CALGARY- While many residents in the city’s southeast are opposed to the redevelopment of the Shawnee Slopes golf course, the developer says it will be a legacy project.
On Monday, city council approved plans for a major residential development on the former golf course. Many residents were hoping to keep it as a green space.
1,700 homes will eventually go up on the site.
“I think the vision we had originally and the way it has manifested itself, has improved,” says Les Humphrey, a planner for Geo-Energy Enterprises. “The past four and a half years has only intensified our feelings about the validity of what we are doing as a quality landmark development. Quite frankly, we think it will be a real jewel.”
The development will retain most of the existing trees, a key element of the design.
But residents are unhappy with the high density of the project.
“We wanted to design something within reason and yet we have pushed through this density issue right to the edge of the infrastructure capacity,” says Brad Smith of the Shawnee Estates Community Association.
Ward councillor Diane Colley-Urquhart says she plans to make the development a civic election issue.
“You can’t apply a cookie cutter approach to municipal development plans and all these other big policies we dream up and ram a bunch of density into our existing communities – there will be uprisings,” says Colley-Urquhart.
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