Thoughts on key election issues
August 12th, 2010 Posted in Politics | No Comments »A major focus for me in this election is that the city of Calgary asked us what kind of city we wanted, we told them, they did up the plans, and then the Aldermen voted to change those plans without saying much more in some cases than that the UDI (a Calgary developer think tank/ lobby group) told them to. There is something wrong with private interests overriding public interest- especially in an issue like neighbourhood development where there is so much at stake.
Through the huge public consultation process of ‘Imagine Calgary’ we told the City what we wanted with remarkable consistency of opinion. We want safe streets, we want walkable communities, we want a vibrant small business community, we want more green space, we want great public transit and we want an active core. City planners drafted the documents outlining how to follow through on what we asked for. The Municipal Development Plan, for example, is a great document. When it came time for the vote on density requirements in ‘new communities’/green-field development, council decided to instead reduce previously existing required density levels. Higher density is important in the creation of the types of neighbourhoods that Calgarians asked for- and it happens to save us a lot of tax dollars. Lower density is important to sprawl developers because it makes them the most money- it also happens to cost us a lot of tax dollars to service.
Council decided to continue allowing one specific industry to make millions of dollars in profits selling Calgarians homes in neighbourhoods that are incredibly expensive to service. Our public consultation made it very clear that Calgarians do NOT want this type of city.
The density requirement vote was passed with a majority due to the vote of the incumbent Ward 8 alderman- who has said that he agrees to the principals raised by the Imagine Calgary process. This type of duplicity is not unknown to Calgarians and it should make us angry that we cannot trust our council to do what we ask of them despite what they tell us. Being lied to makes people tune out from the political process.
The people who live in the inner city pay higher taxes because we pay based on property value instead of servicing costs. This makes living in the most easy to service, efficient part of the city, also the most expensive option for people. Money is missing from this equation and its going to the companies selling us sprawl. Their argument is that this is a customer choice issue. This flawed argument is perpetuated to justify building neighbourhoods with the cheapest land costs that generate the highest profits for the companies that develop them.
I would argue that many customers would choose to spend less time in their car every day if they were given affordable, interesting, safe, inner city options. There are smaller profits to be made pursuing this type of development because land costs are higher. I would like to see real costs of servicing tied to new development so that customers are choosing from a level playing field that is fair to all tax payers.
The development industry has many very reasonable players who understand that some rules should apply to how communities are built so that they are the most efficient for tax payers and are responsive to the wants of Calgarians. I would hope that with the right policies in place developers would find attractive ways to make profits by filling in our street level parking lots and the open pits that are destroying street life in the downtown and inner city with new places for people to live.
If real costs were passed on to the sprawl developers, and taxes were spent in the city relative to where they were generated, I believe customers would be more likely to choose to live in an efficient, safe, well serviced inner city.
I think inner city development and bringing our suburbs up to higher density instead of continuing to build out in new communities is not only the most economically responsible policy for Calgarian’s tax dollars, it also makes for the best type of city that is most responsive to what Calgarians have asked for.
Somehow council after council agrees to the rules that sprawl developers tell them they have to play by. This happens with little or no public involvement. The closed door meetings that resulted in the lowering of density requirements in new communities is a key example of this unfair influence.
Despite what some on council may be convinced of- we don’t need to be afraid that if we don’t spread out as largely as possible people will choose to live in Okotoks and pay taxes to that municipality. With safe streets, different market entry points to home ownership, excellent inner city public transit and a vibrant small business culture we can expect a rise in the number of people wanting to live in the core. Calgary stretches out far enough- there will always be plenty of single family houses here. There is no need for us to spread into any more of our surrounding farm land.
I want to focus on a positive direction for Ward 8 and the inner city, and I also want to be positive about all of Calgary. We all know and love people who have made the choice to live in the suburbs. We should be mad that in order to appease one industry Calgary is set up so that affordable places to live happen to be found in neighbourhoods that require people to spend a lot of time in a car. No one really wins in that system except the people who sell those houses. We have told our elected officials what we want to see and they haven’t followed through.
I do not want to inflame people against developers. In this country most development projects are handled by private development companies. If we are going to build the inner city we want in Calgary it will done by the development industry. Finding allies interested in looking at new, successful, efficient, sustainable development projects will be crucial for an effective council. We must find developers who understand that the 1960’s view of a perfect neighbourhood was based on the assumption of an endless supply of oil and an indestructible environment. We are in a vastly different reality in 2010 and we need to start adapting how we build cities.
To build the strongest possible Calgary we need to focus on improving the core. We can do this by developing a strong inner city public transit network, keeping Calgary one of the safest cities in Canada with police foot patrols and neighbourhood policing and by encouraging small business development bringing vibrancy and unique local character to the city. In other words- following through on what Calgarians have already asked for.
