Development Derailed: Calgary and the CPR, 1962–64

Development DeraileD Copyright © 2013 Max Foran Published by AU Press, Athabasca University 1200, 10011 – 109 Street, Edmonton, AB T5J 3S8 ISBN 978-1-927536-08-1 (print) 978-1-927536-09-8 (PDF) 978-1-927536-10-4 (epub) Cover and interior design by Natalie Olsen, Kisscut Design. Printed and bound in Canada by Marquis Book Printers. Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Foran, Max Development derailed : Calgary and the CPR, 1962–64 / Max Foran. Includes bibliographical references and index. Issued also in electronic formats. ISBN 978-1-927536-08-1 1. Economic development — Political aspects — Alberta — Calgary — History — 20th century. 2. City planning — Alberta — Calgary — History — 20th century. 3. Urban renewal — Alberta — Calgary — History — 20th century. 4. Public- private sector cooperation — Alberta — Calgary — History — 20th century. 5. Canadian Pacific Railway Company — Planning — History — 20th century. 6. Railroads — Political aspects — Alberta — Calgary — History — 20th century. 7. Calgary (Alta.) — Economic conditions — 20th century. I. Title. FC3697.4.F676 2013 971.23’3803 C2012-906353-3 We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF) for our publishing activities. Assistance provided by the Government of Alberta, Alberta Multimedia Develop- ment Fund. This publication is licensed under a Creative Commons licence, Attribution–Non- commercial–No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada: see www.creativecommons.org. The text may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes, provided that credit is given to the original author. To obtain permission for uses beyond those outlined in the Creative Commons licence, please contact AU Press, Athabasca University, at [email protected]. To Rod Sykes, who was there Contents List of Tables, Maps, and Figures ix Acknowledgements xi Introduction 3 1 Setting the Stage The City’s Personalities and Agendas, 1953 to July 1962 21 2 Heady Days of Hope Two Announcements, June 1962 to April 1963 35 3 From Arrangement to Agreement Dodging the Negotiation Potholes, April 1963 to January 1964 71 4 Temperature Rising The Project Under Public Scrutiny, February to June 1964 129 Conclusion 179 Epilogue 189 Appendix A Heads of Arrangement 193 Appendix B Agreement of Intent 197 Appendix C Major Participants 217 Appendix D Calgary City Councils, 1962–64 219 Notes 221 Bibliography 249 Index 253 tables, maps, anD Figures Tables 1 Population of Calgary, 1944–64 2 Building permits issued in Calgary, 1944–63 Maps 1 CNR and CPR rail routes to city 2 Rail relocation and parkway proposal 3 Rerouting proposals 4 Route of parkway as presented to City Council, December 1963 5 Location of Hudson’s Bay warehouse and the proximity of proposed rail and parkway routes Figures 1 CPR right-of-way, looking east, 1962 2 Total downtown office construction by blocks, 1946–63 3 The Palliser Hotel, on 9th Avenue 4 South bank of the Bow River, 1955 5 Projected development between 4th Street West and 1st Street East 6 Spur line in warehouse district, 1955 AcknowleDgements I would like to thank the people at the City of Calgary Archives. As always, they were very accommodating in helping me locate documents and guiding me to sources I might otherwise not have consulted. My special thanks and appreciation go to Rod Sykes. He made his private files available to me and consented to their transferral to the University of Calgary Archives following the completion of this manuscript. Blessed with an incredible memory, he was unfailingly patient and generous with his time and extremely helpful with his comments and observations. I especially appreciated his neutrality regarding my interpretation of events as they pertained to the CPR. Development DeraileD Introduction Life is a strange mixture of black and white, and nowhere will a person encounter more striking extremes of joy and sorrow, headaches and thrills, bouquets and brickbats than in public service at the civic level. There, close to the people, close to the wallets from which taxes are paid and close to garbage can problems, politics can be at their roughest. Grant MacEwan, diary entry, spring 1963 In June 1962, the Canadian Pacific Railway Company (CPR) unveiled plans to redevelop part of its right-of-way in the heart of downtown Calgary. Covering two blocks to the east of the historic Palliser Hotel, the multi-million-dollar project envisaged retail, office, and convention facilities, as well as a major transportation centre, and it was to occupy land that was currently underused and only marginally developed. The news was received ecstatically by local political and business leaders, who foresaw increased tax revenue and a reversal of the urban blight that was depressing land values and discouraging investment. A year later, the original concept was expanded and took official form through an agreement between the City of Calgary and the railway company. The new plan would involve developing a much larger area, as well as removing all railway tracks from the central downtown area and rerouting the main line along the south bank of the Bow River. Despite the best intentions of its supporters, this grand design for the reshaping of Calgary’s downtown proved too much for the unlikely partners. 3 Changing perceptions of the project and disagreement over details were compounded by ill-preparedness, indecision, inefficiency, poor communication, and mistrust. Calgary’s most controversial and far-reaching project to date died in June 1964 amid the weari- ness of mutual default. The ConTexT The city’s agreement with the CPR was born in optimism and rooted in the transformations that were changing Canada’s urban land- scapes in the post–World War II era. Two main factors were at work. Together, they combined to create an urban space much different from the industrial city, where land-use patterns were undifferen- tiated and concentrated around the downtown core. The first was the advent of the Central (later Canada) Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). Created in 1945 to administer federal par- ticipation in housing under the National Housing Act (1944), the CMHC implemented the affordable lending and mortgage insur- ance policies that helped transform the nation’s spatial residential patterns. 1 The resulting suburbanization of Canada was reflected in the more than three million dwelling units constructed between 1945 and 1970. The second factor was the affordability of the car. In the period up to the 1980s, and arguably still today, planning policies and practices were built around the need to accommodate suburbanization and the automobile. 2 Every city, it seemed, had a transportation plan calling for the construction of freeways. 3 Planners Gerald Hodge and David Gordon sum up the new order of that time: “Mass automobile ownership and expressways gave Canadians a transportation alternative that was private, conven- ient, flexible and fast.” 4 A focus on detached housing, bigger and wider freeways, the outward alignment of industrial areas, and the decentralization of retail and other services were dominant themes in the city plans that began emerging in the 1950s and 1960s. One serious casualty in this transformation was the inner city — in particular, the downtown core. Increasingly, inner-city residents were moving out to the new suburban utopias. Shoppers 4 Introduction were not patronizing downtown retail establishments as they once had, preferring instead to avail themselves of the newer, handier malls that included the big anchor stores and, more importantly, that offered free parking. The 43,000 suburban dwellers who worked downtown in 1963 faced traffic congestion while getting there and parking problems when they arrived. 5 In this period, the troubling question of what to with downtowns — with their limited access, their aging infrastructure, and their declining importance amid residential flight and diminishing shopper interest — was almost as important to city managers and planners as the need to accommodate outward growth. Solutions were limited. Access to downtown could be alleviated via freeways. For example, the 1959 plan for Metropolitan Toronto provided for over a hundred miles of expressways. 6 In Ottawa, the Queensway was constructed as an east-west crosstown route in the 1960s. However, expense and rising public opposition proved to be limiting factors. Another way to bring people back to downtowns was through the enticement provided by modern new development or, to be more accurate, redevelopment. In this period, however, venture capital was scarce in downtown areas, where the attend- ant risks of redevelopment were high. In addition to risk, potential investors worried about higher property taxes offsetting any rental gain achieved through redevelopment. 7 In fact, many investors believed that the best economic returns could be obtained by raz- ing older buildings and using the vacated land for parking until the development value of the site reached its maximum potential. 8 The impetus to redevelop Canadian downtowns fell largely to the public sector. Sometimes it occurred at the local level, where civic governments promoted redevelopment on their own land and at times sold it at premium prices to encourage private redevelopment. It took the form of new civic facilities. Another intervention was through the federally sponsored urban renewal programs under the National Housing Act of 1944 and its subsequent amend- ments. Originally, such schemes involved the demolition of existing degraded housing in inner-city areas and replacing the demolished homes with higher-density public housing complexes. The scope of the act was later widened to include commercial redevelopment. 9 Introduction 5 The emphasis on redevelopment rather than on other options like rehabilitation or conservation created a mindset that saw change in terms of fresh beginnings. Regardless of its form or its impact on other variables, redevelopment was perceived as a nat- ural good. With plenty of architects and designers willing to offer their visions for the future and many construction companies ready to enable them, any change was good change as long as it involved newness.

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