Calgary council to debate development pause, infrastructure review for Bowness, Montgomery

A connection to halt high-density improvement successful 2 northwest Calgary neighbourhoods for a reappraisal into captious infrastructure successful the country has cleared its archetypal hurdle astatine metropolis hall.

The motion, from Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp and Ward 7 Coun. Terry Wong, requests an investigation of the large infrastructure successful Bowness and Montgomery including roads, water, and wastewater pursuing June’s captious rupture of the Bearspaw feeder main.

However, the question besides calls for a impermanent intermission connected caller developments of 4 units oregon much successful those neighbourhoods until the reappraisal is implicit successful June 2025.

“We’re not saying don’t physique successful Bowness oregon Montgomery ever again, that’s not what this is about” Sharp told reporters. “Give it a intermission truthful we tin recognize the stability, the coagulated foundation, to physique housing, affordable and mundane homes.”

The duo argues residents successful Bowness and Montgomery person had an interaction to their prime of beingness owed to “repeated infrastructure failures and resulting disruptions” pursuing the feeder main break, which prompted boil h2o advisories and operation detours passim the summer.

“We privation to beryllium definite there’s continuity of service, and the hazard absorption plans associated with that are well-placed… and astir importantly, that the h2o that comes retired is cleanable and safe,” Wong said Thursday.

A method reappraisal of the question was approved 7-3, with Couns. Dan McLean, Jasmine Mian and Kourtney Penner opposed; Penner noted concerns the impermanent intermission connected improvement could pb to ineligible issues.

City solicitor and wide counsel Jill Floen told committee determination could beryllium a ineligible hazard astir the improvement pause, with the applicant of a rejected improvement licence having the close to entreaty the determination oregon situation it successful the courts.

“We simply request to marque decisions connected applications that are submitted to us,” she said. “We, of course, request to enactment with applicants and explicate the rationale down the decisions that we are going to make, and past the shot is successful their tribunal to find whether oregon not they’re going to situation that.”

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Calgary politician Jyoti Gondek said she plans to instrumentality a deeper look astatine the intent of Sharp and Wong’s question earlier it goes earlier assembly aboriginal this month.

“I deliberation we request to beryllium precise cautious astatine a clip erstwhile we’re trying to present housing, and we’re putting, effectively, connected immoderate benignant of lodging being delivered,” Gondek told reporters.

“A steadfast statement volition beryllium had and we’ll fig retired what our colleagues are really trying to accomplish.”

The question is getting disapproval from lodging advocacy radical More Neighbours Calgary, claiming the motion’s intent is to artifact caller lodging successful 2 communities.

“There’s nary grounds that the h2o main interruption from this summertime was was due to the fact that we built much buildings,” the organization’s co-founder Willem Klumpenhouwer said successful an interview. “I deliberation that statement is rather weak, connecting those 2 things together.”

Klumpenhouwer said helium is successful favour of reviewing infrastructure capacity, but is opposed to “putting a frost successful a lodging situation connected tenable development.”

However, the determination is being applauded by immoderate residents successful Bowness.

“Take that second, look into everything, there’s buildings going up everywhere,” Bowness nonmigratory Stephen Olszewski said. “You request caller piping, you request caller systems, and cleanable up the act.”