The Death and Life of Regional Planning in the Calgary Ma
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THE DEATH AND LIFE OF REGIONAL PLANNING IN THE CALGARY MA by David S. Climenhaga A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Journalism School of Journalism and Communications Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario May 1, 1997 @ copyright 1997 David J. Climenhaga National Library Bibliothèque nationale 1*1 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Senrices services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, rue WelIington OttawaON K1A ON4 Ottawa ON KI A ON4 Cana& Canada The auîhor has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence atlowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distxibute or selI reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microfom, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la fome de microfiche/fh, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantid extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imphés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. In 1995, with the passage of Alberta's new Municipal Goverment Act, the forma1 requirement for legislatively mandated regional planning in Alberta was eliminated. This destroyed a regionai planning system that had been held up by planners as a mode1 for the world. The change was a victory for rural politicians disillusioned with regional planning, which they saw as a way for urban officiais to block development of businesses -- and the taxes they bring -- in rural areas. Municipal g~vernmentsin some parts of the province preserved voluntary regional planning. But this did not happen in the Calgary region. There, rural politicians who saw the Calgary Regional Planning Commission as an interferinq bureaucracy refused to maintain the commission voluntarily, thÜs bringing -its work tO an end. But if hi stor,ical patterns of economic boom and bust, and the correspondin wa xing and waning of interest in regional planning, persist in Albe rtâ, there are grounds to believe regional planning will some day take place again in the Ca lgary area. Many people contributed in important ways to the cornpletion of this thesis. Librarians at the Calgary Public Library, the city of Calgary Planning and Building Department, the University of Calgary, the Calgary Herald and several private collections inconvenienced themselves on many occasions to help me find obscure documents. Many others in public and official life gave generously of their time for interviews. My employer, the Calgary Herald, provided generous financial support. My thesis advisor, Professor Roger Bird of Carleton University, was unstinting in his encouragement and proved to be a superb éditor. Ivan ~ob-inson provided me with access to his personal papers pertaining to the period under study, and the Municipal District of Rocky View gave me the run of its files. I owe al1 of these a deep debt of gratitude. But above all, 1 wish to thank my wife Luanne and my wonderful girls Kathryn Robin and Lily Maeve for their patience and support. TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapterl: Bombshell .................. 1 Stephen West Targets Regional Planning ... 3 A Regional Perspective ............. 6 The Cause of Controversy ........... 8 Rural Political Clout ............. 12 Pulling the Money ................. 17 The Death of Regional Planning .......... 18 Chapter2:BoomandBust ................ In the Forefront of Planning ........... The1913Act ................ The1929Act ................... The Great Depression ............... OilBoom .................. The1956RoyalCommission ............. The1977Act ................... The Bust of 1981 ................. Chapter3: AHouseDivided ............... A Dangerous Division ............... Rural-Urban Friction ............... The Calgary Regional Plan Approved ........ Factory Outlet Fiasco ............... Calgary Regional Planning Commission Attacked ... TheCommissionOverruled ............. Reinventing Regional Planning ........... Rocky View Says No ................ An Unneeded Layer of Goverment .......... Chapter4: AWholeNewBallgame ............. 84 The1995Act ................... 85 Supra-municipal Planning Mechanisms ..90 Intermunicipal Development Plans .......... 91 Harmony in Diversity ............... 93 Bi-Lateral Planning ..... ........... 96 Vague and Grudging Co-operation ......... 97 Powerful Un-elected Boards ............ 100 The Land Use Policies ............... 107 Planning Simplified and Streamlined ........ 113 A Remarkable Lack of Force ............ 116 Intermunicipal Agreements ............. 120 The Calgary-Rocky View Fringe Agreement ...... 124 Chapter 5: Charting the Future ............. 131 Return of the Boom ................ 132 New Interest in Regional Planning ......... 134 ChallengestoCome ................ 136 Mayor Al Duerrfs Solution ............. 138 Business Ponders Planning ............. 140 The Cinderella Discipline ............. 143 When Planning Makes a Difference ......... 145 Bibliography Appendix 1 : Jurisdictions of the Calgary Regional Planning Commission (map). Appendix 2: City of Calgary/Municipal District of Rocw View Intemunicipal Fringe Agreement (map ) . CHAPTER 1 - BOMBSHELL When Alberta Municipal Affairs Minister Stephen West strode to the podium of the Calgary Convention Centre on Oct. 7, 1993, he was prepared to drop more than a bombshell.' West is an imposing and pugnacious man, ta11 and broad-shouldered, with a mane of silver hair and an icy, glare that says "don't mess with me." He is disinclined to back away from a political brawi or any other kind.' In person, West exudes a John Wayne swagger, and after the hile it draws on newsDaDer reports and after-the-fact interviews, this description of <vents ât the 1993 annual meeting of the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association is the account of an eyewitness. The author covered the event as the municipal affairs reporter of the Calgary Herald, and the Herald stories quoted are his own -- rather like a policeman consulting his notes long after the investigation. 'on March 20, 1992, aiter coming under actack for a month for his sometimes violent ways, West rosa in the Alberta legislature to attempt to end controversy about his appointment by then-premier Don Gettÿ as sclicitor general, the province' s chief lawman. According to the lead story in the Calgary Herald the next day (Page Al, March 21, NW), "West has adnitted to spending nights in jail prior to getting elected as an MLA in 1986, and to being part of a vigilante group which tried to rid his home town of Vermilion of drug dealers. But he hasn't responded to allegations of bullying and threatening behâvior in Edmonton bars two years ago, and to animal cruelty when he worked as a veterinarian in 1969. RCMP confirmed they responded to a midnight cal1 last summer involving a complaint from a neighbor in his home town of Vermilion, who said West trashed a bicycle in the neighbor's backyard but later paid for the damage. In his statement, West didn't directly deny any of the accusations." Nor did he deny a public daim by his ex-wife that he had abused her during their marriage (Don Braid, Calgary Herald, Page A3, March 21, 1992). In an unusual stateinent to the legislature, West conceded that alcohol was a contributing factor in at least some of the situations prompting the accusations. As a result, he said, "todaqr, 1 make a cornitment to the premier, to this Legislative Assernbly, and to the people of Alberta that while 1 am solicitor general or any other minister of the Crown 1 will refrain from the use of alcohol." There is no evidence West has ever violated his pledge. 2 election of Premier Ralph Klein's Tory goverment on June 15, a little more than five months before, he had quickly become the hard-ass point man of the deficit-slashing "Klein Re~olution."~ But the fa11 of 1993 was still the early days of the Klein Revolution, and Chere were many in the audience, and throughout Alberta, who thought the premier and his party didn't really mean what they said about cutting spending, or didn't have the political will to follow through on what they'd promised. West had corne to the downtown convention centre, just a long block from Calgary's imposing new blue-glass city hall tower,' to set '"under the legislature dome, Steve West is the boss irom hell," wrote Calgary Herald legislative columnist Don Martin (Herald, "Alberta is leaning in a West-erly direction," 21 Jan. 1994, p. A3). "Whenever senior bureaucrats gather to commiserate about their political superiors, they console thenselves knowing it could be worse; West could be their cabinet minister. ... His ultra-right philosophy is sixple: Round-table meetings are for wimps. If it costs money, cut the budget. If staffed by non- essential ernployees, lay 'ern off. When in doubt about the value of a public service, privatize." 'which, despite the fact it contains city council's legislative chamber, is known with a wink and a nudge as "the municipal building," owing to the fact that, in the 1970s, before Klein became mayor of Calgary, voters rejected in a plebiscite a plan to build a new city hall. The scaled-down version of the rejected building was built anyway,