Hillsboro Place Update

Hillsboro Place meeting, June 12th, 2014

July 19th, 2014 Update:

The Hillsboro Place meeting on June 12th at the Fairview Baptist Church saw about 35 people turnout including the property owner, property manager, traffic study team and Ward 9 Councillor Gian Carlo Carra. Many different concerns were discussed or addressed and the property owner and manager have committed to ensuring that the property is kept maintained – if residents have any concerns about the property maintenance, they can contact the Hillsboro Place manager, Mina, directly at: 403-253-9679 or email hillsboro.place@shaw.ca. Thanks to the Church and John for allowing us to use their space and to everyone who came out to share concerns.

At the meeting there was also mention of a realignment of Flint Road outside of Winners to deal with increasing traffic volumes at that intersection – this missed the cutoff for Roads’ 2014 improvements so will be addressed in 2015.

At the board meeting the following week, the Community Association formalized our comment submission to the City of Calgary for this land use amendment. Please note that we can only address the height relaxation in these comments, so all of the other important issues (property maintenance, safety, garbage, etc.) can not be formally addressed at this stage, but will be considered at the Development Permit stage, likely late this year or early 2015. The full comments are as follows:

To Whom it May Concern,

In February 2014, a land use redesignation was submitted for the low-rise apartment buildings at 10-50 Frobisher Blvd S.E. in our community of Fairview by Manu Chugh Architect Ltd. on behalf of the owners of the property, Coastal Properties. This redesignation would allow a height relaxation, allowing the owners to maintain the existing structures, but add an additional two stories to each existing building for a total of six stories. No relaxation in the allowable density on this property has been requested. An additional L-shaped, six-storey building in the currently unused portion of the property is also planned.

The Fairview Community Association and the applicant have been communicating since immediately before the application was formally submitted. The applicant has been forthcoming with information and eager to involve the community residents through public engagement sessions as well as allowing a significant extension on comment submission from April 10th to the end of June. Two such public sessions were held in our community: the first on Wednesday, May 14th at the In-Definite Arts Centre (8038 Fairmount Drive S.E.); the second on Wednesday, June 12th at the Fairview Baptist Church. About 60 residents and the applicant’s team attended the former and about 35 residents, our ward City Councillor, the property owner, property manager, traffic study team and the applicant team attended the latter. Official attendance records are available upon request.

Through these meetings, many concerns were raised, most of them focusing on property maintenance and traffic/parking. Although we support most of these concerns raised by residents, these issues are mainly addressed at the development permit stage. More specifically, these concerns included: garbage on the property, garbage blowing onto neighbouring properties, overflowing dumpster garbage and lack of appropriate/enough garbage facilities, vandalism, vagrancy, abandoned shopping carts on the property, abandoned vehicles, on-street parking volumes, the potential loss of children play areas, traffic volumes at the points of exit from the community, shade impact of the taller buildings, the length of the proposed construction and resulting impact on quality of life of adjacent residents and many of these problems not being addressed in a timely fashion by the property manager. This is not an exhaustive list.

One concern, however, did fall under the current land use redesignation and height relaxation and that is the shade impact on adjacent residents, particularly on Fairview Drive. We feel that this concern is valid and we request that the applicant addresses this issue through modified building design on the easternmost building. We feel that these residents have been more than accommodating of this neighbour for many years, tolerating many problems with minimal complaint and that it would be in good faith for the applicant to accommodate their development to alleviate their concerns in an appropriate fashion.

Statement:

Although many concerns have been raised about this property over the course of our public engagement, these concerns are mostly addressed at the development permit stage. Therefore, the Fairview Community Association has no formal objection to the land use redesignation of this property, but requests that the applicant addresses the shade impact to the adjacent residents on Fairview Drive.

May 17th, 2014:

We nearly ran out of seats at our first meeting on the Hillsboro Place development on May 14th as residents came out in droves to hear about the proposed land use amendment presented by Manu Chugh of Manu Chugh Architect. Many very valid concerns were raised at this meeting including traffic, garbage, parking, shading of adjacent homes, property maintenance, etc. and the Community Association is compiling these concerns to be included in our feedback to the application.

As promised at that first meeting, we have a followup session scheduled for Thursday, June 12th, 7pm at the Fairview Baptist Church (corner of Fairmount Drive and 78th Avenue) who have kindly provided their larger space with lots of seating! Our Ward 9 Councillor, Gian-Carlo Carra and the property owner are scheduled to be present.

Please keep in mind that we have no official authority on this matter, but can provide comments and possibly conditions to influence the direction of development. Also take note that the current application is only for the rezoning to increase the allowable height of the buildings on this land – many of the other concerns will be addressed at the development permit stage down the road.

The application for this land use change can be found at the following link below. Please note that the due date for comments (April 10th) has been extended at this time until June.

Hillsboro Place Land Use Redesignation