Concerns raised over proposed Bow River development

The healthy wetlands along the Bow River on Calgary's southern edge are loaded with bird, plant and insect species, and all that life could soon have a lot of company.

In June, the city's planning and infrastructure committee gave preliminary approval to five new communities along the city's edge. Three of them will be built on the Ricardo Ranch lands, immediately east of Highway 2 on the north side of the Bow River.

"I identified almost 30 bird species just within an hour, a whole bunch of healthy native plants and also a very productive wetland," said Nathaniel Schmidt, an environmental advocate and birder.

He says his exploration of land immediately adjacent to the proposed communities of Nostalgia, Logan Landing and Seton Ridge quickly turned up a bank swallow colony.

"They were recently listed as a threatened species under the species-at-risk act and there's a recovery plan in place for them," Schmidt said.

One of the developers, Genesis, said in a statement it's aware of the colony and is putting appropriate setbacks in place to give them room.

Schmidt, who also sits on the board of the Alberta Wilderness Association, says the plans appear to tick many of the city's required environmental boxes, but are not enough.

"I think some of that lands on the city, that our best practices aren't good enough. We have one of the lowest densities of any major North American city," Schmidt said.

"I think the developers would have some fair points to make, but at this point, we need to look 50 years ahead instead of six months ahead and ask ourselves, if there's some money lost now, what's the money (that's) going to be lost in (the) future?"

View: City agenda describing details of new communities

If the new communities are approved by council in November, they will combine to add roughly 5,750 units to the area.

Schmidt says people should go see the place for themselves.

"Ask yourself how many places like this are left within Calgary," he says. "We use the Bow River to advertise to the world what this place is like. What are we telling the world if we destroy one of the few intact places left on the river?"

CTV reached out to all three development companies on Tuesday. Only Genesis responded to inquiries.