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Group attacks city's 'sprawl' - Sierra Club says Calgary 's woes
have one cause
The local branch of the Sierra Club of Canada is readying a year-long blitz, including advertisements, a website and public information sessions to try to make urban sprawl a key issue in next fall's civic election. The group says it is fed up with local politicians denying Calgary suffers from sprawl. "The problem we're seeing is that everyone's talking about urban sprawl issues, but they're not talking about urban sprawl," said Brian Pincott, organizer of the campaign for the club's Chinook chapter. "Traffic, lack of schools, higher utility rates, not enough transit. These are all caused by the same thing: Urban sprawl, but nobody's talking about that," Pincott said. "Everybody's talking about how we need to build more roads and more schools, but we're not talking about the bigger problem and looking 20 years down the road and how we can fix it. We want to change that." It's a message that many, including the leaders of Calgary's development industry and Mayor Dave Bronconnier, say is destined to fall on deaf ears when it comes to most of Cowtown's car-loving suburbanites. "It's called growth, and the only cities I know of that aren't growing are those that are in decay," Bronconnier said. "Sure it's important to pay attention to how we're growing and where, but it's also about striking a balance and recognizing what people want and I think we're doing a good job of that," he said. "Not everyone wants to live in an apartment downtown." Using the theme "Sprawl hurts us all," the campaign will be modelled after the Sierra Club's initiative in Ontario that calls for freezing home development on the periphery of major cities, halting construction of new freeways, aggressive redevelopment of existing neighbourhoods and building new communities where cars aren't necessary for daily life. A report the club released on urban sprawl in the Greater Toronto area earlier this year defines sprawl as "irresponsible, low-density development" that devours prime agricultural land, increases traffic congestion and exacerbates air and water pollution. The report also argues that the suburbs are bad for residents' health, noting that suburbanites weigh an average of four kilograms more than inner-city dwellers. "We're going to start at ground zero by saying to people: This is what urban sprawl is, so hopefully they will begin thinking about it and talking about alternative models for growth," Pincott said. "Hopefully, when people are sitting in their cars complaining about traffic, they'll start thinking that the problem isn't that the road needs to be wider or there needs to be a new interchange built, but that it's a problem of urban sprawl." The plan is receiving praise from some aldermen, who say the City of Calgary is dragging its feet when it comes to combatting sprawl. "We know what's causing the problem, but we're not doing anything to fix it. We've just been afraid to make some tough decisions," said Ald. Druh Farrell. While attending an international seminar on environmental issues in Athens, Greece, last week, Farrell said she met numerous civic leaders from around the world who have visited Calgary in recent years and remarked on the size of its sprawling suburbs. "We have a lot of land left to grow, but we're squandering it," Farrell said. The rapid growth of Canadian cities has prompted numerous studies in the past two years that have found civic governments aren't equipped to provide the roads, police, parks, recreational facilities and other civic services that communities need. The conclusions have prompted Bronconnier and other mayors to demand more money and decision-making power from higher levels of government. But rather than trying to keep up with sprawl, some experts say cities such as Calgary should take more steps to discourage it. Placing tolls on roads, implementing municipal sales taxes and setting higher property taxes for homes in suburban developments are all ways of promoting "smarter" growth, according to Casey Vander Ploeg, senior policy analyst for the Canada West Foundation, a Calgary-based think-tank. "The way property tax works in most big cities is that it produces an incentive for people to live away from the downtown core," said Vander Ploeg, who studies civic financing and growth. "It costs more to buy a house in the inner-city and your property taxes are generally higher even though the cost of providing services to new communities is much higher. So in a sense, the inner-city residents are subsidizing those in the suburbs," Vander Ploeg said. "These economic incentives have basically acted like a bomb and have flattened our cities out." The city's development industry disagrees with such measures, saying the economy should be the main dictator of how a city evolves. "The beauty of Calgary is that there are opportunities for everybody to buy what they want and what suits their family. You can't 'build it and they will come.' It's just not true," said Judy Ferguson, executive director of the Urban Development Institute, which represents the city's residential development industry. UDI and city council earlier this year struck a deal that will see developers contribute more toward the cost of extending roads and transit networks to new communities, after city council put a massive development plan for Symons Valley on hold because it didn't have the cash to improve the area's road network. Pointing to new communities such as Garrison Woods, McKenzie Towne and Tuscany, Bronconnier said city policies have helped create communities that have population densities 40 per cent higher than suburbs built 20 years ago. He added that one-third of all new homes built this year will be in multi-family housing developments. While Calgary does have some examples of "responsible" growth, Pincott said most new neighbourhoods are still built in advance of public transit, schools and community centres. gsemmens@theherald.canwest.com |