The Future of Calgary's Community Parks
Date
2015-09
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Abstract
In Alberta, municipal policy regarding the preservation of urban park space has
been evolving since legislative changes were made in 2010 to enable municipalities to use
surplus school reserve sites for a range of purposes in addition to green space. Many
competing demands for these sites have been put forth by a variety of proponents,
including citizens and community associations, school boards, the development industry,
affordable housing providers and advocates, and municipalities.
This capstone project examines the politics that underlie the current public policy
debates on these competing uses of municipal park space in Alberta, in particular, the reuse
of vacant school reserve sites for affordable housing. The desire to build affordable
housing or other community services on Municipal and School Reserve (MSR) lands has
arisen as a result of two economic factors: 1) Alberta’s
resource-based economy creates a
short-run, cyclical volatility in housing demand and pricing; 2) this is exacerbated by the
long-term goal of reducing urban sprawl, which puts upward pressure on land costs by
restricting the supply of suburban land available for new housing. In Alberta, these factors
came
together
when
the
“superheated
economy”
of
2006
and
2007 strained housing supply
across the province, doubling house prices in three years, and leaving many with
inadequate shelter. One solution that has been embraced by municipal and provincial
leaders in both Calgary and Edmonton is the use of vacant school reserve sites for
affordable housing. In 2010, legislation was amended to allow vacant school reserve sites
to be used for affordable housing or other community services, instead of being used for
parks.
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Citation
Berting, Randi. (2015). The Future of Calgary's Community Parks ( Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.