CALGARY—Long-standing drainage issues threaten to derail a controversial plan to redevelop a shuttered golf course in the city’s northwest.
The $1-billion Highland Village Green project proposes some 2,000 residential and office units to be built on the former Highland Golf Course, a 21-hectare parcel of land south of McKnight Boulevard at Centre Street north.
City council approved the project in March 2017, ignoring community concerns the area is prone to flooding and pleas to stall the land-use change until the Confederation Park regional drainage study was completed.
“We feel vindicated,” said Elise Bieche, president of the Highland Park Community Association.
“We kept trying to say, ‘Don’t approve the land until you get your study back,’” Bieche said. “The community was trying to find these compromises between the planning department and what we knew, which was (it’s) an area prone to flooding.”
That study proposed five options to address water drainage issues in the Confederation Creek catchment area, including a $300-million option that included diverting water through a tunnel to the Bow River.
“There are public safety risks associated with overland flow along the Confederation Valley,” reads the study. “These risks will become more severe if development is permitted within the valley as proposed because more people may be exposed to the presence of deep, fast-moving flows through the valley.”
The report, conducted by Associated Engineering, rejected four of the options and recommended the city build several storage sites. One of the storage sites would require “a significant portion” of the former golf course, slated for redevelopment, to be used.
Full article: TheStar.com