Slated for development?

Cedarglen Homes purchases Harvest Hills Golf Course

Despite being purchased by Calgary developer Cedarglen Homes, there are no immediate plans to develop Harvest Hills Golf Course in the city's northeast, officials said.

"Cedarglen purposely didn't draw a plan in advance," said Chris Ollenberger, managing principal for QuantamPlace Developments Ltd., hired by Cedarglen to act as development manager on the project.

"They went with a blank sheet of paper. They knew it would have some questions from the neighbours in the very least, so they wanted to involve them from the start, which I think was the right thing to do." Harvest Hills resident Kevin Dickinson said the neighbourhood feels like a small-town community, and expressed concern a new development could turn into "busy city streets." He also acknowledged the potential project is a sign of the times.

"The city wants to develop within itself. I think it's getting too expensive for the city to buy farmland to continue expanding out," said Dickinson. "They realize they can't keep up with the infrastructure building outside of the current city [boundaries].

"But it is kind of a shot in the arm, too. You have a beautiful golf course and they want to put in these multi-family structures. But that's also a sign of the times, too. People aren't buying as many houses. They're buying these condos and townhouses."

QuantamPlace said in a statement that it will conducting a number of studies on the lands over the next four to six weeks, including geo-technical, environmental and transportation.

Ollenberger said QuantamPlace had a "great meeting" with the Northern Hills Community Association on Nov. 3 in "quelling the fears of the unknown." An initial open house was held Nov. 4 at the golf course club house, taking place after press time.

"I think we'll have probably quite a few residents come out," Ollenberger said. "Especially those who back onto the golf course concerned about their property values and change that occurs around them and things
like that.

"So we'll have to be open and honest with them and say, 'The golf course is closing and everybody in the room is going to have a role to play in deciding its future and what we're going to do,' and clearly Cedarglen Homes is interested in building their single-family duplexes, townhouses and multi-family product on the site."
QuantamPlace has yet to submit applications for residential expansion to the City of Calgary.