City council will finalize Tuesday how the Green Line LRT travels into Calgary’s downtown core, as some businesses in the area remain concerned about future impacts.
Earlier this month, a city committee endorsed one of three potential routes presented by project officials, after two years of back and forth on the issue.
The chosen route would see trains run east-west at street level from the Event Centre in Victoria Park on 10 Avenue S.W. with the line ending at a station between 1 and 2 Street S.W.
“It was the only one that fit within the budget envelope,” said Willem Klumpenhouwer, an independent transit research consultant. “Based on discussion and based on the planning of it, it is the one that leaves the door open for the most options in the future.”
Original plans had the Green Line running through a tunnel under the downtown core, but those were scrapped after the province pulled its $1.5 billion share of funding after significant cost escalations with the route.
The province’s preferred alignment, which would see tracks elevated above 10 Avenue through the Beltline and turning north into the core along 2 Street S.W., would’ve had the most riders but also was estimated to cost cost $1 billion over the project’s current budget.
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For business owners along the proposed alignment, the endorsement has raised concerns with how an LRT line outside their front door would impact their operations.
Geoff Allan owns Bottlescrew Bills, a bar and brewery on the corner of 10 Avenue and 1 Street S.W., and said he’s been unable to get answers or a response from city officials to his questions.
“We don’t think it’s good enough,” Allan told Global News. “This will have generational impacts so do it right the first time. They have the business case.”
Allan’s concerns include vehicle access like how parking and deliveries to his business would be managed, where the proposed switchback will be located to allow trains to travel in each direction on the line, and how trains will travel through the intersection outside his business.
In an effort to shed light on the situation, Bottlescrew Bills started brewing a new beer called “Death Sentence,” with the label featuring a green train in the foreground of a grim reaper.
His bar also built a large “Guess Who” game with characters that resemble various members of Calgary city council’s past and present, and provincial officials.
“We took action as quick as we could to push back,” Allan said. “They don’t answer, they haven’t set up any meetings, we don’t have any answers yet.”
Wendy Tynan, director of the Green Line LRT, told Global News that more answers and conversations with businesses and residents in the area will come after council’s decision Tuesday.
“We will absolutely be starting to set up the meetings both with the actual businessowners, property owners, the impacted community groups,” Tynan said.
Concerns from businesses and residents nearby served as motivation from an amendment from Ward 8 Coun. Nathaniel Schmidt, which committee members included as part of its endorsement earlier this month.
The amendment, if approved by council, calls for a “comprehensive public realm, mobility and streetscape” plan for the line along 10 Avenue.
“It’s been on a long journey and if it doesn’t benefit everybody that’s directly affected by it and if they can’t survive, then why are we doing this?” Schmidt said Friday.”
According to Schmidt, the area could use a refresh and the plan would give city council a line of sight on the work, with a report expected by early next year.
Schmidt said council has the opportunity to bring a train into the downtown “and improve the street around it.”
“So once it’s done, those businesses and residents now have a whole new set of amenities that will add to how the street looks, how it feels and how people use it.” he said.
Six projects are currently under construction along the southeast leg of the project including a maintenance and storage facility, an elevated guideway over Blackfoot Trail, and a realignment along Ogden Road.
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