Calgary to benefit from parks expansion
November 07, 2014
As many as 55 Calgary neighbourhoods stand to benefit from a new 138-km pathway that allows residents to run, walk, cycle for free 365 days a year and links up outdoor amenities.The Rotary/Mattamy Greenway is an expansive $60-million pathway system in its final phase of development. Once completed, it "will touch 55 communities around the city that reach 400,000 residents,” says Myrna Dube, CEO of Parks Foundation Calgary, spearheading the Greenway project. “The overall idea is to encourage people to adopt a healthier lifestyle and to get active outdoors, and there is a social aspect as it gives an opportunity for people from different communities to meet along the Greenway.“We’re not just building a 3.5-metre wide pathway. With our sponsors, we’re also building 20 to 25 amenities that provide recreational opportunities for people of all ages, which is a real benefit to those communities,” Dube says. “It also connects to the city’s pathway system, allowing even more residents in other communities access to the Greenway and new communities can develop spurs to link up to the Greenway.”The first phase of the Greenway began in northeast Calgary in 2010, going from Airport Trail to 17th Avenue S.E. and saw the development of amenities, such as a playground in Saddlebrook, a dog off leash by Taradale and Coral Springs and a 3.1-hectare interpretive wetland by Monterey Park.In the recently completed second phase, Greenway runs southeast through Mahogany, Auburn Bay, Seton and Cranston and through Fish Creek Park. Added amenities in those communities are a fitness park in Mahogany, several wetland interpretive areas, including one in Auburn Bay, and an overlook above Fish Creek Park in Cranston.“Phase three is our largest stage, with 74 kilometres, and 39 are already built,” Dube says. This phase takes the Greenway from Airport Trail through northeast communities of Cityscape, SkyView Ranch and Redstone, west through Evanston on its way to 12-Mile Coulee before heading south to connect into Baker Park, Bowmont Park and Edworthy Park. The Greenway will then travel toward West Hills along Sarcee Trail and 37th Street and complete the loop at Fish Creek Park.“The Greenway will be 80 per cent complete by the end of the year and we’ve raised $40 million in cash and in-kind to build what we have already,” Dube says. “We need to raise a further $10 million for the pathway and $10 million for additional amenity features to complete the project by 2016.”
About Heather Ryan
Heather Ryan is a Calgary journalist with more than 25 years of experience, focusing on real estate for the past 10 years.