The Development Permit for the Stadium Shopping Centre (SSC) redevelopment was submitted to the City of Calgary by Western Securities on January 28, 2016. The surrounding community associations received a copy of the plans a few days ago and a small group was quickly assembled to review and determine next steps.
We understand that the SSC redevelopment is intended to conform with the Area Redevelopment Plan. The timeframe for response and comment on the Development Permit is short. While comments were originally required by February 15th, the University Heights Community Association (UHCA) sought and received an extension to March 15. The Community Association will be making its preliminary comments after Tuesday February 16th and asks that you forward any comments you wish included in our first submission by then. We strongly encourage residents who wish to comment independently to do so as soon as possible as the city review process is proceeding regardless. (See note below for city contact info) The earlier comments are received by the planning department of the City of Calgary, the easier it will be to have comments incorporated in their recommendations for amendments to the Development Permit. Please forward any comments you make directly to the city or that you wish included in the UHCA submission to Development@UHCACalgary.org so we can do our best to incorporate them into our comments prior to the March 15 deadline.
In conjunction with St. Andrews Heights, we have had several conversations with both Mike Brescia at Western Securities and Neil MacDonald, Senior Planner and File Manager of the City of Calgary requesting clarifications with respect to the process. UHCA will host an open house on Tuesday February 23rd at 7:30PM at the Foothills Mennonite Church. Representatives from Western Securities and the City of Calgary will be available for discussion of the SCC redevelopment.
The following documents have been extracted from the package submitted with the Development Permit Application and are provided here to help understand the scope and some high level details of the SCC redevelopment. The UHCA understands from the City of Calgary that infrastructure investments, including the 16th Ave pedestrian overpass and redesign of the 16th Ave and Uxbridge/29th St. interchange are all planned to proceed. The tender process for the interchange project will be commencing in about a month with construction possibly commencing as early as this summer. In addition, the 16th Ave bus rapid transit is moving forward with a stop at the Stadium Shopping Centre. (North Crosstown Bus Rapid Transit (BRT))
Once the Western Securities Development Permit Application is approved, and following City permitting of demolition, excavation and building etc, Western Securities will commence demolition of all the shopping plaza buildings, excavation for and construction of a two level underground parkade followed by the first phase of building construction. Initial concerns identified by the UHCA, for which we will be requesting clarification, include the following:
Please do not hesitate to contact Matt Law (Development@UHCACalgary.org) or Dave Yadav (VicePresident@UHCACalgary.org) if you have any questions and the UHCA will continue to communicate through the website on all developments.
Stadium Shopping Centre ARP:
Stadium Shopping Centre Master Plan NOTE: this document was drafted over a year ago so details and timing have changed. ONLY THE PLANS HAVE LEGAL EFFECT
Stadium Shopping Centre Development Permit Plans Excerpts:
City Contact Information for Comments:
Neil MacDonald, Senior Planner Ph: 403.268.5687 Email: Neil.MacDonald@calgary.ca
On February 28, 2013, the City of Calgary commenced public consultations with University Heights (UH) residents about the creation of an Area Redevelopment Plan (ARP) for Stadium Shopping Centre (SSC), located in UH. Subsequently, City planners prepared a Traffic Impact Assessment (TIA), a Draft ARP and then a Proposed ARP for SSC redevelopment. With minor changes, the Proposed ARP was approved by the Calgary Planning Commission (CPC) on June 6, 2013. In a 16-page submission to CPC, the University Heights Community Association (UHCA) strongly opposed the Proposed ARP.
Documents have been prepared and made available by the City of Calgary about the Municipal Development Plan (MDP) and corresponding maps and, for SSC redevelopment, the TIA and its appendices (A-I, J-N), the Draft ARP, the Proposed ARP and the CPC-approved Proposed ARP, efforts by City planners at community engagement, and related issues. In addition, UHCA prepared documents about SSC redevelopment issues and submitted them to City planners. Finally, documents have been prepared by the UHCA and circulated to UH residents.
Some UHCA documents have been prepared, circulated and commented upon, occasionally going through several drafts. Only the most relevant documents are available here, and some City documents may not be current because the City changes them from time to time. Documents available here are grouped into three self-explanatory categories: UHCA Documents to Residents, UHCA Documents to the City and City of Calgary Documents. It should also be noted that the City has numerous documents concerning SSC redevelopment available from the website: calgary.ca/stadium. (CAUTION: Some City documents are lengthy and may require considerable time to download.)
For UH residents, perhaps the most relevant City documents are the MDP and its maps, the original TIA and its appendices, the Draft ARP, and the Proposed ARP (which was passed by CPC with few changes). Later, City planners prepared a Revised TIA and discussed it publicly early in July.
For UH residents, perhaps the most relevant UHCA documents are divided into two groups. The first group consists of those sent on or before June 6, the date of the CPC meeting: three submissions to the City on the TIA (comments from David Richardson, and Wayne Davies- (1) and (2)) and the Proposed ARP. These three UHCA submissions were prepared under extremely tight deadlines established by the City, and more time would have allowed more polishing. [Two emails dated May 24 and June 23 from the UHCA president to UH residents may also be of interest. Likewise of interest may be documents sent to UH residents from the UHCA detailing concerns with the outcome of the CPC meeting and discussions about how to make the concerns of UH residents heard by City planners. These documents appear in the Communications among UH residents.]
Of interest to UH residents may also be a second group of submissions to City planners and members of City Council after June 6. Among these are documents submitted on July 10 to City Council: the UHCA submission, an Analysis of Final TIA Deficiencies by Wayne Davies, and a Letter Re deficiencies in consultation for SCC ARP.