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Why did Habitat for Humanity choose Airdrie?
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Habitat for Humanity has been considering expanding its reach and capacity into Airdrie for several years. However, it wasn’t until just over a year ago that we felt the timing was right.
We were approached by members of the Faith Community Church – Linda and Laurence Ray – to begin identifying opportunities in Airdrie to house one family.
It did not take long to realize that there was committed group of Airdrie residents who support our goal of breaking the cycle of poverty through homeownership. The current section of land by Monklands Soccer Park was presented to us as an opportunity for consideration.
Airdrie has a “whole community” philosophy: “Whole communities are essential to achieving a balanced sustainable city” (City of Airdrie - AirdrieOne). We believe that Airdrie and Habitat for Humanity are a perfect fit as we share common goals.
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How will low-income residents afford to live in Airdrie?
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Habitat partner families are working families just like you. Habitat Calgary carefully selects families who are able and willing to take on all of the intrinsic responsibilities of homeownership.
Through Habitat's favorable financing terms, clients' household expenses are distributed differently than a typical family. This enables them to afford the day-to-day expenses of home ownership, transportation, etc.
The Monklands development is anticipated to be certified Gold through the Built Green Program, thereby reducing the overall costs for utilities and water.
Please refer to the "Affordability" slide in the September 2009 Open House presentation to learn more about the monthly income and household expense distribution for Habitat Families.
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How do you select the families that receive the homes you build?
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Habitat Calgary carefully selects families that are able and willing to take on the responsibilities of homeownership. For instance, Habitat families must have at least one person that is employed full time with a consistent work history.
It is very important for Habitat for Humanity to build a sense of community, so people with similar age groups, family size, occupations and interests are generally chosen from a selection criterion.
Visit our website to Meet a Habitat Family, review our Selection Criteria and find more information about our Homeownership Program.
We know that our partner families experience increases in income once they are in our program; most of our families use significantly less or absolutely zero government assistance; a large percentage have significantly reduced their credit card debt; it is not uncommon for families to report that their children’s grades have improved in school; general health and well being are reported to be better since they’ve moved into a Habitat home; and almost all of our families tell us that their sense of optimism for the future has increased.
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Who chooses who will live in the homes? Will priority be to Airdrie and rural residents, or will it be the overflow of families from Calgary?
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Habitat for Humanity is working closely with local community and social organizations to ensure that local and rural residents will have the opportunity to attain a Habitat home.
In all cases, Habitat Calgary actively recruits partner families from the community surrounding the project location. We know that there are many families in Airdrie who qualify for homeownership.
By recruiting locally as much as possible, we enable existing residents to stay in their community, allowing them to continue contributing to the success of Airdrie in an affordable and sustainable way.
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How will this project affect my property value?
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This is a common question which has driven reams of studies across North America. The Centre for Housing Policy recently published a study entitled – “Don’t Put it Here! Does Affordable Housing Cause Nearby Property Values to Decline?” The report essentially consolidates the finding from several studies conducted in a wide range of communities over a period of several decades.
The results of the various studies suggest: “To “summarize the summaries” – the vast majority of the studies have found that affordable housing does not depress neighboring property values, and may even raise them in some cases.”
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Having an affordable housing development will increase crime!
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Habitat for Humanity families are carefully selected with a rigorous process. Once in our program, we stay in contact with the families to ensure they are great Habitat ambassadors.
The highly acclaimed architect and author Oscar Newman, known for Defensible Space theory, concluded that the design and use of public spaces — and particularly the sense of control and ownership that residents have over these areas — have far more significant effects on crime than density or income levels.
California Department of Housing & Community Development, Myths and Facts About Affordable Housing & High Density. p 6.
Ontario studies have shown that neighbors of residents in supportive housing have few complaints about safety. This has been backed up by work done in Vancouver, following neighborhoods where supportive housing has been built.
“In 25 years of experience with supported housing in Vancouver, there is no evidence that there has been an increase in crime in areas around these buildings. There are 16 apartment buildings outside the Downtown Core ranging in size from 9 to 34 units that are located in apartment zoned residential neighborhoods. A review of the complaints filed with the city’s Licenses and Inspection Department and Vancouver Police Department show few calls have been made by neighbors of supportive housing projects. In fact, the calls that have been received are often calls about activities near the address but unrelated to the tenants in the supported housing.”
- "Supportive Housing Strategy for Vancouver Coastal Health," June 2007 www.vancouver.ca
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Will the addition of this development increase traffic in the area?
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ISL Engineering was mandated to produce Traffic Impact Assessments to address the community concern regarding the impact that the proposed development would have along First Ave. two studies were conducted (May 2009 and again in January 2010) and, according to the results, ISL Engineering have determined that the proposed development would have a nominal impact with only marginal increases in intersection traffic of between 4% in the AM peak and 6% in the PM peak. Additionally, based on the maximum number of units that the proposed zoning could accommodate, which is substantially higher than what Habitat is considering for this location, “individual turning movements are expected at most to generate an additional 16 cars per hour for the left-turns into the site. Those volumes and variations are very small and would not normally warrant traffic impact assessment.”
Habitat for Humanity is very aware of the fact that there is a lot of volume during the morning drop off and afternoon pick up at each of OLQP and Ralph McCall. We will follow the recommendations from ISL and work with the City of Airdrie to ensure that the impact this development will during and after construction will be mitigated as much as possible.
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Will this development take away much needed parking – both for the schools and the soccer fields?
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To answer this question, we would like to direct you to page 5 of our presentation boards used during our open houses.
As you can see, the site would undergo a significant facelift as a result of this development.
In addition to the extension of a regional pathway system linking adjacent communities and the school Ralph McCall School site, the creation of a family park area with play structures and park benches, the actual parking structure will be significantly increased in capacity. This parking facility is, and will continue be for the use of all Airdrie residents and is not part of the Habitat for Humanity Monklands development. All parking for the Monklands development will be provided for within the development.
Currently, site parking – used by parents driving their kids to school and local soccer associations – can accommodate approximately 80 or so cars. The new plan provides for 178 parking spaces in a more centralized and efficient area of the soccer park. This new parking structure is also linked into the regional pathway so parents can still drop their children off and let them walk safely to school.
For soccer season use, while it is true that the temporary use of the vacant lot will disappear with the development, the addition of over 90 parking spaces on-site will offset this loss.
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It looks like the community will lose half of the available green space. Is this true?
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The answer to this questions is no, this is not the case. In conversations with the City of Airdrie planning group, we are told that according to the Municipal Government Act, communities must provide up to 10% green space. The area in which the proposed development is situated currently benefits from approximately 13% green space. If the vacant lot is removed from this calculation, the remaining green space represents approximately 12%. So while there is a minor loss – approximately 7.5% - the community still boasts at least 20% more green space that most other Airdrie communities.
The existing green space will actually be enhanced by the proposed re-development of the Monklands Soccer Park by providing a new regional pathway, new play structures and family oriented park space help to promote any even better use of the park for everyone to enjoy.
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Will the addition of this many units force my kids out of our school?
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As part of the communication process, the City of Airdrie circulates all development proposals to adjacent properties including the various school boards. This specific question was asked of the school boards and their response was presented at the firs public hearing on December 21st, 2009.
The following has been extracted from the Agenda Report submitted by administration to Council: “Regarding concerns over the Ralph McCall School and any potential expansion, the site in question is not Municipal School Reserve (MSR) and therefore was never planned for use by the Rockyview School Division (RVSD) for expansion. There is a six acre parcel set aside in the southwest corner of Monklands Regional Park, in Sagewood, for a future RVSD school. Through discussions with the RVSD, staff has been advised that any children living in the future development of this site would not be the sole reason to change the attendance boundaries for Ralph McCall. There are many other population dynamics in Airdrie that have more significance. The RVSD would not be relocating children to different schools as a result of this development.”
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Are there not better locations to build this development?
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When one is evaluating a project – Habitat for Humanity or market housing – one factors a number of variables to support an application. These include proximity to public transit – this site is on a major bus route serving the community – proximity to schools – this site is adjacent to two schools and a third is planned – proximity to amenities such as shopping and medical – all of these and more are available with a 2-3 KM radius of the site – availability of employment opportunities – Airdrie is a growing community with hundreds of employers from manufacturing to logistics and from the service industry to retail sector.
For these reasons this site is ideally suited to accommodate the proposed development to meet the needs of the community and help to break the cycle of poverty through homeownership.
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It is unclear to me exactly how big this development will be. Can you confirm this for me?
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Our proposal to the city is requesting that the zoning be changed to accommodate an R4 development. This zoning would provide for between 13 to 26 units per acre. The maximum number of units that could be built on the site with the R4 in place would be 62 units. However, all of our preliminary site planning, taking into account the orientation of the site and the shared access with the soccer fields, we have determined that the site can only support either 30-34 townhomes - 13upa - or a mix of townhomes (20) and apartment style condos (22-24) – 18upa. It is not our intention to burden the site. Once the zoning is approved we will start working more formally with our architect, Norr Architects – to develop a concept that will be submitted to the City of Airdrie for consideration as part of the Development Permit application process.
The development permit application process will also be subject to community input. It is our intention to host at least one open house outlining more detailed plans for the development once the land use has been approved.
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