We want to bring everyone up to date on what has happened on the Council decision on July 27th, but first of all we want to say THANK YOU to everyone for your efforts and support.

The opposition to buildings that do not fit with the character or historic context or the importance for human scale on 9th Ave was overwhelming.  The RNDSQR proposal did not fit any criteria:

•  We, the Inglewood Community Assoc (ICA) had 190 residents fill out a very lengthy survey on RNDSQR with the results sent to the City where over 89% opposed the development.
• ·We had 755 people sign cards on 9th Avenue at the campaign headquarters and indicate their concerns: the cards were all were sent in.
• ·We had nine community associations indicate their concerns about this project and about the entire process for the creation of Local and Neighbourhood Area Plans. These submissions were detailed and clear—Scarboro, Bridgeland and Banff Trail were particularly thoughtful in their analysis of what is happening.
• ·We had residents who sent in heartfelt, thoughtful, letters about Inglewood and the community. Over 29,000 people signed our on-line petition.
• ·Our partner, the Business Improvement Area (BIA) was able to submit the extensive draft report on area redevelopment and densification from Urban Strategies, a renowned and respected Toronto firm confirming our position that a maximum of 20 meters is appropriate for our heritage district.
• A former senior employee of the City sent in an extensive critique of the way that heritage bonusing is being applied in this case, setting in his view a terrible precedent.

We suspect that most of this input was never read. At the Council meeting on the 27th Councillor Wooley did his best to undermine and willfully belittle the two key speakers who representing the BIA and the ICA. He suggested, in effect, that the Urban Strategies report was suspect as the BIA was just paying to get the result they wanted. He said that densification had not taken place in Inglewood, and we could not meet the densification targets the City has set without 12 storey buildings such as RNDSQR. We have, again and again, shown this to be a false accusation.

The Councillor for the Ward, Gian-carlo Carra, was playing good cop to Wooley’s bad cop. He declared he had lost sleep over the whole debate, but in the end had to agree that RNDSQR was an “iconic” new building that would enhance what was around it even though he admitted that this building would change Inglewood forever – and in our view for very much the worse. The remaining councillors seemed to fall into line and our concerns were ignored in the final vote. There was absolutely no discussion of delaying the vote until the full Urban Strategies Report was available in a few weeks, when Urban Strategies themselves could have defended it. And by then the input Council received could have been properly read and assessed.

The fact remains that the proponents had hours to present their case and answer questions: opponents had strictly controlled times. There is a huge power imbalance between City Council and any effort for citizen engagement to have an impact. We believe along with our colleagues in many other communities, the democratic process at the civic level in Calgary is broken.  

Another high rise on 9th Ave is about to be pushed through Council shortly. If you are concerned about the negative consequences of high rises on Calgary’s last main heritage district - Inglewood Mainstreet, let Councillor Wooley and Councillor Carra know your concerns.

Councillor Carra – email - ward09@calgary.ca  ph-403-808-9327

Councillor Woolley - email -  ward08@calgary.ca 

Again—thank you everyone!! We will be publishing samples of the heartfelt letters that we received, and what our future plans are to continue to work to save a beautiful historic district.