The City of Calgary has seen an uptick in development permit applications for townhouses, duplexes and rowhouses, but questions are emerging about aging infrastructure in the city’s established communities.
Infrastructure has been top of mind for many in the city after the critical rupture of the Bearspaw feeder main pipe back in June.
The cause has yet to be determined and will be the subject of a third-party review of the incident.
“I’m hopeful the utility issues will get looked at by the city and we don’t have to go through the same thing that Bowness did,” said Zev Klymochko with the Millican-Ogden Community Association.
According to the city, there’s been an increase in all types of development permit applications year over year.
City statistics show there were 51 development applications for R-CG and H-GO zoned properties between May 14 and Aug. 12 this year, more than double the 24 applications during the same period last year.
It comes after city council voted to change the base residential zoning in Calgary to allow for more housing types on a single property.
Those changes took effect on Aug. 6.
“I think it’s just too soon to determine if this increase is attributed specifically to city-wide zoning,” said Maggie Choi, the city’s manager of growth infrastructure planning.
However, some city councillors said they’re fielding concerns from residents about the impact of redevelopment on the city’s infrastructure in inner-city communities.
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“There’s obviously some places where there’s a lot more redevelopment that’s occurring in our city,” Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot said. “I think we should put a greater emphasis and focus on some of those areas where we may need to make some improvements sooner rather than later.”
Infrastructure became an emerging theme during the record public hearing at Calgary city hall prior to city council’s decision on the zoning changes.
“People are concerned about the more and more development we do, and the increase in densification and population density, are we stressing our systems out? Actually, it’s the other way around,” Ward 7 Coun. Terry Wong told Global News. “The more and more we put densification in, we’re actually able to use our infrastructure in a more efficient way.”
Wong said he’d like to see the city focus more on redundancies so services can still be provided if there is an interruption to services, like a water main break.
According to the city, there is an evaluation process and tools in place “to review infrastructure capacity status,” including an evaluation of every development permit to ensure it’s properly serviced and servicing capacity exists and “routine city-wide monitoring.”
Choi said the city also monitors growth patterns to determine upgrades of aging infrastructure when lifecycle maintenance is required.
“For example, if it’s on some of the larger pipes, the city would then add that to our capital investment plan and proactively look to upgrade that pipe before it reaches its full capacity,” Choi said. “So we would monitor as the development permit activity occurs and when we start to see it approaching capacity, we would add it to our list.”
Choi added the city has established a new tool to enable developers to share the costs of upgrades that are triggered by development.
Funding those upgrades is a different challenge, according to Chabot, with cost pressures on municipalities nationwide.
It comes as the Federation of Canadian Municipalities calls for a new federal funding framework for cities and towns across the country.
“Municipalities maintain our roads, bridges, transit services, water and wastewater systems and provide our policing, emergency services, recreational and cultural facilities, and much more,” the organization said in a statement to Global News.”However, they are struggling to fund, maintain and improve these infrastructures and services due to an outdated revenue framework that is creaking under Canada’s record population growth.”
Chabot said there will be ongoing discussions around infrastructure ahead of city budget talks in November.
“We’re going to have a challenging time come November trying to meet all of council’s objectives from a financial perspective,” he said.
The city said it will continue monitoring the volume of development applications in the coming months.
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