Green Line LRT 'bombshell' rocks Ramsay Community Association
The City of Calgary is getting close to choosing the alignment for the Green Line LRT to get through the Beltline, but a new option has been added to the mix, and not everyone is happy about it.
The Green Line will run either on or below 12th Avenue through the Beltline before heading north around the bus barn in Victoria Park and crossing the Elbow River.
However, the city is now examining whether to run the LRT south of the bus barn, across the Elbow River, just to the south of the MacDonald Avenue Bridge, cutting through the community of Ramsay to the CPR right-of-way.
And that has members of the Ramsay Community Association upset.
Erin Joslin, vice-president external of the association, says the option was presented to the group last fall and they rejected it.
"At that time we told [city officials] it was not a viable option for our community and we did not want to see this option go any further," she said.
"They came back and I felt they had agreed with us and the option disappeared and the alignment conversation moved on. The bombshell came when it was back on the table all of a sudden and we had given them a strong argument why it wasn't working. We want our voices heard and for the city to understand the impact it's going to have."
Joslin says the association has been working with the city to develop an Area Redevelopment Plan for the area, with the Green Line being a major component. They'd like it to follow the existing CP Rail line.
"That train line has existed for 100 years, we already work with and deal with how it separates our community from Inglewood," she said. "So it made sense that the Green Line aligned with it and came through our community and continued on down south."
The new option will divide the community, says Joslin.
'Hornet's nest of anger'
"They don't seem to understand the impact," she said. "We have huge traffic issues, transit issues. Part of the problem is they've been designing in silos. There's so much happening between Ramsay and Inglewood."
Area Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra says the relationship between the community group and city officials preparing the ARP hasn't been a smooth one over the last year.
"There's a lot of frustration there and that frustration has been building," he said.
"What happened is the transportation department, looking at their challenges, said, 'Hey, this makes a little bit more sense for us operationally, maybe it'll work for Ramsay, we're not sure, we need to have a conversation,' and they reached out to Ramsay and they stepped on a hornet's nest of anger and disaffection."
Carra said the relationship needs to be repaired in order to move forward.
"And I have a lot of faith in the transportation department to do that."
Green Line manager Fabiola MacIntyre says it isn't known how this route might affect the existing century-old MacDonald Bridge.
"Can we keep the bridge? That would be a question we would need to look at, so I don't really have an answer to that because that would be the next phase of evaluating that and determining the design details of it — if council were to select that option." he said.
A public open house meeting will be held on the Beltline options next week.
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