Local area plans provide guidance and direction as new communities are being built. They also guide communities when they reach their natural redevelopment life cycle stage.

A local area plan is helpful when a neighbourhood naturally starts revitalization and redevelopment. A local area plan encapsulates a future vision for the area. It provides development direction that residents, landowners, builders/developers, City Planners, and Councillors can refer to. This guidance is useful as new development ideas are proposed for the area.

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Citywide, we need to consider where and how growth and redevelopment should happen.

We need to consider:

• Changing housing needs and preferences
• Sustainability and urban footprint of our city
• Balancing costs of new and maintaining existing infrastructure, amenities, and facilities to support both new and established communities.
• Balancing population across both new and established communities to support local schools, facilities, and businesses.

The City is responsible for managing growth and development across Calgary and looks at how and where growth should happen. Growth and development are encouraged in key areas. There is a city-wide plan for growth to be distributed between developed and new communities. Learn more about Calgary’s Municipal Development Plan.

When looking at the best way to create and update local area plans on an ongoing basis, creating local area plans based solely on community boundaries is not sustainable. There are simply too many communities.

In our city, there are shared amenities like local businesses, transit stations, recreation facilities and schools, that connect communities together. However, physical boundaries like major roads, rivers and large natural areas naturally separate us. Our daily experiences are not confined to our immediate community. For example, you might visit a neighbouring community to buy groceries, or take yoga classes. You could also travel through multiple communities walking your dog, to get to work, or dine at a restaurant.

Grouping communities by boundaries and shared amenities enables collective planning and discussion. This is the basis behind the concept of The City's local area plans.

Local area planning has the following benefits:

• Creates stronger linkages between communities and to key amenities and infrastructure.
• Allows for better identification of common issues, opportunities and solutions.
• Facilitates holistic discussions on new growth across larger areas.
• Includes a broader citizen and partner perspective in each plan.
• Allows for more effective engagement and plan development. This is essential toward replacing obsolete plans with modern planning tools.
• Fewer plans allow for more frequent and consistent updates to address current conditions.

Local plan areas use major roads (such as Crowchild Trail, Deerfoot Trail, Anderson Trail, McKnight Boulevard, Shaganappi Trail) and geographic features (rivers, major parks such as Nose Hill, Confederation or Fish Creek parks) as they create more physical boundaries to define city regions. These features are easily identifiable on a map and shape our daily lives. Holistic planning integrates existing amenities with new development and investment.

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While some boundaries, like Deerfoot Trail, are obvious, others are not. Some communities or parts of communities may fit equally well into one neighbouring plan area or another. Ultimately, each community will be part of a local area plan with neighbouring communities.

No. Being in the same city or local area plan doesn’t mean all communities are treated the same. Geography, infrastructure requirements, mobility networks, community layout, history, and market will continue to shape each community’s path. Local area planning processes will consider these factors. Each community and local plan area has unique characteristics which shape their roles.

The Guide for Local Area Planning provides information, policies, and tools for developing local area plans. It provides a common language for discussing and planning for growth and change.

Local area plans are meant to be living documents which can be amended and updated over time. This allows them to adapt as the community evolves and conditions change.

City Council is the decision maker for all amendments to a local area plan.

Input from community members and partners helps the project team understand perspectives, opinions and concerns throughout project phases. Input from each project phase helps shape and refines concepts and policies. The project team shares what was heard, highlights key themes, and explains how they will be addressed.

The goal of public engagement isn’t to reach consensus or make everyone happy. Public engagement considers input from those affected before making decisions. Public input is an important part of local area planning, but is one of many areas of consideration. Other areas include: City policies, professional expertise, context, trends, and equity. All of which factor into the ultimate decision-making process and concept development.