The big move: From inner city to a new urbanist community

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Naomi Bell and Stephen James never envisioned living in the suburbs.

“For us it has never really been about the physical dwelling; it’s always been about the location — the walkability, the proximity to coffee shops and restaurants, if we can walk to work and how long it takes us to get there. We’ve always been downtown people,” says James.

The couple, who were both born in Calgary, met in Vancouver while attending post-secondary schools and ended up staying for several years, until job opportunities brought them back to Calgary.

“We lived in Vancouver’s West End and walked everywhere. We basically lived in an eight-block radius and it was fantastic,” says James. When they moved to Calgary, the couple searched out a similar lifestyle, purchasing an 1,100-square-foot condominium built in the 1960s in the Beltline neighbourhood. But as their family grew — they now have two young boys, Teddy and Tate, they wanted more space and a yard. Just over a year ago, they began searching for single-family homes.

“But we were priced out of the market in the inner-city,” says Naomi, who is a musician, music therapist and elementary school teacher. Stephen works in transportation for the city of Calgary and was able to walk from the Beltline to his office in Calgary’s downtown core.

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When the couple realized they were priced out of the inner-city, they then set their sites on a home just a tad further out, a 1960’s type of bungalow in the established communities of Brentwood in Calgary’s northwest or Haysboro in the city’s southwest. “And, we found that even those homes were out of our price range,” says Naomi.

In the spring of 2023, upon a friend’s recommendation they headed into some new lake communities in Calgary’s deep south. “And I was like, I’m not feeling it,” says Bell, who then began searching nearby new community developments. She discovered Alpine Park, a new urbanist award-winning community developed by Dream Developments and on a whim, the couple headed west, down Calgary’s new ring road to check out some of the community’s show homes.

“We’d never been to a show home before, but thought we’d take a look,” says Bell.

The moment they entered Alpine Park they were sold.

“I put a hold on the lot right away. It was completely impulsive, but I just fell in love with it,” says Bell. “And, we also fell in love with the home design that fit on the lot. The front porch is just gorgeous.”

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The couple purchased the Forrester home model by Homes by Dream, a two-storey, 1,834-sq.-ft., three-bedroom design with an upstairs bonus room that can be swapped out for a fourth bedroom. The home’s secondary bedrooms are separated from the master by the bonus room, providing plenty of privacy. A detached double car garage has laneway access and the design allows for an L-shaped rear yard. Bell and James chose a Craftsman exterior design (other choices include Prairie and Farmhouse), and, Hotel Luxe with its creamy linen undertones, one of six choices of interior finishing packages.

The home features a large front porch — 225 sq. ft. of living space — and it fronts onto one of the community’s seven parks, Picnic Park.

“So, there is just a park in front of us, no road. I’ve never seen anything like this before. When we try to explain it to our friends, they just don’t get it, until they see it and then they are like, ‘Oh wow, this is amazing.’ ”

It wasn’t only the home’s design and the front yard park space that sold Bell and James, it was the community’s overall design. Walkability is a key attribute, as is a people-first vision that incorporates plenty of interaction in the community’s public realms from fruit orchard gardens with long Tuscan tables, to community vegetable garden plots and the upcoming village centre with its retail, coffee shops, restaurants and grocery offerings, all within an eight-minute walk of any home in the community.

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“One of the things that we loved about downtown living was that everyone is always out and about and it’s lively and walkable. Well, we have that right here. It’s amazing,” says James.

Plus, he says the kids are happy.

“As soon as we drive up to the house from school, they basically jump out and run to the park, which has an amazing playground. There are tons of kids in the community and even though we’ve only been here a month, they have so many friends; they’re always ringing the doorbell for them to come out and play. It’s wonderful,” he says, noting that it’s a big change from when they lived downtown in the condo and also from when they lived in Evergreen in a rental home with a fenced yard while their Alpine Park home was being built.

“The kids would come home and watch TV or play computer games and even though there were lots of kids in the area, they didn’t really interact.”

As for where the family spends most of the time hanging out, the front porch is the hands-down winner.

But the indoors spaces also really resonate.

“The kitchen is just gorgeous. We spend a lot of time cooking now,” says Bell. “And, the living room is light and bright with these big windows and really high ceilings,” adds James.

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The couple made a few changes to the home’s design, converting the pantry to a butler’s pantry and removing the doors on some of the rooms, namely the flex room on the main floor, which they’ve turned into a music room.

“Building the home was so easy,” says James. “Dream was so transparent about everything. So, we knew exactly how much everything was going to cost at every step of the way.”

“Making the choices was so simple,” adds Bell. “I get overwhelmed when presented with a lot of choices, and this was just a breeze. We able to mix and match and we really love the way that it turned out.”

Although the couple had to purchase a second car for their commutes to work (Bell works in Mahogany and James now works in the city’s northeast), the trade-off was well worth it.

“This is our forever home. We are so happy here,” says James.

THE DETAILS

HOME: The Forrester, a 1,834-sq.-ft., two-storey, three-bedroom home with upstairs bonus room, generous front porch (225-square-feet) and detached laned double-car garage. The home is designed to front on to a park and is zoned for a legal secondary basement suite and/or a carriage home over the garage.

BUILDER: Homes by Dream

COMMUNITY: Alpine Park

DEVELOPER: Dream Developments

PRICE: The Forrester starts at $751,000 including double-detached garage, lot and GST and fronting onto Shade Tree Park.

SHOW HOME: The show home is located at 75 Alpine Green S.W. and is open Mondays through Thursdays from 2 to 8 p.m. and weekends from noon to 5 p.m. It is closed on Fridays. Currently there isn’t a Forrester show home, but Homes by Dream has a new show home in Alpine Park, the Hanington, which will give buyers an idea of styling and finishes.

INFORMATION: alpine park.ca; homesbydream.ca

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