Canmore’s elected officials have taken a look at all the land owned by the municipality and assessed it for suitability to meet council’s priority of developing affordable housing and results indicate a limited supply.
Council has spent the last three and a half years working to address the number one issue they heard about from the community in the last municipal election – affordability.
While programs and services like public transit and lower access fees go a long way in addressing affordability, the issue of affordability and availability of housing has risen to the top of the agenda with council voting recently to rezone two properties the Town owns to pave the way for housing projects.
Development officer Darcy Roszell presented to council a full evaluation of all land in the town of Canmore – municipally owned, provincially owned and private land – and assessed each parcel in terms of its suitability for housing.
The top two pieces of Town-owned land that would be suitable for housing were a parcel on Palliser Trail referred to as the moustache lands and the former location of the community daycare and preschool at 17th Street and 11th Avenue.
“The aim of the project was to have a full picture of the lands that have the option to provide affordable housing,” Roszell said. “The deliverable for this project is a map that shows all identified parcels and a table ranking from high, medium and low potential (for housing development).”
He told council that some parcels have been identified as having little or no appropriateness for housing development, but were listed to show they were included in the assessment. As well, Roszell said just because a property was in the assessment does not mean that housing is planned for it.
“Just because sites are on the evaluation list does not mean they are going to be developed,” he said. “This is simply a tool to assist the town and Canmore Community Housing Corporation on where to focus efforts.”
Mayor John Borrowman noted the project being pursued by the municipality at 1450 Palliser Trail, a.k.a. the moustache lands, and CCHC’s next perpetually affordable housing project on the former location of the daycare near Lion’s Park are the two top parcels of land in terms of housing potential.
“There are very few Town-owned sites that are suitable for development of affordable housing and the two highest priority (parcels) already have projects initiated for them,” said the mayor.
The report contained “good detail,” according to Borrowman who also noted that having an inventory of provincially owned and private lands could also help council identify parcels to acquire if necessary.
There are also lands from expected or recent subdivisions, including Stewart Creek phase three, that have not been transferred or show up on the land assessment. Manager of planning Alaric Fish said those parcels would be added to the list once they are known.
The impact of the 2013 flood was also discussed as it pertains to lands the Town owns along Palliser Trail. Because property the municipality owns in that area would require mitigation for Stoneworks Creek before development could occur, the mayor noted it is unclear what potential those lands will have for affordable housing.
When council last assessed its lands for housing potential, a lot along Fairholme Drive was also looked at in further detail to better understand what could be done with it, and the news was not what council expected.
Development planner Marcus Henry presented the report on the 8,700 square metre Fairholme site – located across the street from the Bow River Seniors Lodge – to council at its March 7 meeting.
“Upon completing our initial research, there were a few constraints that we had brought back for your attention at that time,” Henry said. “Given the potential of the site, council actually approved a motion … which recommended administration pursue the site and further investigate to see if it was suitable for affordable housing.”
The property is constrained by Spring Creek, which backs on the property and requires a 20-metre setback, according to the Land Use Bylaw. There is also a utility drainage right of way of 10 metres off Fairholme and two 20-metre setbacks on the north and south ends of the lot that already border residential development.
Henry said administration hired ISL Engineering as a consultant to do further investigation and findings show there are two distinct wetlands on the site, along with a natural spring water source.
The class 3 spring and class 2 wetland result in even more setbacks and ground water issues for the site. Henry said groundwater on the property fluctuates with the levels of the Bow River, so there is a lot of hydrological activity.
“Based on the findings of the report, and given the two wetlands and the spring and the proximity to Spring Creek, the development setback Alberta Environment would suggest is 50 metres to all bodies of water on this site,” Henry said.
He told council engineering solutions could be found and a small parcel of the site remains developable, but in terms of what would be gained for affordable housing, the cost would outweigh the benefit.
“The cost (to build affordable housing) for the amount of units we could get is not something we could justify,” Henry told council. “Based on that, administration recommends council rescind the motion.”
Councillors were disappointed in the findings of the report.
Councillor Sean Krausert said the potential for affordable housing was encouraging when council made the original motion in 2014 to examine the property.
“This is disappointing because we have very few pieces of land that were potentially available,” Krausert said.
While disappointed, council was happy to have done the research into the property to find out what potential it had.
“I am disappointed this land is not available to us to develop perpetually affordable housing,” said Coun. Joanna McCallum. “I do want to thank administration for doing a thorough review and using a consultant to make the right decision and understanding of what this land could yield for us.”
