Many issues face the residential industry in Calgary, from development and regional planning to attracting students to the trades.
Article by: Andrew Seal – Postmedia – Herald Article HERE
Kathy Oberg knows better than anyone that planning for housing supply in a city growing as fast as Calgary is no easy feat. As president of B&A Studios, an urban planning and design firm, she’s been on the frontlines of the municipality’s expanding boundaries for decades.
A driving force behind the planning and development of many of the city’s new communities and urban spaces, Oberg took another step forward this July as she stepped into the chair position of the board of directors at Building Industry and Land Development Association – Calgary Region.
“It’s a very exciting year with the election, so it’ll definitely be busy… This is probably going to be one of the biggest changeovers we’ve seen in an election,” says Oberg, adding that around 80 per cent of a city councillor’s job is land planning.
“Helping the new council navigate what Calgary is right now and what Calgary can be in the future, we do that as urban planners.”
Oberg’s position as chair places her in the centre of the relationship between developers and municipal administration. The timing is critical as the city is looking at a new municipal development plan, Calgary land use bylaw and street standard.
Development planning for an expanding city requires managing a series of moving parts — council approvals, developer investment, labour supply, sustainability and anticipated in-migration levels amongst many others.
Striking the right balance is needed to keep housing affordable and provide the types of homes the market demands.
This is where Oberg’s wealth of experience in master-planned communities is essential. Unlike older primarily residential neighbourhoods, these communities are meticulously designed to offer a full range of housing products and all the amenities locals need, including employment, recreation, retail, community spaces and schools.
“Actually managing supply is one of the most difficult things we have faced and will continue to face,” says Oberg, who worked in the City of Calgary’s planning and building department before joining B&A Studios 26 years ago.
“When you see in the news that council has approved a new area for development, there’s a good chance that you’re not going to see a first home there for at least another three years.”
After council gives the greenlight, developers step in to create a structure plan and regional policy plan, before zooming in on community-scale plans.
“Then you get to the level where you’re actually enabling all the blocks and the roads and sidewalks to get to the house,” says Oberg.
It’s a process that can take up to seven years and needs substantial investment from the city and developers alike. The municipality contributes the large piping systems and interchanges, while developers pay for roads, sidewalks and infrastructure for services.
Getting enough boots on the ground to see the work through is another challenge, one that the housing industry has grappled with for years as the number of new trades graduates struggles to keep up with retirements.
“We’re being very active as an industry, working with the local schools, the post-secondary education opportunities in our city and even in our province. We’re trying to find incentives,” says Oberg.
“We’re trying to do everything we can to bring more kids interested in trades, because we need trades to build our houses.”
Calgary’s housing market has changed drastically since Oberg first joined the planning committee of BILD’s predecessor, the Urban Development Institute-Calgary Region, in 2009. One of her biggest career takeaways is the power of collaboration to foster innovation, sustainability and predictability.
She aims to strengthen the city’s relationships with its neighbours in Airdrie, Cochrane and Chestermere to promote a regional vision for the future.
“We’ve spent decades talking about individual municipalities. I’m hoping my impact on that over the next year is to reinforce that the region is strong together,” says Oberg.
“I think that will come from open dialogue between all of our councils… I’m going to try to plant some of those thoughts with new councillors and certainly with administration over the next year.”
For Oberg, her leadership at BILD is all about staying one step ahead as the city evolves and diversifies. Though it’s the busiest she has seen the industry in decades, she is confident each sector has the tools it needs for Calgary to remain an attractive place to live.
She expects the market to soften over the next year and feels the development community is well poised to do its part in keeping housing affordable.
“I bring a little bit of a different lens to the chair position,” says Oberg.
“I’m not building homes. I’m looking more broadly, I would say, at some of those big ways that we can connect ourselves with the municipalities and council in trying to make sure that we’ve got great decisions being made that enable what we need to enable in a timely manner.”
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