Our Lady of the Rockies Roman Catholic parish has called the Sacred Heart church in downtown Canmore home for decades, but the time is fast approaching where that will no longer be the case.
That’s because the parish is hard at work developing a new church on a piece of property along Palliser Trail and, as part of that process, has sold the Sacred Heart church and the lots owned on Seventh Street to Canmore developer Distinctive Homes.
The process is building speed, with Distinctive Homes applying to the Town of Canmore for a direct control district on the site to develop a 40 unit multi-residential building that includes perpetually affordable housing.
But the plans for the new church, which were ambitious at 43,250 square feet in total area, have been revisited and scaled back 45 per cent, according to Vijay Domingo with the parish, and Father Wilbert Chin Jon.
“It is an exciting project and we started with an exciting plan, but part of what we went through (since 2015) was that we need to be prudent with the funds we are raising for this project,” Domingo said.
The $9.2 million original church plan in November 2015, he said, would have been more in the range of $17 million to build and that exceeded what the parish wanted as a fundraising goal.
“We actually ended up with five revision steps in the design and costing process to maintain our programming and get down to what we feel as a budget should be around $11 million,” Domingo said.
The new church design has a total area of 18,319 square feet that provides 422 seats and space for future expansion of another 128 seats, 30 seats in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel and 160 overflow seating in the narthex whenever needed. There is also a parish hall planned with a capacity of 192 people, the potential for another 1,000 square feet of meeting space on the second floor and additional expansion capacity at the west end of the building.
“We still have room for expansion and that is a key piece,” Domingo said. “We will build something that maintains the beauty and celebration of the building and space, but does have the room to expand.”
Father Jon said a critical aspect of the project is ensuring what gets developed lasts for the next 100 years.
“I think the challenge for the first design was to make sure what we build was a good landmark and that is a very daunting task,” he said. “For us to move from the original design to the new design took a lot of internal discussion as to what we really need and what is nice to have and what will accommodate future needs.”
The spatial needs, he said, include areas that are needed for the spiritual life of a practicing Catholic. Father Jon said in addition to the sacramental space to manifest the supernatural, there will be community space available at the new church.
“We have areas of our community life that requires different spaces,” he said. “From spaces that are social in nature, spaces that are formation driven and spaces that are practical and useful, as well as for meetings and workshops.”
Domingo said Modco Structures has been chosen as the construction management company to oversee the project and a development permit has been submitted to the Town of Canmore. He said a public open house is expected in the near future to share the project design with the community in depth and answer questions. Groundbreaking at the site is also planned for the spring and completion hoped for next summer.
As for fundraising, the project is well on its way, according to Domingo, with $3 million raised from the sale of the property to Distinctive, as well as more than $4 million in fundraising completed.
“A lot of the support we have seen, even financially, are from the people who live part time here in the community,” he said. “They recognize, as well as our locals, that this parish is more than just our local population.”
Bob Kocian with Distinctive Homes said his company is working on design plans for the site – which includes four lots at the corner of Seventh Avenue and Seventh Street downtown.
The site and location, said Kocian, were ideal for creating a project that could also address affordability in the community.
“It was the last absolutely ideal piece of property left in the downtown area,” he said. “It could bring a reasonable density of houses right into the downtown area where there is no need for cars.”
But the property is currently zoned to allow residential fourplexes, something Kocian knows well as Distinctive has developed several residential properties along that road, including a five-plex next door to the proposed development.
“Being such a prime piece of property, it would be wasted on fourplexes and that would do nothing for the town,” he said.
Distinctive has applied to the municipality for a direct control district. The amendment to the land use bylaw was presented to council on Tuesday (March 5) and received first reading. A public hearing was scheduled for April 25 at 6 p.m.
