Development plans for Inglewood and Ramsay draw ire at open house

Some residents of Inglewood and Ramsay say they're not happy with the city's latest redevelopment plans for the historic southeast Calgary neighbourhoods, with one calling changes a "bait and switch."

An open house was held Monday to give residents a look at the latest proposal, which amalgamates two sets of plans into one.

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And some weren't pleased with what they saw.

Sylvia Hayward has called Inglewood home for three decades and is the former president of the community association. She referred to the plans presented at the open house as a "bait and switch." 

"The ARP [area redevelopment plan] process is where you sit down with community representatives and the city and start negotiation for development in the community … it's been a two-year process," she said.

"We submitted a draft that was approved by the community in March and there were heights in that draft that were agreed on. Suddenly, some of the heights have been changed.

"It's pretty coincidental that some of the height changes match the development applications that are currently before the city."

Part of the process

Chris Wolfe, a senior planner with the City of Calgary, said this is all part of the process.

"There are new ideas that are being introduced. Nothing is final about a plan until it's adopted by council, and we need the ability throughout the process to introduce new ideas," he said.

Wolfe said this is the second to last public consultation. A final meeting is likely to take place in September. The plan for development is set to go before council in December.

The redevelopment began to take shape in 2015, when funding for the Green Line LRT project was approved. In the plans are a new train station at 12th Avenue S.E. and mix-use developments.

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