Your complete printed Shawnee-Evergreen Estates Community Newsletter:

Shawnee-Evergreen Estates Febuary 2010 Newsletter.pdf (2.70 mb)

As promised at community meetings and in the SECA newsletters, we are updating you on the status of Geo-Energy's land use change application which was submitted to the City in mid October 2009.

On January 6, 2010 Alderman Diane Colley Urquhart informed SECA that the City Planning Department (CPD) had advised her that Geo-Energy completed the formal submission of their land use change application for the Shaw-nee Slopes golf course, late last fall. The CPD spent the last couple of months working with the applicant to ensure completeness of the application and will be officially distributing it to all key stakeholders sometime this month. Our Alderman has scheduled a meeting of the Ward 13 Land Use Mobility and Advisory Committee to which the SECA executive has been invited along with members of City administration land use and planning who will be sharing the timelines on the Shaw-nee golf course application going forward. 

Please be assured that as soon as the SECA Board has received and reviewed this application, we will call a town-hall meeting, most likely in February, to share its contents with the community.  Although the application is yet to be circulated, we anticipate that it will essentially follow the proposal provided at Geo-Energy's January 22, 2009 presentation to the community at the Delta Calgary South (see http://shawneeslopesdevelopment.ca/). It is the responsibility of the applicant to conduct consultation meetings with key stakeholders which we will insist includes an “open house” meeting for all residents of the Community. We continue to believe that their application is without merit and we will fight vigorously to retain the current land use designation of Special Purpose - Recreation.

We will notify you in an email and update the SECA web site (http://www.shawnee-evergreen.net /) as soon as the application has been received. A detailed assessment of the application will then be undertaken by the SECA Land Use Committee. We anticipate that this will be a very long process, likely spanning several years. Many issues will need to be addressed in the intervening period and a steady and consistent volunteer base is essential. Fortunately we have had a very positive response from our members. As specific needs are identified we will detail them and call for additional volunteers.

Gloria Dingwall, President

 

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The number one issue this year for our community is the land use re-designation application for the Shawnee Slopes Golf Course. As reported in previous newsletters, the formal application was submitted late last fall by the developer, Geo-Energy, to City Administration who spent the last couple of months working with the applicant to ensure completeness of the application.  Alderman Diane Colley-Urquhart advised us on January 6^th that the City Planning Department will be officially distributing the application to all key stakeholders for circulation later this month.  This will be our first opportunity as a Community Association to see the application. It is the responsibility of the applicant, Geo-Energy, to conduct consultation meetings with key stakeholders.  The Land Use and Mobility Advisory Committee for Ward 13 (LUMAC) will be inviting the City to their next meeting to fully define the process going forward.  Alderman Diane and members of the SECA Board/Land Use Committee will attend that meeting and the SECA Board will report back to you as soon as further details are available.

I wish to draw your attention to the issue of cell phone towers which are sprouting up around the City.  The Federation of Calgary Communities has advised us that they anticipate an upsurge  in the number of applications in 2010, expecting as many as 300 tower applications as a result of new cell phone providers coming to market.  As mentioned in my October report, our community has already been targeted for one of these towers to be located near Beacon Hill in the grounds of the Peace Lutheran Church.  At the time of writing, this controversial issue has been put on hold, pending the outcome of discussions between the Church Board, the  Highbury developer Perera, and the cell provider. 

Our Alderman has been fully engaged in efforts to prevent the tower from being located so close to the Beacon Hill condos as well as the Highbury development.  In addition to corresponding with the cell tower provider, Industry Canada and, the Prime Minister’s Office, at the City Council meeting on December 14, she amended Alderman Hawkesworth’s motion calling for the City to only agree to tower applications that went through public consultations, adding the following:

“That City Administration review the 1998 Freestanding Telecommunication Antenna Structure Planning Criteria in consultation with key stakeholders and report through the Standing Policy Committee on Land Use and Transportation no later than June 2010.

“ While the motion passed unanimously, Alderman Diane’s office reported to us that her amendment was “put forward because the original motion asked only for a review of towers under 15m, and the problems are much greater than that. The City’s current guidelines are only a page long, with other City’s having 32 page documents with better community consultation. This amendment will also have administration consider more use of City land to build these towers.” 

We were also advised by our Alderman’s office that “The other amendment added to the motion asked for Mayor Bronconnier to formally write Industry Canada expressing his concerns around the entire approving process.” 

Going forward, our Alderman’s office would like to continue hearing from our community as one of the key stakeholders in the review of this planning process.  Please email Anthony Masleck with your input/feedback regarding these towers.  Anthony’s email address is EAWARD13@calgary.ca. 

I recently received a letter from one of our community members, Ryan Ockey, regarding traffic calming and would like to share the contents with you.  You will find the letter reprinted with Ryan’s permission, elsewhere in this newsletter. 

Respectfully submitted,

Gloria DingwallPresident

Shawnee-Evergreen Community Association        

December 2, 2009

Shawnee Evergreen Community Association

Attention:  Ms. Gloria Dingwall

I thought I would take a few minutes to let you know my opinion about the new “traffic calming” features that were installed a few months ago in Evergreen.

I have to admit that at first I was not particularly fond of these gigantic speed bumps.  In fact I may have accidentally muttered some unprintable words under my breath the first time that I drove my sports car over them and scraped the bottom of my carbon fiber frame.  Right at that moment I wondered why these brutal things had been installed.

Since then I have noticed that traffic has to slow down a little now as it moves through the playground zone just down the hill from my house.  I remember a few years ago when my son and his friends were almost hit by someone flying through that clearly marked area.  I also notice that the traffic that used to speed down Evergreen Street is also moving slower.

I have now learned how to angle my car over the speed bumps without scraping the bottom and although my commute now takes me about 22 seconds longer than before (I have 5 sets of them to go over) I am happy that people are now complying with the speed limit that they might not have been complying with before they were installed.  At the end of the day the safety of our children and people in our community is worth the extra 22 seconds and a scraped frame.  Besides, the car is so low you can’t see the scrapes under it anyway!

Sincerely,

Ryan Ockey

Community Resident