As a city planner, citizens often tell me they’d like to
live in a community that offers a wide variety of amenities and services, located
close to where they work and go about their lives. Urban planners call this a
“complete” community, and we’re currently planning one.
Situated along the city’s southwestern edge, Providence is
bounded by farmland to its west, the Tsuu T’ina Nation to the north, the future
Southwest Ring Road to the east and Spruce Meadows Trail to the south. Our vision for Providence is that it will
function as a type of mini-city, such that it will be able to offer most of
what a city can but within just one community. While most of Providence will be
residential, its additional features will make it “complete” on a scale we have
not yet seen in this city.
Providence’s access to the future Southwest Ring Road gives
us the opportunity to locate businesses in the area for residents of southwest
Calgary to access. Currently, much of
southwest Calgary is residential and many who live there have to commute to
other parts of the city for work. In Providence, we are planning 300 acres (approximately
20 per cent of the area) to be dedicated to employment, which will create the
opportunity for approximately 11,000 people to work in Providence. Some of the
people who will work in Providence might live in other parts of the city, but
many of the 32,000 projected Providence residents will be able to work in the
same community they live in. The types of jobs we envision for Providence
include a full mix of office, institutional, retail and light industrial jobs.
Locating so many jobs in a new community in Calgary is
something new for our city. Traditionally, new communities may be home to about
one job for every seven residents. In Providence, we
anticipate one job in the
area for every three residents – that’s a vast improvement. Part of the reason
Providence can accommodate significant employment is due to the transportation investments
planned for the area. In addition to its direct access to the Southwest Ring
Road, a bus rapid transit service is planned for Providence. The bus will run
along the Transitway (a dedicated bus-only lane in the middle of a main roadway
in the area) and will provide quick access to the Somerset/Bridlewood LRT
station. Buses in Providence will also connect to the South Hospital.  |
| A draft land use concept has been developed and
the project team would like your input. Go to calgary.ca/providence to provide your thoughts (click to expand image). |
In addition to the employment area, Providence will also
feature new amenities for residents. A new Regional Athletic Park is planned
that will include playing fields and a track-and-field facility, and may also
include a field house and indoor soccer centre. We anticipate nine schools for
the area, and residential density will be concentrated along a central corridor
that will function as a “main street” for residents to access local goods and
services.
With the employment area, the Transitway and the recreational
amenities planned for Providence, I’m excited to see Calgary’s first truly “complete”
community take shape.
Learn more about Providence and have your say at Calgary.ca/providence.
 |
Jill Sonego is a Planner with The City's
Planning, Development and Assessment
department who is leading the team for
Providence's area structure plan.
Terrible idea. I have never met someone who works in their neighborhood, other than perhaps bar/restaurant staff. This just adds more traffic, more sprawl.
ReplyDeleteMore traffic if people live so close they can bike or walk? Sure.
DeleteI agree with you that we should want less traffic, and less sprawl, but you seem to have the wrong impression about complete communities, as they actually reduce both. To begin with, one of the many advantages of complete communities with transit connections (as Providence is planned to be) is that they reduce congestion, since people who work locally can walk or bike to work--or, at the very least, have a shorter drive--and they can also get to other parts of the city conveniently using transit, which also reduces congestion since it takes cars off the road.
DeleteComplete communities are also far more dense than residential communities filled with single family homes, as they have a mix of housing, including mid-rise condos and apartments, and row-housing (as well as single family homes). So complete communities also reduce sprawl.
Here's a nice video about an actual complete community that shows how they're supposed to work (the part about the community starts at 4:25): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoVXoB6x3vM
Why about community gardens? I think a complete community should try and be as self sustaining as possible . Working in the community is a good step but you could do so much more
ReplyDeleteThe City is keen to support the creation of new community gardens and the retention of existing ones. Learn more at http://www.calgary.ca/CSPS/Parks/Pages/Programs/Community-gardens.aspx. At this point, we are in the very early stages of planning Providence.
DeleteUnless there are organizations in that new neighbourhood that provides jobs other than restaurant and shop jobs, not sure who will want to live so far out.
ReplyDeleteIt's better to take existing suburban communities now and make them more complete streets oriented. Oh, wait...they were the result of bad planning for car dependency...why waste our time and effort.
Will there be an update showing the information that was shared to the public last night? I was unable to attend but would like to see what's the latest.
ReplyDeleteThe presentation boards from our September 8 open house can be found at www.calgary.ca/providence, as well as a link to a survey for members of the public to provide feedback about the draft area structure plan and concepts. Thanks for your interest!
DeleteWhen do you anticipate phase 1 for housing to begin?
ReplyDelete