You may be wondering what’s been happening with the Mission Road Main Street Innovation Project since the close of our charrette last June. The answer? Plenty. Continuing with technical studies and review, talking to key stakeholders, and working on translating the charrette vision into formal City bylaw language that can be presented to Calgary Planning Commission and City Council. And now, we’re at a stage where we can show more of what we’ve been working on through another community event and update… [cont.]

The applause for charrette leader Andrés Duany at the close of a two-hour presentation on Tuesday night was genuine. Many in the 150-person-strong crowd had attended multiple meetings throughout the week and were appreciative of what they saw as a steady evolution culminating in the images and ideas in the wrap-up presentation…” [cont.]

Tuesday night at 7 p.m. at the Holiday Inn, the Mission Road project team presents the products of seven days of study and design to enliven the high-potential/low-performing district around the intersection of Macleod Trail and Mission Road.

Over the last week, a design team led by Andrés Duany has listened to residents and business people, consulted with City of Calgary staffers and tested and refined ideas. The Tuesday-night presentation features the results of that process… [cont.]

With the Mission Road charrette entering its final phase, the project team presented its latest versions of design approaches to the community on Sunday afternoon. The presentation represented refinements of ideas tested on Saturday. And the version at Tuesday night’s wrap-up at 7:00 p.m. at the Holiday Inn will integrate the community’s input from throughout the week… [cont.]

Saturday morning’s charrette show-and-tell provided Mission Road district residents and business people their first look at how the project team is responding to what they’ve heard so far.

The session is one of two “pin-ups” in which charrette leader Andrés Duany tests designers’ interpretations against community goals and the economic realities of development and redevelopment in the current era… [cont.]

Since more than 100 people had to be turned away because of space limitations Friday night at Calgary’s Glenbow Museum, Andrés Duany is re-presenting his lecture on “Agrarian Urbanism” tonight (Saturday, June 18).

The event takes place in the ballroom at the Holiday Inn on Macleod Trail. It begins at 7:30.

Thanks largely to Duany, the argument for threading properly scaled farms and gardens throughout the full range of urban and sub-urban neighbourhood has become a hot topic in planning circles. His presentation tonight incorporates his latest thinking on economic and social trends that are making local food production not only an appealing amenity for redevelopment in cities but also a necessity for sustaining communities over time.

Mission Road residents and property owners made it clear during Wednesday-night and Thursday meetings that they could be enthusiastic about a vision to convert the Mission Road sector into a more active mixed-use environment. For them, the big IF had to do with what they perceived as a City bureaucracy that might resist change.

On Friday, the City staffers who enforce the rules that shape development and redevelopment joined the discussion. And they seemed as eager as property owners and developers to try a different route… [cont.]

By the end of the day on Thursday, those attending special topic sessions of the Mission Road charrette were zeroing in on what has become the project’s biggest challenge: Getting veterans of past planning wars to believe that outcomes will be different this time… [cont.]

So what’s likely to provoke the most controversy during this week? What are you most afraid of?

Andres Duany, co-founder of the respected DPZ planning firm and director of the weeklong Mission Road charrette, asked those questions at the end of his standing-room-only Wednesday-night presentation. Actually, it was less presentation than vigorous discussion. And attendees seemed delighted with the opportunity… [cont.]