Council sailed through a sea of 20 land use applications at a public hearing on Tuesday, approving all of them, some unanimously.
The approvals gave applicants the go ahead to tear down single-family homes in various parts of the city, replacing them with multi-family homes, some as high as four storeys, containing up to 16 separate homes, including secondary suites.
The ‘sea’ was moderately calm for the first 19 applications, with basically an even split between Calgarians presenting at the public hearing in favour or not in favour of the applications.
And then council ‘sailed’ into a tsunami, an application from Minto Communities to build a massive high-density development on the site of the former Viscount Bennett High School.
The site is in the southwest community of Richmond Knob Hill, with Crowchild Tr. on the east, 25 St. SW on the west, Richmond Rd. on the north and 30 Ave. SW on the south.
Minto Communities bought the land from the Calgary Board of Education in 2023, with an original plan that called for 30-storey towers along Crowchild Tr. and lower-rise buildings with a total of 2,500 homes which would accommodate approximately 6,500 residents.
Minto adjusted the plan in January to three 16-storey towers along Crowchild Tr. and five low-rise buildings, accommodating, in total, approximately 3,500 residents. Parking is restricted to 0.5 stalls per unit, because the site qualifies as a Transit Oriented Development, being close to the MAX Yellow Bus Rapid Transit station on either side of Crowchild Tr.
In all my years of reporting on land development and housing, and they are many, I have never seen a site so unsuited for such a development, let alone any development.
And it’s not an issue with Minto, it’s an issue with the city.
The site is basically ‘land locked’. There is no access to Crowchild Tr. nor from 30 Ave. or Richmond Rd. The only access is from 25 St. and the site is already a construction zone, with the school being demolished.
All the construction traffic is on 25 St., clogged with large trucks and other equipment, destroying what was a quiet residential street of well-kept homes and families of all ages.
Here’s the rub, the project has a 10-year build-out projection. Ten years of trucks and other large construction equipment on 25 St.
According to realtor Kirby Cox of Richmond Real Estate Calgary, 16 homes in the area sold in 2024 for an average price of $1,014,360.
It’s safe to say those days are over, with council voting 9-to-5 to approve the Minto application, it is highly unlikely anyone is going to buy a home on 25 St. or anywhere in the neighbourhood for the next 10 years.
Councillors voting in favour were Peter Demong, Gian-Carlo Carra, Courtney Wallcott, Jennifer Wyness, Raj Dhaliwal, Evan Spencer, Kourtney Penner, Jennifer Mian and Mayor Jyoti Gondek.
Voting against were Councillors Dan Mclean, Terry Wong, Sean Chu, Sonya Sharp and Andre Chabot.
It is absolutely irresponsible of the councillors who voted in favour of the application without first insisting an access to Crowchild Tr. be built to accommodate construction traffic.
By not doing so, the values of the homes in the area have already plummeted. Millions of dollars in equity likely gone.
This, in a city that is singing the merits of the Liberal’s Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) to the tune of $228 million to add housing to the market, plus an additional $22.8 million bonus it received a couple of weeks ago, for issuing building permits over and above a level set by the city’s contract with CMHC, which administers HAF.
Here's a plan: use half the HAF to settle the residents' losses.
