building a brand-new park,” he said.

“Are we seriously going to reject this proposal on the grounds of it being too big, given the actual scale of the proposal and the significance of the site? That is frankly ridiculous.”

John Ferguson, who lives six blocks from the proposed Viscount Bennett development, said that it’s important to place dense population near transit. The MAX Yellow BRT travels along Crowchild Trail and has stops nearby.

“I understand neighbours around the site feel the proposal may be out of character, but if we hold ourselves strictly to maintaining current community makeups, we will not grow into the city I believe we can be,” he said.

“Opportunities like this site, with its location and size, are rare, and we need to meet that opportunity with bold ideas.”

Councillors asked questions about these topics, teasing out some details around resident concerns. Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp, who has been all over infrastructure issues given her experience with the water feeder main break in Bowness, asked if older pipes would have to be upgraded.

City admin said that their analysis showed there were no immediate upgrades needed, however, on full build out, it could trigger an upgrade to the sanitary services. This will be confirmed as development permits come in, admin said.

Coun. Sean Chu asked why there couldn’t be a connection to Crowchild Trail where there’s a dead end at Richmond Road.

City admin said that they did a rigorous transportation study of the area, and potential connections on Crowchild Trail were problematic in terms of space for weaving (entering traffic). There are Calgary Transit buses trying to get in, and an on-ramp would impact operations.

“It’s been shown throughout the years that the more introductions you add to a high-speed facility, the more incidents are going to occur,” admin said.

They also said that they would use each development permit application to check in with the traffic impact on the area to see if it triggered more than the planned signalling upgrades.

Councillor debate

Ward 8 Coun. Courtney Walcott, who represents the area of the proposed development, said that his decision on this project was contingent on whether or not the infrastructure could handle the density.

“I think the answer is a very clear yes. And to make matters even more secure for the community, if we find the answer is no, the cost that balloons, it goes towards the developer,” he said.

“We know that when we move through these processes as a city, we’re going to keep asking for more and more information every single time, every single time a building gets proposed to make sure that it stays OK,” he said.

Ward 12 Coun. Evan Spencer said that stagnation compounds the potential infrastructure burdens and the long-term financial challenges by not allowing the city to change.

“When we renew, when the city refreshes, when we redevelop, we actually protect our future from a variety of different angles,” he said.

Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot said that he couldn’t support it, and one of the big reasons was the loss of green space. While there’s a park slated for the north part of the development, it’s just not enough space and lacks function for the volume of people.

“Once green space is gone, you can never get it back. As we increase our population, there’ll be a greater and greater demand for green space,” he said.

Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean said he couldn’t support it, and that he listens to the people, he listens to the grassroots. He said he was concerned that many of the people in favour are just recruited, or the same people who show up to support density in Calgary.

“We need development, but it has to be done with the community in mind that they need to be able to get in and out and retain some of their, just the communities that they grew up in,” he said.

“We want density in the right places, but respectfully so.”

Last week, McLean lobbied councillors to support tens of millions in added infrastructure costs for further suburban development in southwest Calgary, citing a great need for housing in Calgary. That request did not move ahead.