Quote:
Originally Posted by Chadillaccc
Neither Fort McMurray or Sherwood Park are eligible for city status, as both are considered urban service areas of regional municipalities. I don't think the province would grant either request for city status, as both had their city status revoked in the past.
In regards to Chestermere, the city plans to quadruple their population by 2040. Building a dense, walkable downtown area and connecting directly to Calgary's urban area. The city would be over 60 000 people, and likely be connected to at least Calgary's BRT network, if not our rail rapid transit network by this time.
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I see this move as a more of an attempt to shake from Calgary's development ideas and goals. I suspect a few pragmatic things may happen, but density isn't one of them - at least at first. Unless sprawl with large lot sizes in open prairie and farmland is considered adding density.
I hope you are right Chad, but the dialog suggests this is a move to avoid being swallowed by the city and being forced to implement many of the land-use and corridor rules that would integrate Chestemere even more and make it .
The creation of these satellite cities won't matter significantly from Calgary's perspective for a while (there is more than enough growth within the city proper as well as the large corporate tax base that is going nowhere else in the region). But unchecked it is a serious problem especially if the outlying municipalities disagree substantially on the vision of the metropolitan area.
Interestingly, I believe I read that due to the lack of commercial tax base, the property tax rates for surrounding cities is actually higher than Calgary. Calgary being more attractive - leads to higher house prices, meaning each house pays on average more - but the rate itself is lower.
Who knows what the future will bring
Perhaps "cities" like Chestemere will have to bow to the increasingly powerful economic trends of increasing transportation costs and millennials choosing the city in ever greater numbers and become more urban themselves?