The city is hosting an open house on Wednesday evening to provide Calgarians with details on the redevelopment of the old Royal Canadian Legion on Kensington Road NW.

The Kensington Legion was founded in 1953 and the 15,000 square foot building in West Hillhurst has been mostly vacant over the past few years so a partnership was formed with a developer to repurpose the site.

The city is currently reviewing an application from the architectural and design firms representing Truman Development to change the way the site is currently being used.

The Land use redesignation involves splitting the land into two sites.

The plan for Site 1 is to build a new four-storey Legion and to reopen a closed road between the two sites to the public.

The vision for Site 2 is for a mixed use, mid-rise building that would include space for small-scale shops and service bays.

The original proposal called for a ten storey building but that was reduced to eight to minimize the building's shadow on neighbouring homes.

CTV spoke to some people who live in the area and reaction to the proposed plans are mixed.

“I feel it’s wonderful. I like having it active again and I really like the legion, I think it does a great service for the seniors,” said Bev Jaremko, area resident “I’m glad it’s being saved. I like the multi-housing, I think it’s a really good idea and we can use that, they’re certainly doing it everywhere else. I think the height restrictions are fine.”

“I think that the area definitely needs to be developed, the building is older. This is a growing area so I’m excited about having more amenities within walking distance, I’ll be really nice. I’m not excited about the height of the building, it’s going to cast a shadow on this cul-de-sac and on top of that there’s a lot of kids that live in the area, there’s a school around the corner, it’s going to increase traffic in the area,’ said Jamila Nathu, who also live in the community.

The legion will remain open until the new building is completed and will then be demolished.

Wednesday’s information session goes from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Kensington Legion at 1910 Kensington Road NW.

For more information on the proposal, click HERE.