With a vote of 12 to one against, the pilot program that turned 10 Street SW into a public park in 2022, and again in 2023, has made that space permanent.

The Beltline park had been years in the making, after an effort by Sustainable Calgary to work with Connaught School Grade 4 students to envision what could become of the space.

The pilot came about as a result of the Kids Reimagine School Streets project, which won a national architecture award in 2024.

Speaking before council on May 6, Julian Warring, Principal Landscape Architect for the Tula Project and the applicant for the permanent park, said that the new design for the space has been as a result of the cumulative work over the pilot projects to engage with the community.

“The plaza will provide much-needed public space within the Beltline by providing additional seating and outdoor gathering space and amenity, while the closure of this portion of the road supports safer routes to school for children by removing traffic adjacent to the school and playground,” Warring said.

“It also serves the greater Beltline community through the addition of much-needed public realm space.”

Celia Lee, executive director for Sustainable Calgary, said that the park would be a first of its kind in Calgary because it was one that was directly imagined by local area children.

“That offers a template for other schools that they can follow to make their streets safer,” she said.

“But what I’m most excited about is that it showcased kids so quickly surpassing us, surpassing me, in their ambition, in their creativity and in their capacity to address wicked problems, showing us what’s possible when we roll up our sleeves and put our collective imaginations to use and have a lot of fun doing it.”

The permanence of the space is now set to open up the possibilities for the park, said Warring.

“The design is intended to be playful in nature by incorporating colour and geometric shapes reflecting the proximity to the school and the initial engagement with students, but ultimately, is a space to be used for the entire community. The project will incorporate sustainable initiatives through capturing and storing of stormwater on site and additional tree planting,” he said.

Another set of changes that may come in the future, he said, was the possibility of the removal of the current chain link fence that separated the pilot park from Connaught School.

Opposition to park cited parking, and traffic as reasons against

The permanent park space saw opposition from some area residents and local business owners, citing reasons around parking and access for vehicles as reasons against.

Karen Dombrowski said that the closure blocked emergency vehicles from the fire station located on 10 Avenue SW, making it harder for service to her seniors building.

“This half block long closure serves only to disrupt traffic while trying to appear as a people gathering place, closing the street.”

Questions posed to City of Calgary administration by Ward 7 Councillor Terry Wong, were answered by the city’s mobility assessment that was performed before and after the closure of 10 Street SW for the pilots.

Usage on 10 Street SW was found to be about 2,000 vehicles per day, 11 Street SW was about 4,500 vehicles per day, and 8 Street SW was about 10,000 vehicles per day.

The traffic on 13 Avenue SW on the south side of the closure was said to have increased to 1,500 vehicles per day—or about one per minute at peak times and below the average for residential streets including those in the suburbs.

Dombrowski also took umbrage with the usage of the space, saying that it was not utilized enough to justify becoming a permanent park.

“Most of the residents in this area live in apartments and townhouses. There are very, very few kids that live in the area. Most of the residents are old and retired, or they work in the downtown and haven’t become their families yet,” she said.

“The initial purpose appears to have been to empower Grade 4 students at Connaught Elementary School that they could affect change in the world. That’s a lofty goal, but it’s not a practical one.”

In a submission by area resident Brad Thompson, he said that not enough community engagement had been performed, and that the park was little used.

“As someone that lives in the community I find the level of engagement has been poor from the start of the pilot three years ago. There was no notice that the road was going to be closed and then it just was,” Thompson said.

“I think it is premature for council to vote on this proposal. I would rather they instruct the applicant to perform real engagement with the broader community that lives and works around the area, including getting support from the community association before permanently closing the road.”

Insufficient consultation, said residents, despite three years of engagement on the park

Other area residents speaking before council also expressed feelings that they had not been consulted on the project.

As a part of the application process, timeline of engagements was provided by the applicant, which showed six workshops, 49 pop-up events, three surveys, four planning group sessions, and 2,100 flyers were sent to Beltline residents.

The Beltline Neighbourhood Association, in their submission, said that they strongly supported the park’s creation

Ward 8 Councillor Walcott, in his closing, said that the decision to create or not create the permanent park out of 10 Street SW came down to trade-offs.

“What at are the values and the imagination that we want to imbue in the space here, and a lot of the concerns… in particular, the use of the park has been really interesting, because I don’t actually think it’s completely true to talk about the park not being used at different hours,” he said.

“Its current iteration and design, because it’s the park’s use was what forced them to change the design, because there was actually a slight overuse of skateboarders at a in the evening—because the ramps that were included were bringing in cyclists and people with bikes and skateboards at different hours to participate in the park.”

He said it was important to vote yes on the project because it would give students the power to be believe that they can change the world.

“The reality is, you vote yes, you’re telling them that they can.”

The only councillor opposed to the park was Ward 4 Coun. Sean Chu.