MARKING A MILESTONE
Heritage Pointe at 25
An award-winning luxury community and golf destination is celebrating a major milestone this year.
Heritage Pointe, located just south of Calgary limits, has turned 25 years old.
The community by Heritage Pointe Properties now has 894 constructed homes, with a planned build-out of 961. It’s expected to be fully developed by 2022.
On the golf side, many highprofile people have played the scenic course, including Moe Norman, Alice Cooper, Dawn Coe Jones and Billy Powers.
It’s also been the backdrop to many charity tournaments, and has hosted the Calgary Telus Open, attracting some of the top players in the PGA.
The following is an edited interview between Josh Skapin and Heritage Pointe Properties president and CEO Carolina Oxtoby.
Q Take me back to the time you first walked the land for the future Heritage Pointe. What were your impressions? What about this location made you feel you were some place special?
A We purchased approximately 1,000 acres of contiguous land from six different land owners and the vista stretching to the mountains was incredible. Ravines and escarpments, hay fields and blue sky.
The City of Calgary was so far removed that you felt you were in your own world. A blank canvas at our fingertips with an overwhelming responsibility of ensuring the land was developed to maintain that feeling of being somewhere special.
Q Looking back on the past 25 years, is there a memory related to this development that stands out over others?
A When the dirt buggies first arrived on the unspoiled land and the first cut was made. Being a farm girl and a developer brought very mixed feelings, and I held a silent prayer that we would be successful in creating something special that the original landowners could be proud of.
The families that we purchased the land from, in some cases, were pioneers and had farmed the land for two generations. The friendships that I forged with them and the trust they had in Heritage Pointe to develop the land respecting nature and the land itself. They were proud
of their legacy, and it was our responsibility to ensure the legacy continued.
Thus the name of one of our communities The Ranche, which honoured Joyce and Vic Heaver who ranched most of the land we purchased, including the valley where 18 holes of golf are today.
Q Tell me about the early stages of planning. I feel, in anything creative, there are things that inspire us. And when coming up with the concept for a golf course/ luxury community, Heritage Pointe must have drawn from others around North America. Can you speak to communities/areas that helped spur the plan for Heritage Pointe?
A We had a wide open canvas, owning 1,000 acres of land, and although daunting, it was also an opportunity to build a community that we hoped would honour the legacy of the homeowners we purchased the land from as well as create our own legacy. Located in the country, we wanted to embrace the healthy lifestyle of country living.
The (Municipal District) of Foothills’ restriction on density determined the size of lots, and the topography of the land created vast open spaces, both of which became our trademark.
Our vision for a masterplanned community with attractive amenities came from various sources and was the culmination of a lot of talent, local and global.
Ron Garl was the designer for the golf course and brought his expertise from Florida with an influence from other golf courses he had designed and built around the world.
Ron’s creativity has made Heritage Pointe golf course one of the sought-after courses to play and has garnered the title as Top 100 in Canada on several occasions.
Kristi Beunder of Civic Works Planning and Design in Calgary joined us as urban planner early in 2000 and has been very instrumental in the residential design of the Lake at Heritage Pointe, the Ranche and Artesia. Her expertise and market awareness is exemplary and has culminated in our communities being acknowledged and winning
awards locally, provincially and nationally.
Q What do you feel are the keys to developing a community where both residential and golf thrive?
A Our vision was to create a master-planned community that surrounded a public golf course accessible to everyone. Ensuring the golf course was a public amenity provided an opportunity for everyone to visit Heritage Pointe and the show homes.
The golf course became an important marketing tool as we developed the residential communities. Maintaining ownership of the golf course ensures the future success of our community as the Heritage Pointe brand is synonymous with both land and golf.
Q In the planning for Heritage Pointe, there seems to be a very deliberate move to be sustainable and environmentally friendly. Can you speak to some of those features and why you feel they were important for this community?
A Water conservation and management is paramount. We utilize a system of bioswales to collect naturally occurring water, which is filtered through natural processes and used to irrigate all the common areas and home sites — saving the treatment of approximately 60 million litres of water annually.
Street lighting conforms to the MD’s Dark Skies Policy to preserve the natural light balance and reduce power consumption.
We discarded typical road design in favour of narrow widths to reduce the amount of impervious surface (to capture more rainwater) and to function as a traffic speed deterrent.
Perhaps most importantly, we have simply left nature alone and provided residents in Artesia with abundant open space to truly enjoy the community.
Q What do you feel has made and makes Artesia an attractive place to buy a luxury home?
A Artesia is the last chapter in the award-winning, masterplanned community of Heritage Pointe and includes a combination of all of those elements that have made previous developments within the hamlet so successful.
Over the past 25 years we have developed the Meadows, the Ravine, the Summit and the Villas throughout the golf course community.
The Lake at Heritage Pointe was built around a man-made lake and the Ranche features storm water management ponds, as does Artesia.
All have filled a niche for homeowners who want to be in the country but without the responsibilities of acreage ownership.
Artesia offers country estate living only minutes away from Calgary amenities and a transportation corridor that is a 35-minute commute to downtown Calgary.
With its wide open space and walking trails, Artesia promotes a healthy lifestyle.
Over 50 per cent of Artesia’s 137 acres is designated as open space, parkways, trails, environmental reserve, water features, and private amenities. Every home backs onto one of these amenities.
We have dedicated private areas for tennis/pickleball/ basketball courts/two playgrounds, toboggan hill, and ample green space for outdoor sports such as soccer or volleyball. Our community pavilion provides the perfect opportunity for residents to gather with neighbours, friends, family for barbecues, picnics, birthday parties and other outdoor events.
The quality of the community is enhanced through the implementation of architectural/ landscape guidelines that promote high quality exterior detailing which protect and enhance homeowner value.
Our builders — Avi, Albi and Augusta — ensure that the homes meet the needs of the discerning homebuyer.