You may not have heard the term NIMBYs before, but they’re everywhere. In fact there are NIMBYs in every neighborhood of every city and they are the biggest pest that city planners have to deal with. NIMBY stands for “Not In My Back Yard”. These are people who object to any changes to their communities if it doesn’t benefit them even if its for the greater good of our entire city.

A great example is when the John Howard Society wanted to build a halfway house in the community of Sunalta. Residents immediately opposed it as they did not want this halfway house to be located in their community. Sunalta was also one of the communities that opposed the alignment of the West LRT leg. They argued the elevated tracks that ran by their community would be an eyesore and would increase crime.

Brentwood and Anderson Station TOD

The City of Calgary has undergone some incredible growth over the last few years. As a result, our infrastructure is struggling to cope and needs some serious upgrades. Increasing development (and density) in and around our existing LRT stations is one of the solutions that city planners have turned to. Through Transit Oriented Developments (TOD), the city aims to create pedestrian friendly communities around transit stations where citizens can live, work and play.

On our forums, we learned of the city’s plan to increase Calgary Transit fares. Of course, as with all price increases many people were against it because the current service levels do not justify the proposed price increases. TODs would alleviate the pressures faced by our transit infrastructure by keeping more of its users closer to the train lines as well as keeping amenities close by to reduce the need to drive and encouraging alternative transportation such as walking or cycling. Sounds great right?

Bzzzzzt. Unfortunately, the evil NIMBYs strike again. The Brentwood TOD community meeting was filled with seniors from the surrounding community arguing that the development will increase crime and traffic in the area. Things were no different at the Anderson TOD community meeting where community leaders said they did not want the city to destroy a community that took many years to build into what it is today. The construction of residential and commercial towers will forever change these communities they say. Well, no shit, thats the whole point!

The only good news is that at one of the more recent Brentwood TOD meetings, there was a sizeable crowd that was okay with the planned redevelopment of Brentwood station. In fact, the NIMBYs were outnumbered, and outvoiced (literally) by more rational community members. There main concern were whether or not the city will come through with the necessary infrastructure upgrades to handle the 6000 new residents in the area before the area becomes gridlocked. The city doesn’t exactly have an excellent track record there (Heritage Station anyone?) so the concerns here are quite valid.

The point is, when the city tries to be fair by seeking public input on projects, it unleashes a whole can barrel truckload of complaining that accomplishes nothing. You can bet the NIMBYs will strike again when the Calgary Airport builds the new runway because flightpaths are going to change and some new communities will be right in the path of approaching planes.

I can’t wait!