Group questions why City of Calgary is selling parkland near Glenmore Landing

• City of Calgary not giving up trying to sell land next to LRT station

A group calling itself Communities for Glenmore Landing Preservation said the city's 1983 agreement with the former owner of the site stipulated the land would only be used as park space.

"The city undertakes to utilize the parklands only for park purposes and for the purpose of roads, sidewalks, paths, street lamps, signs, traffic control devices, bus shelters with commercial signs, and underground utilities," reads the agreement on the land title.

A member of the group, Karen Pauling Shepard, said the city's original deal included maintaining the park space around Glenmore Landing to allow it to blend in with nearbyareas, including theGlenmoreReservoir, and several city parks.

"We are opposing the land-use amendment change to sell the parklands, dedicated in perpetuity, because it will vastly change the character of the shopping centre in concert with the surrounding communities," said Pauling Shepard.

She wondered how the city could decide to turn the park space over for development.

"That is a question we have asked and we don't have an answer to it. How can parkland all of a sudden become surplus?

The area's city councillor, Kourtney Penner, said the land was retained 40 years ago as greenspacebecausethe city was unsure of the potential for future road development around the site.

At one time, an interchange at the corner of 14th Street and 90th AvenueS.W. was contemplated, butultimately, it was notbuilt.

Once the city decided to proceed with a bus rapid transitway station near the busy corner, Pennersaid the land was deemed no longer necessary to retain in city possession.

Instead, the city feels giving upthe land allows it to meet other municipal needs, including greater density and transit- oriented development.

In that regard, selling the land is hardly unique, said Penner.

"We have a lot of sites like this across the whole city, where we kept land for future interchanges and now we're reviewing that and if we still need to hold on to that land," said Penner.

She said once the city reaches an agreement with RioCan to transferthe land, city council will have the final say on the deal.

RioCan has applied for a land-use change for its redevelopment plans. It intends to hold an open house session on Oct. 25 at Heritage Park to gather public input on its proposal.

Its application will ultimately go to the Calgary Planning Commission for a vote and then to city council, where a public hearing will be held, likely next year.

Pauling Shepard said her group has a number of concerns about RioCan's proposal.

She said it will increase traffic on nearby roads. "How are they going to accommodate 3,000 people in a small shopping centre with two points of ingress and egress?"

Pauling Shepard said the group isn't opposed to increased density at the site. Rather, its members want to know how so much growth will be managed.

"What we are opposed to is density in a compact area like Glenmore Landing where the downstream effects of a large development are going to be very, very hard, in regards to safety, traffic and changing the character of the GlenmoreReservoir and the parklands," she said.