The Calgary Regional Partnership (CRP) draft land-use plan could have long-term ramifications for source water protection in the City of Calgary and across its surrounding region. The draft plan could represent a sea change in land-use direction for the Calgary area. But it will only be achieved if CRP members can commit to a clear planning structure with clear targets and measures for performance.

Through March and the beginning of April the Calgary Regional Partnership (CRP) has toured its draft plan in a series of open houses and a public comment period. Ultimately, the plan will become part of the South Saskatchewan Regional Plan under Alberta's Land-use Framework (LUF).

A decade ago, when the CRP began, its current 17 municipalities and the Tsu Tina First Nation were looking to resolve some regional disputes, not create a regional plan. However, as the CRP gained momentum and the province accelerated its province-wide land-use process, the organization began tackling a regional plan.

Today, the CRP must plan for an additional 1.6 million people expected to join the region by 2070. The CRP's plan attempts to address substantial goals: clarifying inter-municipal planning relationships; safeguarding the region's land and water; transportation; and infrastructure and servicing needs. The plan tries to meet the needs of Calgary and surrounding municipalities, places as varied as Banff, Wheatland County, Crossfield, and Nanton, while complying with the Land-use Framework.

The draft plan speaks to limiting development to an additional 45,000 hectares (ha) over the next 60 to 70 years, an improvement from the 125,000 ha that would be developed under the "business as usual" model.

To achieve less of a developed "footprint", land planning would need to increase the density of already developed lands and steer it away from "ecological infrastructure." (Click here for the CRP's map of ecological infrastructure) The draft plan describes ecological infrastructure as wetlands, riparian buffers, regional corridors, large patches of natural vegetation, and ridges and escarpments. The CRP's conceptual maps illustrate development nodes being built away from watersheds, wetlands, and corridors

The CRP's plan rightly encourages intensification of development where it currently exists. Its guidelines place 25 percent of new growth in existing settled areas. The remaining 75 percent of the growth would occur in new or enlarged development areas (called "nodes") specifically chosen as growth hubs that make the most sense for servicing and transportation while having the least impact on agricultural lands and watersheds.

Translating vision to reality

The CRP has come up with a substantial vision, but the vision still lacks the specific detail required to make it a reality and to meet LUF's requirements of sub-regional plans. How its objectives result in limitations on new land development and land-use planning by municipalities and government remains unclear. A lack of firm targets and clear plans could result in a plan that simply collects dust on a shelf.

It is worth noting what the LUF requires of sub-regional plans such as the CRP. It specifically requires regional plans to define "outcomes (economic, environmental, and social) and a broad plan for land and natural resource use for public and private lands within the region." The LUF also suggests that regional plans should "define the cumulative effects management approach for the region and identify targets and thresholds."

The current CRP plan offers many aspirations but few clear targets. The plan's intentions are clearly to correct our current sprawling development trajectory and offer a more sustainable path reflected in the CRP's conceptual maps.

One critical gap is the need for a strategy and targets to curb country residential development. Currently, the plan's policies do not demonstrate how the boom in well-water serviced acreages will be curbed in the region. Without doing so it risks development outside the planned development nodes and greater conversion of agricultural lands and open spaces into developed landscape.

Ultimately, the CRP is on the right track suggesting a much lower footprint of 45,000 ha than the current trajectory of 125,000 ha. But it must clearly define how member commitments will reach this target. The members of the CRP have made considerable headway in outlining a vision for where they would like to go. The CRP needs to follow this achievement with real targets and measurements for delivering this vision on the ground.

You can learn more about the CRP's plan by visiting www.calgaryregion.ca. To provide specific feedback you can fill in the comment form.

Sources

Calgary Regional Partnership. Draft Concept Map.

Calgary Regional Partnership. February 2009. Calgary Regional Plan Draft Policies.

Government of Alberta. 2008. The Land-use Framework.