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CALGARY HERALD
Saturday, August 25, 2007
NEW HOMES
OPINION
Cost of ongoing growth doesn’t add up
JIM DEWALD AND BEV SANDALACK
FOR THE CALGARY HERALD
It would be a sharp and sudden stop
to the housing industry.
Why would anyone pay that extra
he City of Calgary recently recost to be in a Calgary suburb, rather
leased a study that made two
than buy in the inner-city or out of
important predictions:
town?
■ Calgary will grow by 225,000 over
Clearly, the housing industry — or
the next 10 years;
more correctly, homebuyers — cannot
■ this growth will require an addipossibly absorb this outrageous added
tional $7 billion in infracost.
structure.
But, fear not; a solution is
Back in the 20th century, a
in sight!
fictional character, Dr. Evil,
City officials are proposshocked the world in the
ing to redirect the education
Austin Powers series of
portion of the property tax
films by asking for a
to cover these growth costs.
$1 “beeeeellion” ransom
However, education propto save the Earth.
erty taxes come out of the
But in modern-day Calpockets of existing resigary, a number like $7 billion
dents. Why should they pay
hardly causes people to
the added cost for new resiJim Dewald
yawn, particularly when the
dents?
Herald squeezes the article
There is sure to be a revolt
next to an announcement by
from existing Calgary resiShell to spend $27 billion on
dents if this proposed soluan oilsands upgrader.
tion is instituted.
However, if you break
“What about the provindown this number to the
cial government?” you say.
scale of your household, you
“They have billions in surmight see a different picture.
plus money.”
A figure of 225,000 people
Maybe, but is it logical for
in the suburbs converts to
money that belongs to all
about 80,000 households (at Bev Sandalack
three million or more Alber2.7 to 2.8 persons per houstans to go to address the
ing unit); $7 billion divided by 80,000
needs of 225,000 new Calgarians?
households equates to $87,500 per new
Again, a taxpayer revolt is preGrant Black, Calgary Herald
home.
dictable.
Rush hour traffic slows to a crawl on northbound Deerfoot Trail due to summer road construction.
The readers of this column will unIn summary, the money cannot
encourage more walking, and local
derstand what an additional $87,500
come from the future homeowners. It
not right, to saddle existing residents
Here is one solution.
shops that provide healthy food opper home, including multi-family
is too expensive to make sense, and it
of either Calgary or Alberta with these
Spend less.
tions (instead of the ubiquitous fast
units, would mean.
would be political suicide, and frankly
costs. So what shall we do?
The $7 billion is irrefutable proof
food joints).
that the current patterns of growth
Calgarians, it is time to wake up and
are not financially sustainable.
realize that there are far too many fiThe further we stretch, the more
nancial, social, and environmental
it costs, until we get to a breaking
costs to our patterns of growth.
point.
It seems easy for those who feel
Consider other sprawl cities, such
threatened to scoff at the social and
as Phoenix, Ariz.
environmental impacts.
The Economist recently ran a feaMaybe the thought of billions conture article on Phoenix, noting that as
verting into $87,500 per housing unit
recently as 1993, it was recognized as
will catch their attention.
the world’s best-managed city.
Whether it is through witnessing the
This is fitting as the 1970s to 1990s
pathetic inability of sprawl to cope
promoted the vision of a freewaywith social issues like crime,
based sprawl city that
congestion, and education
placed private enclaves
(the Phoenix example); the
and the car far above conconvincing research that
cepts like sense of place
links obesity and other
and the public realm.
health issues to sprawl; the
The freeway city conobvious cost of sprawl
cept promotes exclusivity,
($87,500 additional cost per
gated neighbourhoods,
housing unit); or the inabiland privatization of parks
ity of cities to cope with criand viewpoints.
sis (like New Orleans and
Cities that were born
Hurricane Katrina); sooner
decades and centuries earor later, we will figure out
lier focused on inclusivity
that a change is needed.
and a public realm that
Why not recognize this
promotes a sense of comsooner than later and adjust
munity at a local scale.
our patterns of growth?
Today, as the poster
For developers, this doeschild freeway city, with
n’t mean an end to new
endless suburban sprawl
growth.
and rings of interchanges,
It simply means doing it
on-ramps, and HOV
differently — providing emlanes (high occupancy
ployment and local shopvehicle lanes, including
ping opportunities as an inthings like carpooling),
tegral focus of new commuPhoenix has many probnity design, developing
lems.
neighbourhoods that work
The Economist article
on a smaller local scale, and
states that “burglary,
infusing the public realm with a true
theft, and car crime are among the
sense of place where neighbours can
highest in the country.”
be true neighbours.
In addition, smog and commuter
Let’s create meaningful new
traffic are among the worst and educommunities that lead away from,
cation ratings are the lowest in the
not toward, the pitfalls of the
United States. The article also notes
freeway city.
that Phoenix residents, themselves,
complain about the “unsocial” nature
of the city.
JIM DEWALD, PHD, IS ASSISTANT PROFESSOR,
Others have also reported probSTRATEGY AND GLOBAL MANAGEMENT
lems with the freeway city model.
AT THE HASKAYNE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
For instance, a recent study by the
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY, AND A PARTNER
World Health Organization states
WITH PETERS-DEWALD LAND CO. BEV SANDALACK,
that sprawl contributes directly to
PHD, IS CO-ORDINATOR OF THE URBAN DESIGN
obesity.
PROGRAM IN THE FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENTAL
Their research indicates that it is
DESIGN AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY, MEMBER
imperative that urban development
OF THE CALGARY URBAN DESIGN REVIEW PANEL,
return to a more human scale that reAND CO-AUTHOR OF THE CALGARY PROJECT, A
lies on mixed-use environments to
BOOK ABOUT CALGARY'S URBAN DEVELOPMENT.
T
❝
Calgarians,
it is time
to wake up
and realize
that there
are far too
many
financial,
social and
enviromental
costs to our
patterns
of growth
❞
Calgary Herald Archive
A flagwoman holds up traffic on 6th Avenue S.E. in downtown Calgary.
AA644829
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