It was great to see such a great showing of support for Plan It Calgary.

Citizens came out in support of Plan It. Neol Keough said the “Plan It process has been the most rigorous and extensive public engagement our city has ever seen” (6,000 citizens were consulted and 18,000 were consulted during Imagine Calgary).

Keough noted that Plan It “will make living in Calgary more affordable”. He further stated that Plan It is not anti-car, it is pro-choice.... Assuming that a family can take transportation savings from not owning a car, or even owning one rather than two, or two rather than three cars, and instead apply it to mortgage payments - the number of communities in which a family could afford to purchase the average priced house, rises substantially.”

Plan It advocates for better public transit service. Byron Miller in a written submission said that the German city of Friedberg recovers 90% of the cost of public transit through fares because higher densities can better support transit. Calgary needs to increase it’s density to support better public transit service.

Later, Keough went on to say that there should be ‘no community left behind’. “It makes no sense to be sinking our taxpayer dollars into new greenfield developments when those same taxpayers' own communities are incomplete and lacking in basic services, and the existing infrastructure is underutilized.”

Businesses came out in support of Plan It. The Marda Loop Business Revitalization, representing 130 businesses, voiced their support. They said Plan It was visionary and said “more urban communities is just what Calgary needs” because higher density around retail districts is an asset to business.

Calgary’s Business Revitalization Zones (CBIZ) mentioned that 17^th Avenue SE (International Avenue) is a great example of how we can use what we have in Calgary and increase the density. Right now it is car oriented, but this avenue can be transformed into a more dense, beautiful and walkable street that would better support businesses in that area.

Ken Toews, a developer, called Plan It “a great plan” for developers. He worked on Garrison Woods, the redevelopment of the Currie Barracks. Contrary to predictions, the demand for Garrison Woods was “incredible”. Toews further went on to say, “With such a great financial success, we expected UDI (Urban Development Institute, the lobby group for developers) to build on this success and build communities that Calgarians wanted. Wrong! Calgary’s developers kept building the same old communities. Why? It is easy. Calgarians subsidize the development of new greenfield communities. Greenfield developers make a lot of money with little effort.” Chima Nkemdirim, chair of Better Calgary, concurred by saying that developers are “lazy” so they “just put up a single family house”.

                  
 
With an increase in density, the quality of life of residents improves. Chima Nkemdirim, a resident of Bridgeland said that the Bridges development has done just this for his community. With an increase in amenities, like coffee shops and a sushi restaurant, two dentists and a drycleaner, life in Bridgeland has improved. And none of the fears of traffic have materialized either.

Though in support of Plan It, many thought that there was room for improvement. Chima Nkemdirim noted that Plan It needs to improve in the area of affordable housing. He suggested that The City of Calgary adopt an inclusionary zoning policy that would ensure an adequate amount of affordable housing in each new development. Nkemdirim also wanted to see the city adopt a city wide secondary suite policy.

Noel Keough said, “In my estimation, the Recommended Scenario is too timid and a more aggressive intensification scenario, in the range of 70 percent of new development in the existing city footprint, as proposed by the consensus of stakeholders, would make for more affordable living – greater housing choice and affordability, greater mobility choice and affordability and to put the icing on the cake - lower taxes. Win-Win, triple bottom line, fiscal prudence, social ecological and economic sustainability – take your pick, Plan It delivers it and an enhanced Plan It will deliver it in spades.” Peter Rishaug said that Plan It will result in an infrastructure savings of $11.2 billion for taxpayers over the next 60 years, which works out to $500 per household per year.

Chris Turner said that Plan It “is not going near far enough for our changing world”. He later went on to say that “business as usual has no future”. Turner was concerned that “oil will peak between now and 2020...This is forecasted to result in 22 million homes in the suburbs being abandoned”. As an example of what can be done, Turner noted that a developer in Denver retrofitted a shopping mall to create a downtown in the suburbs.

Jason Kubke summed it up the best, “It’s like we are a child who has been given a choice between ice cream and vegetables. We have chosen to eat the ice cream. We need our veggies though for Calgary to grow smarter and healthier”.