'Jamming it down our throat': Southeast Calgary residents fight back against social housing initiative

Residents in Albert Park/Radisson Heights met with city officials on Tuesday night to discuss a plan to build more affordable housing on the site of an old Calgary school, an idea that some aren't happy about.

The David D. Oughton School closed in 2006 and the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC) has partnered with Attainable Homes, an organization that helps provide affordable housing to Calgarians, to build 230 townhomes on the site.

Both say the homes would help provide "moderate income" homes to residents, something that is sorely needed during the current housing crisis.

However, many residents who attended the meeting said they don't like the idea of three-storey townhomes so close to their bungalows and suggest the city is putting too much social housing in the area.

Others said the property should be used for something that the community needs more, such as a new recreation centre.

"They've decided there's a housing crisis and I don't disagree," said Albert Park/Radisson Heights resident Cory Ulicny, who attended Tuesday's meeting.

"But they want to make sure that they build as many houses and it doesn't matter what it does to the communities, especially ours, where I think we have a more blue-collar neighborhood and we don't organize as well.

"We don't have the people who can afford lawyers and fight these sorts of things. And so they're jamming it down our throat."

Jaden Tate, the president of Attainable Homes, also attended Tuesday's meeting and told CTV News the project is a special opportunity for his organization.

He says the space and existing residential zoning is perfect for it.

"This is a really special opportunity and a great community to do owned town housing that we can sell to moderate-income Calgarians. It's a very rare opportunity in the midst of this housing crisis," Tate said.

In the coming weeks, residents will have other opportunities to share their thoughts with developers, the city planning department and city councillors.

A public hearing is scheduled to take place at Calgary city hall in a few months.

'WE WANT TO KICKSTART REDEVELOPMENT': COUN. CARRA

Ward 9 Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra said the City of Calgary spent $180 million into the redevelopment of International Avenue and the introduction of the Max Purple transit line.

“We want to kickstart redevelopment of the area, we want to set the tone in terms of quality and set the tone in terms of equity," Carra said.

"The community has been waiting for this for a long time and now we're going get this rapidly, but what we know is we're going to have high quality park spaces, we're going to have townhomes that work for families, and they're going to be at an affordable price."

Carra added that the development itself will also come in stages and full consultation will be done with local residents and businesses.

“I think we're coming in at the townhome level right now and there is always an opportunity later in the phases to maybe add more density if that's what makes sense.”

Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot is also in agreement that affordable homes are necessary for the area with the balance in mind of providing greenspaces and being wary of traffic concerns.

Chabot represented the Albert Park/Radisson Heights for 13 years and says he understands the loss of greenspace and high-density development along with parking are main concerns.

“There’s been lots of different iterations that have been looked at for this particular site and I think what was proposed last night at the meeting is actually a good compromise as far as density and the preservation of greenspace,” he said.

Chabot also highlighted that this development could support lower parking requirements because of its proximity to the Franklin LRT station

“It could support lower parking requirements but what’s being proposed is actually almost one car for every one unit, even though the land use would allow for a relaxation of 50 per cent.

“What was being proposed here was a one-to-one parking stall and I think there were some concerns, but we’ve applied 50 per cent relaxation in other areas, especially when these buildings are in close proximity to transit and that’s proven to be sufficient.”