When you add another 100 or even 1,000 homes to an existing town, it undoubtedly makes that place bigger and busier, but it doesn’t materially change things. Add that number of homes to a rural setting, however, and you completely alter the character of the area.
I raise this rather obvious point in the wake of Foothills County council’s unanimous decision last week to defeat the Foothills Landing proposal, which, if approved, would have added more than 2,000 housing units to the area adjacent to the junction of highways 2 and 2A.
After hearing from ‘fired up’ residents, council members decided the project wasn’t the right fit, but given Canada’s housing crisis, you can bet it won't be the last time a developer casts a longing glance at a piece of countryside.
The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation has stated that Canada needs to build 3.5 million more homes by 2030 to restore affordability levels to what they were two decades ago. Not only is that a heck of a lot of housing, but in these parts, that required building boom raises a rather interesting question: Should the country accept its ‘fair share’ or should that growth be concentrated in towns and cities?
People live in the country to enjoy a certain lifestyle. The amenities are further away but so too are the neighbours, which is just the way they like it. Should that rural way of life be compromised because of the housing predicament we find ourselves in? There’s something inherently fair about all areas playing a part, but at the same time, it doesn’t seem fair to move to the country only to have the city follow you there.
Foothills County is a member of the Calgary Metropolitan Region Board, which has been overseeing regional planning for the past half dozen years. When it comes to the CMRB, I guess it makes sense to include the two counties, Foothills and Rocky View, from a strictly location perspective even though they don't have a whole lot in common with the other members – Airdrie, Calgary, Cochrane, Chestermere, High River and Okotoks – which are all urban centres.
Take the Foothills Landing proposal for example: With 5,700 people at full build-out, it would enlarge each of those CMRB members, but in Foothills County, it essentially creates a whole new town or hamlet, one that is roughly the equivalent of Diamond Valley.
Random population centres popping up on the landscape hardly seems like the best approach to regional planning, to say nothing of their impacts on those already living there, but you could also make a valid argument that continually adding housing to a small town will irreparably impact the quality of life there too.
It seems to me the least invasive approach, particularly here in Alberta where land is more plentiful, is for the big cities to become even bigger. Once you’re over a million, what’s a few hundred thousand more people, right?
Adding those folks to existing neighbourhoods is problematic, which Calgary has already found out, but expanding in all directions might be the least intrusive way to accommodate all that growth.