Provincial bill aims to solve problems like Mission's 'pit'

Anyone who has walked along 4th Street has no doubt noticed what locals refer to as “the pit” or “the hole.” This four-story excavation has occupied the street between Mission and Cliff-Bungalow for nearly 10 years.

An engineering firm told the local community, including the Cliff-Bungalow Community Association and Alderman John Mar, that the site was certified as safe.

“It’s left us no ability to go after [the developer] and say something needs to be done,” says Mar. “So, I asked the MLA for the area, Dave Taylor, to work with the city and try to come up with a legislative change that would allow cities in Alberta more opportunity to preserve public interest.”

In response, Taylor has proposed Bill 205, a private member’s bill that would give municipal governments the authority to take action when a construction project becomes significantly delayed.

Currently, municipal governments are responsible for monitoring sites and ensuring their safety, but can’t respond to aesthetic issues.

Cliff de Jong, senior special projects officer for building regulations at the City of Calgary said the city has been able to force developers to deal with stalled sites if there have been security concerns.

“We’ve had some success with court applications and Municipal Government Act orders,” said de Jong. “It’s not a complete overhaul that needs to be done to the MGA. Some of the additional tools we’ve asked municipal affairs to consider would certainly put us in a better position to deal with [stalled sites]. Clearly there is a need to address the sites that become stalled.”

The bill passed first reading on March 15 and is scheduled to be debated during the fall session of the provincial legislature.

While “the hole” in Cliff-Bungalow Mission is the most well known example of a stalled construction site in Calgary, other areas of the city have similar problems. David Lowe, executive director of the Victoria Park Business Revitalization Zone, said there are two stalled sites in the Victoria Park area, and about five or six in the Beltline area.

“For the most part, it’s just the inconvenience of blocked sidewalks, water that has to be pumped out of excavation sites constantly,” Lowe says. “Probably the biggest thing though is uncared for or unattended construction or plywood around construction sites, which unfortunately become magnets for illegal postering and graffiti.”

De Jong says as the economy recovers, the number of abandoned sites has decreased and some previously stalled developments are getting developed.

“Obviously no one, including the developer, wants a hole where they once envisioned a successful development,” de Jong. “When the financial conditions are favourable, absolutely it does end up making that issue less of a concern.”

Leah Purdy of Strategic Group, the developer that owns the Mission site, says she’s optimistic that their project will move forward in the future.

“You just have to wait for the timing,” she says. “It would be irresponsible to build something and then have it sit empty. It would be expensive to operate something that isn’t optimal so we have to look at it from the economics as well as from the community perspective.”

“We really don’t want to fill the site,” de Jong says. “That’s a very extreme measure and that’s something that we don’t take lightly, however, at the end of the day having a significant excavation in the centre of the city is absolutely not acceptable.”

Follow Rhiannon M. Kirkland on Twitter at @miffleupagus.