City council approved the route and station locations of the south leg of the $4.6 billion Green Line LRT on Tuesday, however, several councillors remain concerned about parking options and development potential along that line.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi will now formally ask the province to help fund the Green Line mega project, which would run from North Pointe south through downtown to Seton.
While the federal government has committed $1.53 billion toward the 40-kilometre LRT line, and city council has previously allocated $520 million in tax room over 10 years for the development, the NDP government hasn’t yet committed provincial funding toward the Green Line.
Council approved a motion Tuesday that will see Nenshi write to Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Brian Mason with a formal funding request.
Nenshi told reporters he will ask for one third of the money needed for the entire project.
“I had a very, very good preliminary conversation with Minister Mason (Monday) and we’ll continue to talk. I know that they’re committed to this project, I also know that they’re challenged in finding the money so we’ll help them find good solutions,” Nenshi said Tuesday.
Mason told reporters Monday the NDP government is “very supportive of transit.”
“It’s a priority for us, and LRT funding I know is a priority for our two largest cities. At the same time, we need to recognize these are difficult economic times and certainly difficult financial times for the government. But we’re going to consider the application we receive and we’re going, of course, to be discussing that on an ongoing basis with…the city of Calgary,” Mason said at the McDougall Centre on Monday.
Mason noted the government had recently announced $187 million for Green Trip funding for the Calgary region and will soon be announcing a third call for applications for funding under that program.
There is still $415 million in unallocated funding in the Green Trip program, he said.
At Tuesday’s council meeting, certain station locations were approved – the southeast Green Line will include stops at an elevated Inglewood/Ramsay bridge station over 11th Street S.E., a station in Highfeild that supports a currently proposed development site and a station in Quarry Park located adjacent to 24th Street S.E.
Administration will now proceed with land acquisition and will report back on progress by the spring.
Nenshi said parking lots for transit users need to be thoughtfully worked into the Green Line plans, particularly for more suburban stations, and transit-oriented development at every new station needs to be made a priority.
“There are compromises here, you can figure out ways to build structure parking and on top of the structured parking have commercial or retail uses, or affordable housing, or a fire hall, and that’s really what we’re pushing hard for our administration to think hard about. Land is very precious…so lets maximize the use of land the best we can,” he said.
with files from James Wood, Calgary Herald
