Calgary Heritage Initiative forums

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The Mission Area Redevelopment Plan was passed at City Council on July 18. See the bottom post for the news release from the community association.

Mission is the area south of 17th Avenue to the Elbow River, and from 4th Street SW east to 1st Street SE.

The City's Mission ARP page is here: www.calgary.ca/portal/server.pt/gateway/PTARGS_0_2_366174_0_0_18/Mission+Area+Redevelopment+Plan.htm

Many aspects of the plan deal with heritage. The following is from a handout at a recent open house:

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The Cliff Bungalow-Mission community newspaper typically includes a lot of information of heritage interest. Click here for a pdf of the latest edition:www.calgaryarea.com/pdf/cliffe.pdf

Here is an article from the May/June edition regarding the ARP:

Area Redevelopment Plan One Step Closer to Approval
by Bob Lang

Many area residents converged on the Community Centre on March 22nd, eager to see and hear details of the new Land Use District that is proposed to replace the existing RM-6 zoning in Mission (the area of the community east of 4th Street SW). A new Direct Control (DC) district is proposed.

Some of the details are:
- The maximum height of new buildings will be capped at five storeys (one storey lower than the current six storey maximum).

- To make up for the reduced height, building setbacks from the property line will also be reduced. This will result in a fatter building that occupies a larger footprint.

- Minimum landscaping requirements will be 30 per cent of the total lot area.

There will also be more development guidelines than now exist, including:
- Street level access for all ground floor dwelling units in new multi-family dwellings.
- Façade articulation.
- Appropriate and respectful massing and building orientation.
- High quality and complementary building materials.
- Adherence to industry best practices for tree planting and tree protection.

Several new provisions are designed to encourage the retention of our character buildings. The following will now be allowed:
- Secondary suites or semi-detached dwellings, townhouses and apartments with a maximum of three storeys in rear yards of existing character homes. An example is a suite above a garage in a rear yard.
- Office conversions in single detached dwellings that are isolated between
two existing apartment buildings. There is a similar provision in the Cliff Bungalow ARP.
- Bed and breakfasts.
- Live-work arrangements of low traffic generator type uses.

The City is drafting the details of this new land use district. It, along with other changes to the draft Mission ARP, will be taken back to City Council for second and third readings. A public hearing may be held on July 17th. Each landowner in Mission will receive notice of this hearing, as their
properties would be automatically re-zoned if the new ARP is approved. Watch for the notice of the public hearing in the Calgary Herald (development-related applications are printed on Thursdays), as well as another update in our July newsletter.

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This story was previously posted elsewhere on the website:

March 13, 2006
Archivist fights for city’s past

By Tanya Foubert,
Calgary Journal www.calgaryjournal.ca

A Mission-area man is attempting to preserve Calgary’s history both professionally and personally.

Jim Bowman works as an archivist at the Glenbow Museum, and has volunteered his house to receive a new lower zoning that will cause it to depreciate in value when the Mission Area Redevelopment Plan is passed by city council. He is doing this because he wants to preserve the house as part of the city’s heritage and not torn down by developers.

“I think the ability to walk down the street and see (a building) that’s been there for a hundred years has a lot of meaning,” Bowman said. “For people who live in a place for an extended period of time, it’s kind of comforting to see things you saw 20 years ago. It feels like home.”

Bowman’s two-storey house directly faces the former Holy Cross hospital on Second Street and has stood there along with three other houses since 1911.

“Our city’s history is being demolished to make way for concrete highrises,” Bowman said.

He is disturbed by the trend of the city to tear down historical buildings. The Mission community has changed rapidly since 1993 when he moved to the area. At that time there were about 120 historical houses and now Bowman notes there are around 90, including those used as offices.

Bowman was part of the committee that worked on the Mission Area Redevelopment Plan, or ARP, beginning in 1998. He said he was hoping to reach an agreement with the city to have more of the Mission area down-zoned from a maximum of six storeys to three or four storeys.

As a result of the committee’s negotiations over zoning for the ARP, Ald. Madeleine King strongly supported individual property owners right’s to down-zone their property from RM-6, which allows a six-storey building, to RM-3, which allows a maximum of three storeys.

Bowman and two other homeowners chose to take this step, which will officially take effect when the ARP is passed by city council and made a bylaw.

“I guess what I did is kind of a sacrifice, but not a big sacrifice,” Bowman said. “Maybe it means my retirement nest egg is $400,000 instead of $500,000. But I think the quality of life is more important than accumulating money.”

Bob Lang, who was president of the Cliff Bungalow – Mission Community Association in 1998, is also hoping to see zoning brought down. “In the new zoning, it will be a maximum of five storeys and still have the same density, which is at least a step in the right direction,” Lang said. “That’s the compromise.”

Lang said some land owners have not been supportive of the zoning reduction because they see it limiting what they perceive as development potential.

The ARP also creates guidelines for development in the community. These guidelines are meant to help developers, the city when they examine development applications, and the community, members of which, can point out when the guidelines are not being followed.

“The development guidelines are guidelines. They’re not black and white, therefore they are open to interpretation and this is one of the issues that not just this community has, but a lot of communities have.”
Lang would like to see stricter guidelines as the ones in place in Area Redevelopment Plans are not always followed.

“Its open to interpretation and that’s where the communities are having trouble because its being interpreted from a perspective far away from what they think the proper interpretation should be,” Lang said.

The city postponed an open house for the community on February 8th until March 22nd on the proposed ARP before it goes to council to be put to a vote.

- The Calgary Journal is published by students in the journalism program at Mt. Royal College and serves southwest Calgary communities and businesses. www.calgaryjournal.ca

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19 July 2006
For immediate and continous use. For further information, contact:
Patrick Maiani, President, CBMCA
(403) 802-4822. cliffbungalowmission@yahoo.ca

Mission Community Sees Hope for Heritage Properties
in New Area Redevelopment Plan

City Council gives a new glimmer of hope for heritage preservation in the inner city. After eight years of consultation with planners, developers, and residents of the historic Mission district, council approved their new Area Redevelopment Plan (ARP) yesterday. The document emphasizes ‘the significance of preserving, where possible, it’s (Mission’s) special character buildings”, and incorporates guidelines for “new commercial and residential developments to ensure they are compatable with existing streetscapes.”

The Mission area was first established in the late 1800’s by Oblate Fathers Lacombe and Leduc in a small area between Fourth Street SW and the banks of the Elbow River. Many of the earliest homes and commercial structures built in Calgary still remain. Sacred Heart Convent, the original wing of the Holy Cross Hospital, and the Canadian Northern Railway Station (now Alberta Ballet) are some of the more prominent examples. Yet every avenue has a piece of Calgary’s heritage, though some are not immediately recognized.

Unfortunately, as recent demand for inner city condominiums surged, most buildings were under continual threat of demolition, while speculators allowed them to decay as they tried to assemble land packages for future large scale developments. Ironically, a new appreciation by individuals who want to live and work in them has seen heritage properties commanding premium prices for the original structures.

Bob Lang, vice-president of the Cliff Bungalow - Mission Community Association, and driving force behind the new ARP, says “the community looks forward to working with land owners and the City of Calgary under the new guidelines.” With the adoption of the new ARP, Mission residents hope they can strengthen support for the new trend to maintaining and valuing these properties for their unique character and heritage, while incorporating new developments that are compatable with the community.

For further information, or interview requests, please contact
Patrick Maiani, President, Cliff Bungalow - Mission Community Association.
(403) 802-4822