Dozens of people rallied outside Calgary City Hall on Friday in a show of support for Chinatown as it currently stands.
“Fundamentally, what the rally’s all about is to inform Calgarians that the city council is debating on Monday with a land use amendment that will effectively change Chinatown,” said Terry Wong, treasurer of the Chinatown Business Redevelopment Zone. “This application will change it to create a 30 storey tower in the middle of Chinatown.”
Wong says the 106-year-old community consists of buildings as tall as six storeys. A 30 floor building would dwarf all existing structures. “It’s like putting the Bow building in the middle of Heritage Park. It just doesn’t work.”
“If you’re standing at the base looking straight up, you’re going to see either a lot of glass or a lot of concrete, but you’re not going to see what Chinatown’s really all about which is at street level.”
A developer has submitted an application to the city to rezone an area that is currently a parking lot in the heart of Chinatown to allow the construction of a mixed-use tower.
The plan was to be discussed in the spring of 2016 but city council delayed the decision to allow community members an opportunity to provide input.
