A Calgary city councillor is taking a small first step toward establishing a new park in the Nose Creek Valley.
Ward 3 Coun. Jasmine Mian plans to introduce a notice of motion to create a Nose Creek park strategy at a council meeting in October.
If approved, the strategy could guide the protection of some popular green space in north-central Calgary.
“This has been a de facto park for us for a long time, and [people] don’t want to see all that green space go away,” said Mian.
“This is an area of the city that, from an equity perspective, doesn’t have as much green space and deserves a second look.”
The motion is welcome news for the Nose Creek Preservation Society, which has spent years calling for a park around the waterway.
“It was music to our ears because she captured everything I was waiting for,” said the organization’s president, Andrew Yule.
“We’re definitely going to have a campaign through the month of October, to really push councillors to take this note of motion very seriously,” said Yule.
Group wants protected area linking municipalities
Nose Creek flows through Airdrie into Calgary, eventually connecting with the Bow River near the Calgary Zoo/Wilder Institute.
Yule wants to see green space around the creek protected from North Calgary all the way to Airdrie.
“It’s just prime for a greenbelt,” he said. “That’s really been our guiding star … Trying to create connectivity between communities.”
The Nose Creek Preservation Society says its main goal is to see the area declared as a national or provincial park.
Coun. Mian said she’s interested in creating the park north of Beddington Trail, but added an exact location hasn’t been “fully figured out yet.”
The notice of motion calls for “[outlining] the feasibility of locating a regional park within the Nose Creek Valley.”
More residential development possible in north-central Calgary
Initially, Mian said she wasn’t on board with creating a new park, but changed her mind when the potential for more residential development around Nose Creek emerged.
The City of Calgary is currently reviewing the Area Structure Plan (ASP) for Aurora Lands, a 234-hectare area between 96th Avenue N.E. and Beddington Trail N.W.
A new ASP could mean the area, which is currently zoned for a business park, becomes opened up to housing, according to the city.
The motion says the updated Aurora Lands ASP, and changes to other ASPs in north-central Calgary, will “increase jobs, population and demand for pathways.”
“If we’re going to have houses and pools [in] this area instead of businesses and warehouses, I think we have to be more concerted about making sure we have enough green space for folks,” said Mian.
City administration could take up to two years to study the feasibility of a park in Nose Hill if city council supports the motion.