Controversial Shawnee development frustrates residents

Angry residents from Calgary’s southwest community of Shawnee are hoping aldermen will reconsider plans to re-develop the Shawnee Slopes golf course.

Dozens of people packed city council chambers Monday, to speak against a developer's application to put a new community on the former golf course.

Geo-Energy wants to build 1,400 homes in the area being called Shawnee Park, but nearby residents fear it will ruin their neighbourhood, devalue their properties and add more traffic to an already congested Macleod Trail, just south of Fish Creek Provincial Park.

"The city really wants to move forward with high density, higher density in the existing areas and we get that, but what we're asking for is that they do that in a thoughtful way," said Shawnee resident Divona Herzog.

Geo-Energy says most of the people in Shawnee Park will live in condo and apartment units within a short walk of a nearby LRT station.

The developer also promises to keep 80 per cent of the trees in the area and ensure new homes are set well back of existing houses.