WATCH ABOVE: The massive development project plan for just off 16th avenue is for a new and improved ‘Stadium Shopping Centre’. As Tracy Nagai reports, communities opposed to the project say Calgarians don’t have the full picture though.
CALGARY- City council has voted in favour of a proposed land deal that would make way for a new and improved ‘Stadium Shopping Centre’.
Councillors voted unanimously to sell the strip of land north of 16th avenue to developers who are planning a massive development project complete with a hotel, restaurants and stores.
The plan, though, has been a lightning rod for controversy.
Communities opposed to the project say Calgarians don’t have the full picture.
Joanne Wegiel may soon be packing boxes, instead of stocking shelves.
Her specialty pet store ‘The Cat House’ moved in to the Stadium Shopping Centre 14 years ago and even then she knew her time here was limited.
“We asked for a guarantee for a no demolition clause that we wouldn’t have to move for any reason and they gave it to us for 5 years, but wouldn’t give it to us for 10 years,” Joanne Wegiel said.
Plans for the redevelopment of the area include a hotel, retail and residential space. A complete transformation from the current strip mall.
“We’re going to take something that looks like this today and try and turn it into something incredible,” Mike Brescia (the developer) from Western Securities Ltd. said.
But not everyone is on board and those opposed to the project are taking a stand over the strip of public land that runs along 16th avenue.
“There’s so much uncertainty, there are transit plans which have not been completed, there are major corridor studies for Crowchild and Shaganappi which have not been completed. Let’s hold off selling this land,” Jaques Gendron from St. Andrews Heights Community Association said.
The major concern is traffic and the adjacent intersection, with 16th avenue already congested at times and several projects planned for the area including the Calgary cancer project.
“Our regular customers tell us that they avoid coming on days when there’s a football game because there’s so much extra traffic on the highway at that intersection,” Wegiel said.
But the developer insists exhaustive traffic studies have been completed and they plan to improve the area.
“The intersection will be completely different from how it looks today. There are dual turn lanes in several different directions. The long term plans also include making 16th avenue into three lanes in each direction as well,” Brescia said.
The developer says it was planning to move forward with the project whether the city sold the land or not. It expects to submit a development permit by spring of 2015.
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