West LRT rezoning plan to face council vote Area includes mayor's property

CALGARY - A warehouse owned by Calgary's mayor is among the more than 100 properties that council will be asked to rezone today to create a pedestrian-friendly, high-density district around the future West LRT Sunalta station.

Dave Bronconnier has championed the C-Train's westward expansion, but because of real estate he's owned along the line since his days as alderman, he has abstained from any decisions on the route alignment and the transit-oriented development plan.

Governance laws require him to again declare a conflict of interest and briefly leave the chamber when council considers the rezoning, which would allow taller, denser buildings on his 10th Avenue S.W. property and others in the blocks within walking distance of the 16th Street station now under construction.

That will likely deliver a bump in real-estate value to those station-area lands, on top of the average 12 to 15 per cent boost that typically comes from merely being close to a train stop, said Don Campbell, president of the Real Estate Investment Network.

"If you're able to create more income from that property -- selling more units or renting more units out -- the underlying land will go up (in value)," said the Vancouver-based researcher.

"Now you have a larger market who would be willing to buy it off of you, even before it's developed."

After the rezoning, the mayor's property on the 1900 block of 10th Avenue -- purchased for the disaster restoration company he formerly owned -- would be eligible for two-thirds more total square footage. It can also be redeveloped up to about 16 storeys, up from a current maximum height of about nine.

Ask the mayor about the site's future potential, and he prefers to focus on the unspectacular present.

Construction of the LRT's elevated track has begun directly behind the warehouse's back wall, where his tenants used to park. So it's been vacant since October and is now listed for rent at much lower lease rates than Bronconnier used to get.

"My tenant couldn't park anymore in the back of the building, thus walked from the lease," he said in an interview.

"But that's what progress is."

Even when the construction is done by late 2012, it means commuter trains will be coasting by, about seven storeys up and only a few metres away from the property. City planning documents that support the mass rezoning also note the "design issues" for buildings along the whole north side of 10th Avenue.

Bronconnier also owns his business's former low-rise office building and adjacent vacant lots in the 3300 block on 17th Avenue S.W. near where the underground Westbrook LRT station will go.

The building is leased for more than two more years, he said.

Council last fall upzoned the whole area including the mayor's lots to fit into the city's plans for a "Westbrook Village" district.

Bronconnier, who will not seek re-election this fall, would not say what he will do with his properties, which he retained as investments after selling off his old business operation.

"At the end of the day, of my political career, I'll be reassessing investment and business opportunities down the road," he said.

The city assesses his Westbrook lots at $3.8 million, and his Sunalta property at $1.86 million.

The station-area developments in Westbrook and Sunalta are widely viewed as longer-range plans. The renewal will likely to take a decade or longer to take shape, depending on the economy.

But one group is already seeking investors for a Sunalta Towers condo-and-retail project to replace the smaller office structure next door to the future station.

Danny Kohli of the Builder's Investment Group said the tower project should offer direct access to the station platform, but the group hasn't determined how it will design the part that will be up against the elevated train platform.

"There's definitely a lot of ways we can put this together, and everyone is hopeful we can overcome any challenges about noise," he said.

"Because our building has been subject to two CP Rail lines running behind for some time, and that's a lot more noisy than LRT."

Kohli said he knows of no input Bronconnier had into the planning for the station area.

"There was no involvement by him whatsoever in anything," said Kohli, whose property was rezoned separately last year.

"I wish he did put the pressure and got things done sooner, if he was part of it."

Bronconnier's land in Sunalta will actually be one lot over from another zoning section that will allow even taller buildings. The mayor noted that council makes decisions on "good solid planning principles -- not on the basis of ownership."

Others also say having the LRT tracks right behind the property won't be too detrimental to the site's future.

In other cities, properties right up against train byways stay on the market as long as ordinary ones, although they do tend to change hands more often, Campbell said.

Peter Rishaug, a Sunalta Community Association vice-president, said building heights there will offer attractive views of the downtown and nearby Bow River.

"The building's not too sterilized by the back just because there's a train track there," he said. "There's lots of other cities where there's adjacent train tracks and LRT stuff where they're very activated."

© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald