Nothing imminent by the sounds of it. They are still fundraising for one of the bridges that cross the river.
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Calgary to Canmore Trail
- Thread starter Urban Outdoorsman
- Start date
Beltline_B
Senior Member
would be great if they got even phase one built.
lemongrab
Active Member
Here's a good map of the situation
darwink
Senior Member
A significant source of delay will be provincial plans for adding flood storage upstream of Calgary. Until that is finalized, I wouldn't be surprised to see this project frozen.
DougB
Active Member
There seem to be ominous signs that the Province will pursue the Glenbow East reservoir option:
cochranenow.com
Gov't says land purchased for gravel and materials, not reservoir project
Alberta Transportation officials have confirmed it has purchased about 2,000 acres of land along the Bow River but says it's unrelated to the Glenbow East option being considered for a major Bow River flood mitigation project. A red flag went up when the purchase became public knowledge just a...
cochranenow.com
lemongrab
Active Member
Considering the CP tracks its hard to imagine a mitigation project being too destructive to the paved path routes.
I'm not sure how much property in Cochrane is at flood risk, but probably enough that an upstream solution would be better?
I'm not sure how much property in Cochrane is at flood risk, but probably enough that an upstream solution would be better?
darwink
Senior Member
First Nations consultations will drive which site is chosen imo.
DougB
Active Member
Yes - which is why Glenbow East is the most likely site.
This details the options:
Bow River reservoir options
The province is assessing options to mitigate the impacts of both flood and drought on the Bow River.
adamyyc
Active Member
Not really trail related, but not sure where else to put this since it's Canmore, not Calgary. I expect this could be a long, drawn out legal battle.
calgaryherald.com
Tribunal rules in favour of Three Sisters resort developments in Canmore
A developer says a property rights tribunal's ruling in favour of two of its projects rejected by the Town of Canmore allows them to proceed
calgaryherald.com
Mountain Man
Senior Member
Can Canmore appeal the decision? Sounds like they have been ordered to approve the development now.
DougB
Active Member
Great new! Canmore needs the housing and NIMBY's have too much influence.Not really trail related, but not sure where else to put this since it's Canmore, not Calgary. I expect this could be a long, drawn out legal battle.
Tribunal rules in favour of Three Sisters resort developments in Canmore
A developer says a property rights tribunal's ruling in favour of two of its projects rejected by the Town of Canmore allows them to proceed
adamyyc
Active Member
Likely only through the courts.
As someone who would very much like to own a recreational property in Canmore one day, I really hope the Town accepts the decision.
CBBarnett
Senior Member
Adding capacity to Canmore is good, glad there appears to be light at the end of the tunnel for this Canmore project.
That said I hope small, popular, and physically constrained mountain towns get way more serious about growth planning within their existing boundaries too.
Canmore has missed many opportunities the past 3 decades about growing sustainably and more efficiently through intensification. Downtown Canmore still has loads of surface parking (of course 100% occupied and gridlocked because no amount of parking can realistically be built to serve demand), really low densities on all surrounding streets with houses and townhomes, and many of the easy development areas adjacent to the highway have been hit-or-miss - often reasonable density and mixes of uses, but mixed randomly with a mish-mash of car-oriented apartments and gas stations.
Compared to many towns, Canmore really tries hard on the transit, cycling and walking infrastructure and should be commended for it. But overall it's the land use that misses the mark creating a larger-than-necessary footprint town with crazy traffic and extreme levels of gentrification. There's practically no supply of apartments or affordable housing in the core of the town as a result, nor any real plan to get any volume of new units at any material scale.
In hindsight, a better approach would have been to really jack up the densities in the 1990s and 2000s boom eras in the core , and have had a far more holistic, aggressively dense urban plan for the highway adjacent strip for expansion that's now mostly filled out with a hodge-podge of inefficient uses. Also, far more attention should have been paid all along to getting a solid, high-quality transit/rail link to Calgary to remove as many vehicles as possible. This would have had two benefits - you still get all /more tourist dollars to power the local economy but at a lower cost as they don't need to have vehicles accommodated to visit. Secondly, better access from Calgary without a car reduces the pressures on parking that manifest itself in high parking minimums in the land use rules as well as in development community opposition talking points.
3 - 5 times the population would fit in the existing footprint if Canmore allowed 5 - 6 storeys everywhere and reduced car-orientation substantially over a few decades (although that ship has likely sailed as nearly all obsolete housing stock has been largely replaced recently with low density, ultra expensive housing). That would have been a real alternative if the town was so concerned about consuming more natural land for development, but they didn't take that route and therefore ended up with the mish-mash of ultra-unaffordable, urban/mountain town/highway adjacent sprawl pockets.
Mountain towns should learn they can be more than 2 or 3 storeys and still retain that mountain charm.
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Also, the more Canmore builds up, the better the chance we'll see some sort of Calgary, Canmore, Banff Rail system.
DougB
Active Member
A better bus system should be the higher priority:
-high frequency between Banff and Canmore
-transfers in Banff townsite to lower frequency shuttles to desinations within the park such as the Hotsprings/Gondola/Rimrock, Sunshine, Johnston Canyon, Ski Louise, Lake Louise Townsite, Lake Louise/Chateau
Much of the environmental concern can be mitigated by reducing private vehicle usage. Parks Canada collects more than enough admission revenue to subsidize the bus system. It could easily whack some employees out east and redirect funds to a bus system.