Calgary city council rejected a proposed plan by a city non-profit housing provider for a land-use redesignation for a complex needs housing project in southeast Calgary.

At the Nov. 9 Public Hearing Meeting of Council, Calgary city councillors also voted to decline the sale of the proposed municipal reserve parcel that would have allowed the facility to move forward. The first vote to abandon was 10-5, and a second to continue moving ahead with Home Space was approved 9-6.

The proposal from Home Space Society included a 60-unit “homestyle” location that would provide 24/7 wraparound care and specialized supports for residents with complex health and housing needs in the Meridian industrial park (Ward 10).

While the Calgary Planning Commission recommended approval of the sale of the land and the land-use redesignation, councillors opted instead to continue working with the provider on a different suitable location.

Earlier in the meeting, councillors heard from those both for and against, including legal representation from the Rowanwood Properties Group whose businesses would have been near the location.

The primary concern expressed by Jonathan Ryder, on behalf of the property owners, was the loss of the one-acre green space.

“What we’re talking about today is disposing of the one green space that serves this business park, and it’s over 3,000 employees,” he said.

Ryder noted that there was no usage data supporting the city’s assertion that it was an underutilized green space. Further, he said little is known about the 16 other locations that Calgary’s housing office reviewed for this project.

“Lastly, I want to talk about what message we’re sending to industrial investors in the city of Calgary. We all understand that we’re losing out to neighbouring municipalities. Here we have one of the most successful inner-city business developments: Stantec, Wood Group, AltaLink, critical infrastructure sites. This is AltaLink’s head office,” he said.

“What are we telling to industrial investors putting hundreds of millions of dollars in the ground that they’re not entitled to a sole green space in the middle of their business park? What expectation do we have for other investors?”

Security and safety issues would be addressed

Alison Karim-McSwiney, who spoke on behalf of 12 Community Safety Initiative (12CSI), and is also executive director of the International Avenue business improvement area, said that “it’s an incompatible location.”

“You’re placing a supportive residential care facility inside an active industrial business park, which is really structurally untenable,” she said.

In response to several queries in council, Marcus Berzins, manager of housing investment within the Chief Housing Office at the City of Calgary, said that their work to find a suitable location for Home Space began nearly three years ago. He said 17 sites went through a criteria created that included planning policy alignment, city-owned sites, right size, parking, outdoor areas, access for staff, emergency services, transit and distance from residential areas – among others. Berzins also noted that they thought it would be a better fit in a commercial or light industrial area, due to concerns around putting it in residential.

“Diligence has been plentiful in this work. It’s been one of my main pieces of work in my career in housing since I started with the team, and we cared that we didn’t want to just bring a site that maybe checks some boxes,” he said.

Joy Bowen-Eyre, CEO of the Alex Community Health Centre, who would have operated the site, said that concerns from business and residential neighbours are legitimate. She said that safety would be built into the operating model, with 24-7 staffing, surveillance, controlled building access, visitor policies, resident expectations, and appropriate supports.

“Concerns about public drug use, litter, encampments, disruptive behavior, and inappropriate business will be addressed through clear operating procedures, proactive property management, and timely responses. Having staff on site around the clock means there will always be somebody responsible for responding to concerns and addressing incidents,” she said.

“We cannot promise the challenges will never occur, but we can commit to having trained people, clear processes, and accountability when they do.”

Stay committed to Home Space proposal: Mayor Farkas

Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas left his position presiding over the meeting to move an alternate set of recommendations that included abandoning the land use and the parcel’s sale. He said that he didn’t see appetite on council to support either aspect.

It did, however, commit to continued work with Home Space to find a site, and to expedite that process.

“It’s not the intent of this body, in my view, to vote down this project,” he said.  

“I believe that there are good reasons for us not to want to pave over a green space that could be underutilized today. But I believe that’s more of a responsibility that we have as a city in terms of why it could potentially be underutilized or underinvested in in the first place, but I think that we owe it to Home Space. We owe it to the community to deliver on projects like this, but also hearing out the concerns that it had from the community.”

Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot supported the mayor’s proposal, and said that ultimately the underutilization of a green space in the city is an issue with how the City of Calgary has handled the space, not necessarily about the space or the users. Chabot said that we shouldn’t be disposing of green space, but that a location should be found for facilities of this type.

“For me, this is a way forward that helps to protect the need for the area, and look at a method at least to be able to continue to move forward with some sort of development to support this use,” he said.

Ward 8 Coun. Nathan Schmidt said by doing this, they’re asking a non-profit housing provider to potentially spend another year or two going through a process where there are no guarantees of a positive outcome.

“I think with us, the where is always going to be an issue,” he said.

“So, we go through this process again, and we see these new sites, and it lands up in somebody else’s ward. Then we’re going to be in this hearing situation again. There will be a new set of opposition for perhaps different reasons, and we may also vote no to that, and I think what this comes down to is this is a difficult issue that we urgently need to solve or at least start making progress on.”

Council approved a plan to have the five highest-ranked sites from a previous assessment come back to them, though there was no specific timeline. They want to expedite selection and approval of an alternate site and minimize further delays on the project.

They also want to avoid the sale of municipal reserve land in doing so.