Create a natural focal point this fall to view from the inside looking out

I had a single dahlia plant left in my garden. It was battered into the ground by heavy winds and rain. The flowers on the plant, already lying on the ground, had aphids, spiders and slugs living in them. But from a distance, they looked shabby chic beautiful.

Studies show views of nature improve our mood and relax our minds. Improving the view of nature from your window, even if you live on the 10th floor of a high-rise building, might seem impossible this late in the season. But as long as you have a balcony or small patio, improving the view is simple. Just add flowers, dead or alive.

Instead of cutting my dahlias and dumping them, or bringing dahlia blooms with bugs into my home, I clipped the best blooms from my plant and placed them in a large, shallow, water-filled salad bowl. Then, I left the bowl outdoors on my patio table, where I enjoy them from my dining room.

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.

With Ward 12 Coun. Shane Keating pushing for provincial funding, Calgary's proposed Green Line is beginning to take small steps forward. Already having received a $1.53-billion commitment from the federal government, and city council already agreeing to fund their share, the push is on to get an application into the Province in time for the spring budget.

With that time fast approaching, CREB®Now digs into some of the facts and figures surrounding the proposed line.

Online forum also open

The City is conducting a transportation corridor study to identify short-, medium, and long-term plans for Crowchild Trail from 24th Avenue N.W. to 17th Avenue S.W.

Now in Phase 3: Concept Identification, the study will take place throughout November, working with Calgarians to explore ideas on possible changes to the roadway to help address issues today and accommodate Calgary's growth in the coming decades.

"We're working with Calgarians to put pen to paper," said project manager Fesial Lakha. "We know Calgarians have great ideas. The workshops are an opportunity to explore the benefits, impacts, constraints and trade-offs of different ideas participants bring to the table."

City becomes first to do so in Canada

Calgary has become the first city in Canada to offer complete online residential permit servicing.

Residential ePermit customers applying for new home construction permits (single and semi-detached homes, and associated garages) can now apply for these permits, pay for services and process all their inspections, using a single online tool.

The latest ePermit upgrade provides customers new inspection services and options, which completes a start-to-finish approach to doing business with the City online.

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.