With more than 200 transactions over the million-dollar price point in the first six months of 2013, Calgary's commercial market continues to be the subject of "cautious optimism".

Highlighting trends and developments in 11 major centres across Canada, the 2013 RE/MAX Commercial Investor Report found commercial inventory remained scarce during the first half of the year, particularly in the multi-unit residential, industrial, and retail sectors.

After years of negotiations and near misses, a huge obstacle to begin construction of the southwest ring road has been reached.

On October 24, the Tsuu T'ina Nation voted 69 per cent in favour of a tentative land agreement with the Government of Alberta that will see them transfer a portion of reserve land to the Province in order to build the southwest leg of the ring road.

According to Statistics Canada, between 2006 and 2012, the fastest growing medium-sized community in Alberta was Chestermere. The town's population grew by a staggering 19.7 per cent to almost 12,000, up from 10,000.

By comparison, the province's overall population grew by 13.5 per cent during the same span. The other fast-growing communities also tended to be not far from Calgary, with High River (+18.5 per cent), Airdrie (+18.2 per cent) and Cochrane (+15.7 per cent) showing impressive population gains.

The City of Calgary's Expert Management Panel on River Flood Mitigation is seeking input from the public on their ideas about reducing the impacts from river flooding in the future.

The Panel has identified six theme areas to work on: changing climate; event forecasting; watershed management; storage, diversion, protection; infrastructure and property resiliency; and additional risk management. To ensure there is a thorough examination of these areas, the panel will be seeking input from technical experts locally and worldwide.

Two local organizations aimed at helping Calgarians find housing are asking City Hall to further streamline its approvals process to help ease demand.

Fresh off the announcement that Attainable Homes Calgary Corporation (AHCC) had acquired 42 units in north Calgary, company CEO David Watson said the city needs to make things easier for those tasked with creating housing stock.

The City of Calgary is halfway there.

Left with more than 200 incomplete concrete construction projects around the city when concrete contractor Asty Construction went out of business, the city has completed repair on over 100 of the sites.