East Victoria Park blueprint returns to the drawing board
An important first step in the redevelopment of east Victoria Park hit a snag Thursday after the city’s planning commission sent municipal staff working on the project back to the drawing board.
A number of policy and bylaw changes are required for the city to begin building the Rivers District — a project that aims to transform beleaguered east Victoria Park into a bustling arts and entertainment district.
At the heart of the plan for the area is a new arena, an expanded BMO Convention Centre and Stampede Trail — “an iconic festival street” similar to Stephen Avenue that could be closed to traffic and “function as an urban plaza for special events.”
But Thursday’s meeting saw commission members highly critical of proposed changes to the area redevelopment plan.
A chief complaint was that city documents only obliquely referred to a new arena to replace the aging Saddledome, characterizing it as an “event facility.”
“Is there something going on at the city that you don’t want to recognize?” demanded commission member Melvin Foht.
“It’s obfuscated. It’s so hidden. Why don’t you just call it what it is? I find it dishonest and disingenuous.”
Commission members also criticized some of the proposed “bonus density” zoning provisions.
The policy — intended to incentivize developers to provide public amenities in exchange for additional density — appeared to allow developers credit for the creation of commercial spaces, including restaurants and cafes.
Concerns were also raised that the plan didn’t do enough to protect historic warehouse buildings along 10th and 11th avenues S.E. from being redeveloped.
Coun. Evan Woolley said the city’s documents were clearly “rushed,” pointing out that council had asked planners to do a lot of work in a short period of time to accommodate the timelines of other projects, including the Green Line, BMO Centre and negotiations for a new arena.
“This seemed rushed. There’s much work to do still,” Woolley said. “We need to slow down a bit on this. I’m not talking many, many months. There needs to be some tightening up of these pieces.”
Woolley also agreed with fellow commissioners that the city should be clearly identifying the proposed arena in planning documents.
“It should’ve been identified in this document. It absolutely should have. Hopefully those amendments and edits will be made as they bring this forward to council,” Woolley said.
The plan will go back to administration to be reworked before it returns to planning commission for a second time later this month. If approved, it will be forwarded to the planning and urban development committee and then on to council.
Thursday’s meeting agenda also included the first public release of a finalized Rivers District master plan — a lengthy 244-page document fleshing out the full 50-year vision for the east side of downtown.
The master plan outlines how infrastructure in Rivers District and the areas surrounding the Saddledome will be overhauled to reconnect the neighbourhood with the city grid.
Currently, east Victoria Park is little more than a swath of parking lots, hemmed in by CP rail tracks, Macleod Trail, the Stampede grounds and the Elbow River.
The Calgary Municipal Land Corp. will extend 17th Avenue into Stampede Park, pushing a path toward the Elbow River and connecting to Stampede Trail and 5th Street. A new underpass at 5th Street will create a new northsouth link between East Village and 17th Avenue.
The plan also reveals the fate of the existing Calgary Flames home rink — while outlining the possible location of a new arena in the middle of Victoria Park.
The Saddledome itself is notably absent from some of the future renderings of the neighbourhood.
The 50-year plan shows the Saddledome still standing in 10 years’ time, before being replaced by a “flexible flat space” — i.e. a parking lot.
It’s still unclear if the city’s proposed plan for Victoria Park will help or hinder negotiations for a new arena.
Talks between the city and the Calgary Flames around a new arena for the team stalled in 2017 in the lead-up to the municipal election.
Last October, at the urging of a small band of councillors, council agreed to resume talks.