February 10, 2025

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CMLC bringing transit oriented community planning to other areas of Calgary

CMLC bringing transit oriented community planning to other areas of Calgary

The Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC), which for over the past decade has shepherded in the development of the East Village and the Rivers District around Stampede Park, is about to expand in a big way beyond those borders.

CMLC announced that they would begin work to explore the development of transit oriented communities (TOC) situated along Calgary’s light rail transit network, as part of CMLC’s 2025–2029 strategic plan.

Kate Thompson, CEO of CMLC, said that the expanded portfolio for the wholly owned City of Calgary subsidiary, was a natural extension of the city’s housing strategy.

“This expanded portfolio outside of the Rivers District responds to key priorities in the city of Calgary’s housing strategy, and is really a natural alignment for CMLC, given our expertise in transit-oriented communities,” Thompson said.

“A key outcome of the city of Calgary’s housing strategy is really disposing of city-owned assets along transit-oriented development sites to apply a mixture of market and non-market housing. That’s where CMLC and our partnership with the City of Calgary comes in, so that we can leverage CMLC’s expertise and partner with the city on their own assets to develop housing along these key areas.”

She said that Calgary City Council had approved $20 million in funding for the development of transit-oriented housing in 2024 and that funding would be used in 2025 to procure master design and planning services for potential development sites.

Although questions remain about whether those sites could possibly be in the communities of Franklin or Westbrook, Thompson said that announcements of particular TOC locations would come after the study.

“We’re just working on identifying the right sites—all of them. I would say what’s interesting about the sites is they all have potential, and what we want to be able to do is help the city of Calgary address their housing strategy needs,” she said.

“How do we get houses? How do we build homes? More than just homes and residences and units, how do we create a community and what are the factors that will contribute to that, at which site? So that’s the evaluation we’re going through right now.”

Each TOC, said Thompson, would be unique although learnings from previous developments like the East Village would play a role in decisions on how to grow these communities.

“Any development has a similar parameter, but not any one site is the same. So, we need to make sure we analyze the site, the site conditions, the realities of the market surrounding it, and make sure that we are dealing with each site separately.”

She said that CMLC would begin with one or two locations, before moving on to other identified TOC locations.

Construction on the Calgary Event Centre on Wednesday, January 15, 2025. ARYN TOOMBS / FOR LIVEWIRE CALGARY

Commitment remains to develop Rivers District and Culture and Entertainment District

As part of the four-year strategic plan, CMLC would remain focused on further development of the lands around Victoria Park that make up the Rivers District and the Culture and Entertainment District, Thompson said.

Among those projects, some previously announced in 2024, were the construction of the 6 Street underpass and continued work on Stampede Trail.

The strategic plan identified two new sites for hotels surrounding the BMO Centre in addition to the previously announced but not completed project next to Cowboys Casino.

“On the hotel front, we’re still working with Calgary Stampede. What’s wonderful about the stage we’re in right now is that it couldn’t be more real in terms of what we’ve built and delivered for the community—in terms of an amazing convention centre—and the world is taking notice. There’s a lot of interest in what we’re doing in our south part of our downtown right now,” Thompson said.

Those hotel locations have been identified as being along Macleod Trail and 12 Avenue SE to the north of the Victoria Park/Stampede LRT station, and along Macleod Trail and Flores Ladue Parade south of the LRT station and next to the Stampede’s Big Four Building.

The Victoria Park Transit Garage, also more colloquially known as the bus barns, is set for redevelopment as part of the strategic plan.

CMLC indicated that they would work with the City of Calgary to transfer land ownership of the 11-acre site to CMLC, in order to enable future development of the location.

What won’t be changing over the next several years will be the complexity of construction going on in the district, Thompson said.

“It’s been interesting watching and working in the Culture and Entertainment District over the last five years, and to see the sequential construction closures, opening effects of events, and the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth, and now Rotary coming in June. So yes, Rotary will have an impact on construction in the district,” she said.

“But there, there is actually a lot of the construction infrastructure work CMLC completed last year in anticipation of that.”

The full details of CMLC’s four-year strategic plan are available at www.calgarymlc.ca/resources/2025-2029-strategic-plan-2025-business-plan.

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