The City of Calgary has approved a new land use plan for the former site of the Midfield Mobile Home Park.
Residents were evicted from the city-owned park several years ago after it was discovered sewer and water pipes on the site were failing and required fixing.
The site, along 16 Avenue N.E. just west of Deerfoot Trail, has been vacant since the city demolished the final units in 2018.
On Monday, council decided to move forward with a plan to rezone the land and develop the area, now called Midfield Heights, into a mix of businesses and homes, including some affordable housing.
“I said when we closed Midfield that obviously that land would be redeveloped someday, but we weren’t in a rush,” Calgary Mayor Nenshi said to reporters on Monday.
“The issues around closing Midfield when we had to close it was because the pipes underneath the houses were failing and all those pipes would have to be replaced anyway and we couldn’t replace the pipes and keep the houses there.
“Now, a lot of people have been thinking hard about how do we create a real jewel of a community on the former site of that mobile home park? How do we make sure there’s still affordable housing there? And that’s what council approved today,” Nenshi said.
“Those affordable housing pieces might belong to the Calgary Affordable Housing Company. (It’s) not yet clear. But by and large, the city will now sell the land and have private sector development.”
The timeline for just when the development will happen is unknown.
“Now that the land use (designation) has passed, it could move quite quickly,” Nenshi said. “But of course, we want to make sure that the market is ready and willing to take it. I mean it’s a beautiful piece of land, a gorgeous location, very close to downtown and I imagine that the market will be excited about it.”