For the second time in less than two years, Rocky View County council rejected a conceptual scheme for a residential community in Bearspaw.
Developer John Bachynski said the decision is ‘bad news’ for Rocky View County.
“This is a sign for businesses to run away,” he said in an interview after council unanimously voted to defeat the application following a 10.5-hour public hearing April 9.
During the course of the afternoon, people who spoke against the development brought with them binders full of petitions from neighbours unable to attend. In total, 407 petitions were submitted. They had concerns with the size of the lots, saying they were too small and said they didn’t want retail in Bearspaw.
Bachynski said those letters only represent a small margin of the total population of Bearspaw and said he felt “10 per cent is dictating the good of all of the community.”
He said his development had plans to offer seniors housing and contributions to youth with new baseball fields, and felt those in opposition have taken these opportunities away by skewing the details out of context.
“It was hard to get our message across because we were defending what wasn’t our plan.”
The plan was to create a neighbourhood offering, mixed residential, public open space, including trails and retail space on 316 acres of land four kilometres north of Highway 1A. The area was to be built in three phases.
Residential units would include family, adult and senior condominiums and country homes on lot sizes ranging from 0.3 to two acres.
Water would be supplied from the Rocky View Water Co-op; wastewater would have been treated on location and dispersed in a septic field, adjacent to the community of Silverhorn. Stormwater would have been retained at the site and pumped through pipes into the West Nose Creek Watershed.
Residents who were against the plan felt the size of the lots were too small and said they would feel more comfortable with two-to-four-acre parcels. Kevin Hoar, who lives south of the proposed development, had concerns with stormwater runoff coming into his property.
“Our Bearspaw area is nice and quiet … any commercial (development) will set a precedent and fill in between Cochrane and Calgary with stores and restaurants,” he said. “Bearspaw will cease to exist.”
Those in favour of the development said it would be nice to have a few retail locations in the area and said having a seniors centre would allow them to retire in the community they grew up in.
“I lived on seven acres in peace and quiet and development came to my doorstep,” said Linda Angelo, who lives in Bearspaw along the City of Calgary boundaries and was in favour of the development.
“I have come to welcome it,” she said. “I would encourage you to approve this.”
However, during council discussions, the majority of councillors agreed that while the plan was good, the developer didn’t succeed in winning over the community.
Area councillor Al Sacuta used a marking sheet to determine whether or not to support the development. One of the criteria was getting buy-in from the community.
“This wasn’t even close,” he said, adding he doesn’t know how community consultation could go so wrong.
Sacuta added the plan hadn’t changed much from the one council rejected last year and said Lochend Corners was essentially a hamlet and doesn’t match up with the Bearspaw Area Structure Plan and the county’s Growth Management Report.
“Bearspaw is a distinctive country residential with small agriculture; it’s worth preserving and protecting,” said councillor Kim Magnuson, agreeing with Sactua’s motion to defeat the plan.
“Something is wrong if you miss the mark this bad from people who live relatively close,” added councillor Greg Boehlke, saying he believed the development offers “so much” but didn’t fit in the community.
Councillor Lois Habberfield said area structure plans can be amended for small parcels, but this one wouldn’t work because it didn’t have community support and its location would be better suited in closer proximity to the City of Calgary.
She also said the growth management plan has identified other areas of the county for hamlets, such as Cochrane Lakes, Harmony and Langdon, where there was already full services available or plans already in place for servicing.
