Quote:
Originally Posted by Bassic Lab
I think you've really misinterpreted the city's goals regarding TODs. They want a healthy mix of income levels. The entire point of which is complete communities as opposed to class segregation. Concentrating wealth means concentrating poverty elsewhere and that is problematic in many ways.
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Spruce Cliff has the highest percentage of low income households in the SW quadrant of the city outside of the core and one of the highest percentages in the whole City of Calgary at 31.8%, Rosscarrock has 27.6%. If they push this requirement through and marginalize the development of Westbrook then the continued segregation of the lower income residents into a single area is exactly what they are accomplishing.
You know where else has one of the highest percentages of lower income households at the same 31.8%? Bridgeland, the same place they also messed up a huge development project with that 2% requirement. They are not doing this stuff in the communities with less lower income households, they are doing it where there are already large populations of lower income households specifically so tell me again how they are "not" attempting to concentrate wealth in one area and restrict poverty to another? That is exactly what they are accomplishing when these requirements marginalize the developments in the communities that the city targets with these practices and keep them in their current states.
The people who live in these communities, who have invested in these communities, and pay taxes to the city for living in these communities do not deserve to have their communities singled out and have their potential development and rejuvination of their communities suffer due to affordable housing requirements that are so very clearly targetted only at specific communities that already have large low income household numbers. They are killing these communities that are already falling behind the surrounding neighborhoods in terms of investment and rejuvination by doing stuff like this to them and them specifically. They wont do this to Currie Barracks, they do not do it to Aspen Landing, but the area of Westbrook that so dearly needs rejuvination and redevelopment, they immediately handcuff the biggest redevelopment potential opportunity the area has ever seen.
These targetted communities are not becomming more diverse, they are not getting the mix of low to high income, they are being kept to already far higher then average percetages of lower income housing then the city average and this is actually creating more disparity between one community and the next. The area of Westbrook needs a high end development just to close the gap with the surrounding communities, the last thing it needs at this stage is for the city to handcuff the potential of the redevelopment of Westbrook Station.
As a member of my community of Spruce Cliff, I simply want my community to have a chance at a nice central hub just like most of the areas in Calgary have a chance to have without the City stepping in and trying to mess that up with an affordable housing restriction that has already proven to deter alot of developers from entering into a project. Instead the city has targetted Spruce Cliff as a low income resident hub and they have decided to pressure future development into making that trend continue.
The area of Spruce Cliff is one of the most shoddy areas in Calgary when it comes to commercial real estate and retail, we have old buildings, few good restaurants, little to no curb appeal, we need this one nice central area of higher end retail in that one area. Alot of us residents have been waiting patiently for Westbrook to be redeveloped for years, we saw the plans and we liked them, and now finally the plans move forward and the City trips the whole project up and has a chance to destroy what might have been.
All I want is for them to not screw up the central hub of the whole community and a vision that would have made this community have a distinctly unique and attractive area with its own style with this 2% requirement. The only place I want them NOT to do this thing is on that area between 17th and Bow, and 33rd and 37th street.
In that single parcel of land, the center of our community, build a central hub to the community as nice as absolutely possible and don't handcuff the developers over a absurd 2% reqiurement that is a drop in the affordable housing bucket and will have little positive affect on the housing issue at that income bracket but that WILL damage the end result of the development just like it did on the Bridge project. Let Spruce Cliff have as nice a central hub as a non-handcuffed developer is willing to build for us.
There is nothing wrong with lower income housing in Spruce Cliff and the surrounding area. We already have tons of it and it is not an issue for me. They are going to be getting rid of the library in Spruce Cliff and they can build an affordable housing complex on that land designed to be 100%affordable housing for all I care. That is 1 block from my condo, closer to me then Westbrook Mall, that is cool with me if they build it there, tons of affordable housing right on 33rd street right overlooking the golf course.
Tear the old library that is about to be replaced down and get whoever is developing the Westbrook Station project to build an entire affordable housing complex on that land the library is currently on as part of the deal. Forget 2% ON the Westbrook Station land, get them to build an entire building on the old library land at cost. Take off the handcuffs for Westbrook Station itself so that it can be built right and become as cool as a developer is able when all the restrictions are removed.
We are a community that deserves one nice development, one high point, and it is not right for the city to step in and screw that up on us like this.
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