Visited northeast Calgary lately? There's so much new development, you might not recognize it

You might not know it, and you likely haven't seen it, but northeast Calgary is changing.

Calgary's least explored corner is experiencing a largely unnoticed boom on its northern edges that needs to be seen to be believed. 

East of the airport, a mind-boggling mix of different housing options and infrastructure is popping up out of the prairie landscape.

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There are lakes where communities will soon follow, partially completed roads and infrastructure, and huge areas of graded land being prepared for future and as-yet unnamed communities.

Developers like to call it the "new northeast." There are new schools, new parks, pathways and community spaces. A new feel.

"For lots of Calgarians, the only time they go to the northeast is when they go to the airport, and that's it," said urban commentator Richard White.

"What we're seeing in the northeast is something we're seeing across Calgary, where new communities are being created with much more diversity of housing," he said.

White says communities are no longer just a sea of traditional single family homes. They're feeling more like villages.

"And we're now seeing with CrossIron Mills, with the New Horizon mall and lake communities, it's coming into its own, as are lots of the edge communities in Calgary," White said.

"There's now an advantage to living east of the Deerfoot divide," he added.

As well as its proximity to new shopping centres, there are major new roads like Stoney Trail and Metis Trail that connect the northeast to other areas as never before, along with recreational and community hubs like the Genesis Centre, which features everything from sports and recreation facilities to a public library and events centre.

There are new parks including the Manmeet Bhullar Park and the revamped Prairie Winds Park, schools, places of worship reflecting the northeast's cultural and religious diversity, and most importantly, access to local jobs.

Back in the early 1990s the city developed the Go Plan, trying to push the idea of people living where they work. White says we're finally seeing that realized now.

"What's driving the population and housing boom in both the northeast and the southeast is that's where the new jobs are, They're not downtown, not in the city centre, they're distribution jobs, warehouse jobs," said White.

There's also the airport with its warehousing and distribution areas and lots of hotels all in close proximity, along with employment on the southeast edges of the city.

"The northeast now has more hotels now than the downtown does, so you're starting to see a whole business community as well as a residential community," White said.

One group that doesn't need selling on the northeast is the developers and builders. They set up shop there many years ago and are now busy realizing its newest neighbourhoods.

"I'd say it really started in 2010 and especially in the last three or four years. The northeast has been a huge growth corridor for us," said Brady Morris, development manager with Anthem United, the company behind the new Cornerstone development east of Metis Trail.

"I don't think a lot of residents, even Calgarians who've been here 10, 20, 30 years, would recognize everything that's going on up there," said Morris.

Cornerstone will see five neighbourhoods built by several different builders — including Jayman, Shane Homes, Truman, Sterling and Morrison — over 1,500 hectares of land. 

It includes two future LRT plazas and what will be Calgary's first Major Activity Centre, defined by the city as an urban centre for a sub-region of the city, providing everything from shopping to entertainment and recreation.

Cornerstone joins other new communities like Redstone, Cityscape and Skyview Ranch, all east of the airport.

"Part of our branding is the 'new northeast' and changing the face of the northeast," said Morris.

The northeast's diverse ethnic makeup is reflected in the new housing boom, with developers marketing to and catering to multi-generational households and extended families that want to live close to each other.

"The northeast has lots of different family structures. And they do have some different structures than other communities in Calgary and we've embraced that challenge, covering everything from six-bedroom homes to condos," Morris said.

The outskirts of Calgary is where nearly all of the city's future growth will be in the years to come.

Indeed, a city committee approved proposals in late June for eight new communities that will be built around the city in the coming years, all of them  — like the development in the northeast — around the city's edges.

"It's been really exciting to see," said Rick Michalenko, a coordinator in community planning with the City of Calgary, talking about the northeast. 

"We have no less than five communities actively developing in the area."

Michalenko says as well as new housing, the quadrant is benefiting from better community design these days —everything from the type of housing being built to street design and layout.

"We're going to look to continue working with developers in the area and build out of those communities. And I'd expect in the future we'll look at LRT expansion and other planning initiatives," said Michalenko.

And it's not just the new communities that are benefiting. The most notable recent example is the plan for Rundle LRT station, further south.

"There's this interest in the area and as a planning department we're excited because this has led to new planning initiatives. The Rundle Station masterplan, approved in 2017, creates an exciting vision for redevelopment opportunities," said Michalenko.

The 30-year plan envisions high density developments, improvements to sidewalks, a public plaza on the west side of the station, and public art.

But it's an exciting future not many people outside of the quadrant will get to see. The less-affluent and culturally diverse northeast doesn't attract many visitors from other parts of the city.

White, the urban development expert, says one big challenge is getting people who wouldn't normally explore the northeast to see the changes for themselves. 

Brady Morris with Anthem United is looking forward to seeing the changes and growth with Airport Trail finally being completed along with Country Hills Boulevard, followed by the LRT's blue line and more C-Train extensions in the future.

And there will be many more new communities.

Morris says Anthem and other developers will be busy adding to the northeast mix for the next 10 years and beyond.

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