FCC, U of C join forces to support community development

A new agreement between the Federation of Calgary Communities and University of Calgary aims to offer students real-world urban-planning experience, valuable data for community planners and some certainty for homeowners.

The agreement with the university's Faculty of Environmental Design (EVDS) formalizes ongoing efforts to get students into the field, aiding community associations in conducting research, consulting residents and coming up with planning documents to guide future growth and redevelopment.

"This partnership is really critical from the point of view of having access to experience and skills (community associations) wouldn't otherwise have access to," said FCC president Leslie Evans, whose federation has some 150 member associations.

Citizen engagement front and centre of new initiatives

What is your vision for your community in the next 20 years?

The City of Calgary recently asked this question to a group of nearly 40 Dover residents; the general consensus was a community that is safe, quiet and fun for kids.

Based on this feedback, City representatives will return to the southeast community later this month to present a list of small-scale improvement projects that can be completed within a year. Community members will get to prioritize the projects.

Sharing economy proving controversial in Calgary and beyond

Share and share alike: for better or worse, it might be Calgary's new unofficial slogan.

Whether it's a home, room, or even a parking spot, Calgarians are proving to be big believers in divvying up their assets, with the controversial Uber car-sharing app and several other share-based service-providers gaining footholds in the local market.

Yet despite offering revenue-generating opportunities, services like AirBnB and Uber, also present some risks to providers, warn legal experts.

Why some Calgarians are choosing to stay put 

Our homes are our hearts. They are where we live, where we love, where we raise our families and where we make memories.

And as with all aspects of life, the heart wants what it wants. In many cases, this means a change.

However, instead of packing up our lives in boxes and moving to a new space, many Calgarians are opting to stay put and renovate instead, says Susan Rust of Susan Rust Interior Design.
Emotionally, many homeowners feel connected and sentimental to their existing home.

"They may have great friends and neighbours in the area and feel connected to the neighbourhood," said Rust.

New developments increasingly designed to minimize impact on agricultural neighbours

A suburban home with a two-car garage is hardly what most people would call a potential threat to our nation's food security.

Yet as subdivisions push evermore into rural areas — with neighbourhoods bordering on fields of wheat and other crops — their impact on agricultural land has increasingly become a hot-button topic, says Tim Dietzler, an agricultural expert with Rocky View County.

"This is not a new issue in this area or any area in Alberta with development new agricultural land," he says. "But many municipalities now pay much more attention to the potential problems that can arise."

Parking stalls becoming key bargaining chips in a buyers' market for apartment condos

Parking is at a premium in Calgary's inner city.

Granted, that's not new news. But its impact on the local resale residential housing market is now making waves, especially as a bargaining chip for sellers in the beleaguered apartment-style condominium sector.

Benchmark prices in Calgary fell overall by 0.7 per cent in October compared with the month before, and 1.2 per cent from October the previous year, according to CREB®'s most recent monthly housing summary.

The steepest decline, however, was in the apartment condo sector where the benchmark price fell 0.8 per cent to $288,300 and four per cent from October 2014. CREB® attributed the decline to a corresponding increase in months of supply, which approached six months. In other words, more supply created a downward pressure on prices.

Local golf courses facing common plight

Two proposed residential redevelopment projects on Calgary golf courses are at the tipping point of an economic sustainability challenge hitting the golf industry throughout North America.

A proposal for new homes in two pocket areas at the Hamptons Golf Club — to support a substantial overhaul of the golf course itself — and the proposed closure of the nine-hole Harvest Hills Golf Course for the construction of single and multi-family homes, are working their way through community consultation and city application processes.

Hamptons Golf Course Ltd. has released preliminary concepts for northwest Calgary club's redevelopment, which would see a reconfiguration of the existing 18-hole course that would facilitate the construction of 35 to 65 new homes.

New vision for Paskapoo Slopes area

A controversial mixed-use project slated for west Calgary has revealed its development plan.

Located along the Trans-Canada Highway, Trinity Hills would bring 700,000 square feet of retail space, 250,000 square feet of office space along with 1,500 residential units to the East Paskapoo Slopes area adjoining Canada Olympic Park.

The plans for site, which had been met with fears of over-development from some local residents, calls for nearly three million square feet in total development which would consume roughly one-third of the existing green space.

Will mega-project CalgaryNEXT be the anchor institution that breathes new life into the local landscape?

Urban planning enthusiasts call them anchor institutions – those landmark buildings in which cities are built around.

In Calgary, they dot our landscape: from the University of Calgary and Foothills Medical Centre in the northwest to Stampede Park and the Calgary Tower in the southwest — even the up-and-coming Seton mixed-use district in the southeast.

Calgary would be a very different — even lesser — place without them, says Colin Jackson, member of the senate at the University of Calgary and also chair of several arts and culture initiatives.

"A good way to think of them as anchor institutions is that they set the tone or give a feel to a neighbourhood," said Jackson, who has spoken on the subject in the past.

Could the CalgaryNEXT mega-project be next?

Experts warn Alberta a hot spot for land-title fraud

Calgary homeowners are being warned to protect themselves from land title fraudsters who are targeting active real estate markets across the country.

"Ontario, B.C. and Alberta are the hot spots for fraud in Canada," said Marie Taylor, director and national underwriter for title insurance company First Canadian Title.

Land title fraud, also known as fraud for title, happens when a person's identity is stolen and used to create fake documents and identification – which are, in turn, used to take out a mortgage loan on the victim's home.

When the bank approves the mortgage application, the fraudster will take the money and run, leaving the victim with another large debt on his or her home.