POPULATION NEAR $1.2M
CENSUS SHOWS RUSH TO SUBURBS SLOWING
As new census figures show Calgary’s population edging toward 1.2 million, the growth gap between actively developing neighbourhoods and redevelopment in established communities has narrowed over the past decade faster than anticipated, said Mayor Naheed Nenshi.
Nenshi said a shift in growth patterns suggest Calgarians are no longer fleeing established inner-city communities to newer fringe neighbourhoods as they were in 2005.
“(Then) well over 100 per cent of new growth happened in brandnew neighbourhoods, and most neighbourhoods lost population,” he said. “We’ve largely arrested that and started to shift it. Most existing neighbourhoods were relatively stable or grew a little bit”
The mayor’s comments followed the Tuesday release of the city’s latest census count, spanning April 2013 to April 2014. Those figures show Calgary’s population climbed by 38,508 to 1,195,194 — a 3.3 per cent increase over last year.
The fastest growing neighbourhoods were in the city’s northeast and deep south, with Saddleridge taking top spot with 2,373 new residents, followed by Auburn Bay (2,242) and Cranston (1,857) in the south.
According to the census figures, 28,017 more people migrated to Calgary than left. Put another way, 77 people moved to the city each day, on average, over that 12-month span.
While the biggest population growth occurred in newer outlying communities, growth in actively developing communities has declined to 58 per cent and increased in established neighbourhoods to 42 per cent — a trend that edges closer to the city’s goal of a 50/50 split, said Nenshi.
“We’re achieving that goal much, much faster than people thought we would,” he said.
Still, the city needs to create long-term strategies and policies geared to address the complexity of inner-city redevelopment, said Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra.
“We need the communities deeply involved,” Carra said. “We’re slowly getting there, but we’re not tackling it at the systemic level that we need to.”
The Ward 9 councillor said far more Calgarians aspire to live an “urban lifestyle,” but too many barriers — namely high cost spurred by a limited supply — still exist for many to realize that goal.
“If you look at the split of urban to suburban across the continent it’s probably 15 per cent urban (to) 85 per cent suburban,” Carra said. “I assure you there is more than 15 per cent of the population that aspires to an urban lifestyle.”
Meanwhile, the mayor highlighted the city’s tightening vacancy rate, which dipped to 2.01 per cent from last year’s 2.59 per cent.
“It’s moving in the wrong direction,” Nenshi said. “That’s a real challenge for the city as a whole. Part of it has to do with overall supply.”
To ease the crunch, the city needs to make redevelopment easier in established neighbourhoods and work with developers to create a new citywide financing framework.
Further, he was somewhat optimistic several new purpose built rental projects are underway — a significant shift over the past 10 years.
“I’ve only been able to count three over the last decade ... there are 12 currently on the books,” he said. “So the market is shifting, people are starting to build rentals as well ... that will help us with the crunch.”