Construction traffic causing headaches for Calgarians living near WinSport

Several large developments in a new southwest Calgary community have created some traffic headaches, according to residents in the area.

Trinity Hills, which sits between the TransCanada Highway, Paskapoo Slopes and WinSport, broke ground in 2016.

Advertised as ‘Canada’s Greatest Urban Village,’ the area features several high-density developments and commercial amenities.

Carl Kaufman moved to the area in November 2022, but recently began to notice pressures on his street outside his townhome complex due to other multi-residential developments nearby.

“We’ve got construction vehicles parked on either side of the road, parked up on the verge, onto the footpath,” Kaufman said. “The road is an absolute mess, it’s covered in mud, there’s always nails.”

Vehicles related to the nearby development sites have also been seen parking on bus stops, sidewalks and green spaces.

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A group of residents have raised concerns about blocked sightlines and chokepoints along the roadway.

“It’s become a parking zoo, but it’s also becoming dangerous,” Tammy Kaufman told Global News. “Cars are pulling out, you can’t see to access out onto the road and get down the street.”

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According to Jeremy Poty, who is on the board of directors for the Eagle View townhome complex, the parking issues have also impacted their bottom line.

“We just got all the grass out front redone last year,” Poty said. “Now they’re parking on the sod and we’re going to have to get it redone again, which comes out of our budget.”

The situation has residents calling on the City of Calgary to step in to mitigate the issues, and bring forward parking contingencies for builders during the development permit process.

“The construction workers need to get to work, they need to park their vehicles somewhere. I totally get that,” Kaufman said. “But the developers should be thinking ‘where are all our workers going to park?’ Councillors should be saying ‘we’re going to approve this permit, what’s going to happen over the two year construction period?'”

Residents in the area have written the city, as well as the area councillor, and 311 about their concerns.

Ward 6 Coun. Richard Pootmans said he first heard about the concerns Wednesday, and his office contacted administration and Calgary Parking to investigate further.

“That needs to be identified and fixed,” Pootmans said. “You have to diagnose, take a look at what the issues are, figure out what the solution looks like and report back.”

The City of Calgary told Global News that Calgary Parking “had zero complaints at this location until this week,” and they’ve responded.

“We will continue monitoring and proactively patrolling the area over the next several weeks until we receive full compliance from every on-site and anyone parking illegally,” a city spokesperson said in an emailed response.

Late Thursday, several ‘no parking’ signs were placed along the roadway adjacent to the developments and the townhome complex.

Residents in the area said they hope a solution can be found soon, as other developments are planned in the neighbourhood with less parking stalls than units.

“Once these stages are finished and the residents start to move in, and then they start to build the second stages of their buildings, there is going to be no room for everybody to park,” Kaufman said.