Co-op developments win approval, but not without lecture from council
After two days of public hearings on the redevelopment of a pair of 1970s-era shopping centres, council has approved a proposal for one project and given tentative approval to the other.
Calgary Co-op’s plan for a $300-million redevelopment of its Dalhousie location to include a mix of residential, commercial and office space got the green light from council Tuesday, despite concerns expressed by some councillors and the mayor that the project was lacking in its design and integration with the surrounding community.
A proposal from the same applicant for a similar development in Oakridge was approved in principle the day before — on the condition that Co-op goes back to the drawing board to fine-tune some of the details.
“Both of them could have been better,” Mayor Naheed Nenshi said following the vote Tuesday.
“A lot of us, including me, are just asking for a higher level of design that you see in plenty of suburban places already, not ( just in) some sort of bicycle utopia.”
Co-op will be able to proceed with plans to build a 440-unit residential development alongside a new grocery store and retail and office space at its existing location on Dalhousie Drive, following Tuesday’s vote.
“We’re quite happy. It’s been a long road getting to this point,” said Tony Argento, Co-op’s director of real estate. The grocer had previously warned that if the city wanted significant changes to the proposals, there was a risk the company would walk away and simply renovate the existing stores without the extra development.
“We’re at a crossroads, because if we keep pushing it, the business model doesn’t work for us,” Argento said earlier Tuesday.
During the hearings, councillors faced off on the merits and challenges of introducing higherdensity development into mature neighbourhoods.
And proposals for both locations raised concerns about walkability and the integration of the new developments into the surrounding neighbourhoods.
Coun. Druh Farrell, who voted against the application for Dalhousie, said the proposal didn’t take into account the future evolution of the neighbourhood.
“What we have in front of us is a bunch of discrete uses with no connections,” Farrell said.
“It’s not good enough. These sites are too precious to have a mediocre application.”
Co-op has said it has plans for the mixed-use redevelopment of four sites in total — still to come forward are plans for the locations in Brentwood and 16th Avenue N.E.
The bar has been raised when it comes to the design of suburban malls and shopping centre redevelopments, the mayor said.
“It is high now because many developers have proven that they can do it,” Nenshi said.
“Because it’s actually no good for the customer (if they) have to get in their car to drive across a parking lot or walk across an icy parking lot to go from the drugstore to the supermarket. Retail developers have figured out that customers don’t want that (and) there are models that work better.”