Dunbow and Heritage Heights area residents are joining together to voice their concerns over a proposed 2,600 home development.
Members of the newly formed Foothills Residents for Responsible Development say the Ribstone Ranch proposed for 914 acres of land east of Heritage Heights School is too large for the area.
Curtiss Law, area resident and group member, said they hope to get the MD to take a step back and create a strategic plan for how development will proceed in the area.
“Development should be responsible and sustainable, our view is that it needs to be country residential or acreages of some size,” he said.
Plans for the proposed Ribstone Ranch call for a 2,600 home community on a 914-acre site just east of the Norris Coulee and Shannon Estates subdivision, as well as a school site and small commercial area. At build out, the number of homes proposed would exceed the current size of both black Diamond and Turner Valley, where there are just over 2,000 dwellings in both communities combined.
About two-dozen area residents met on Feb. 4 to discuss the proposal and their concerns, which include water, size and housing density, transportation access and impact on quality of life in the area.
The group is circulating a petition and it has scheduled a meeting at the Davisburg Hall on Feb. 11. The petition will be available online at www.foothillsresidentsforresponsibleDevelopment.com and www.frfrd.com later this week.
Group member Deanna Balfour said it acknowledges the land will be developed and is not entirely opposed to it. They just want to make sure it’s done right.
“We understand that development is going to happen, but it has to be development that is appropriate for the area,” she said.
Balfour said the MD should locate large-scale developments such as Ribstone Ranch next to established communities, like Okotoks or Calgary.
“That’s where I would’ve thought a high-density development would be built,” she said.
Residents are concerned existing infrastructure won’t be able to handle the thousands of residents who will call the area home.
Balfour said Heritage Heights School is already under space pressure and there’s no timeframe for when a school would be built on the land set aside in the development.
Area resident Murray Campbell said Secondary Highway 552 wouldn’t be able to handle the additional traffic coming from the community.
“There’s a big strain on services,” he said.
Ultimately, he said the group’s efforts aren’t just about Ribstone Ranch as similar development plans can be expected for properties in the north area of the MD. If Ribstone Ranch is approved, Campbell said it will also set a precedent for the region.
“Look out your back window, if there’s land there it will be developed,” he said.
Ribstone Ranch’s developer said it is working on changes to the development plans that were unveiled to the public last.
“We’ve gone back, a little bit, to the drawing board to address some of the concerns of the neighbours,” said Adrian Munro, CEO of developer Highfield Investment Group.
While he declined to discuss specific changes, he did say they are “removing some of the density” from the plan as it was first presented.
While the company had planned to submit an Area Structure Plan application to the MD sometime this month, he said they are now expecting to submit the application sometime in March. He said the company hopes a public hearing sometime later this year.
MD of Foothills reeve Larry Spilak said the MD has not received an application from Ribstone Ranch’s developers.
Spilak said the MD is ready to take on developments the size of Ribstone Ranch, but the question is whether the proposed area is suitable.
“Whether or not this area is conducive is questionable,” he said.
Spilak said services and amenities will play a significant role in council’s decision whenever a development application is submitted. He said the development would require increased services and improvements to infrastructure, such as additional police and fire personnel and upgrades to the interchange at Highway 2 and Secondary Highway 552.
Ultimately, Spilak said the only way Ribstone Ranch can be developed as planned is if the developer is able to build a water pipeline.
According to Spilak, whether or not the development proceeds also depends highly on whether the City of Calgary attempts to annex the area.
He said the MD is just beginning discussions with the city over future annexation, and it will have a better sense of what areas the city is looking at sometime later this spring.
“It’s possible that Calgary is going to identify those lands as well as other lands in that area for annexation,” said Spilak.
Ultimately, he said the MD is facing big decisions about the future of the region as the city and developers are seriously looking at land within the foothills.
Munro declined to comment on the issue of Calgary annexation, except to say the company is proceeding on the basis the site will be developed as part of the MD.
