Several Springbank-area residents voiced their concerns about a proposed outlet mall in Springbank at an open house at Edge School on Nov. 13.
Thirteen-year Springbank resident Pam Bell said she is worried about the amount of development being proposed for the area.
“(Tanger Outlets at Calaway Park) looks like a really nice mall and a nice development, but I just don’t want to see it in Springbank because it changes the whole feeling of the area,” said Bell.
“I’m afraid if this is approved, it could snowball. We’ve got this development and Bingham Crossing going in, pretty soon we’re going to look just like Calgary,” she said, adding she moved out of Calgary to get away from the city life.
Tanger Outlets at Calaway Park is expected to cover 350,000-square-feet with 80 high-end retailers inside nine buildings, which will be linked by walkways and porticos. If approved by Rocky View County council, it will be located southeast of Calaway Park at Range Road 33 and Highway 1.
The project is a joint-venture between Tanger Outlets, which operates commercial centres across Canada and the United States, and the Canadian real estate investment trust RioCan. The land for the development is currently owned by Calalta Amusements - the owner of Calaway Park, but developers said the plan is for it to eventually be sold to RioCan.
“We want to make this a destination, a place where people can go and spend a few hours. It’s going to be very pedestrian-oriented,” said Charles Worsham, vice-president of development with Tanger Outlets Centres, during a short presentation at 7 p.m.
Bob Williams, general manager of Calalta Amusements Ltd., said 175,000-square-feet of the land for the proposed development received approval from Rocky View County (RVC) council in 1996 for a factory outlet.
He added the project has been dormant for almost 20 years pending “the right time” and the right developer to endorse.
“We saw a match between tourism parks and shopping outlets,” said Williams.
A land redesignation application for the remaining portion of the projected lands, as well as an application for a Master Site Development Plan has already been submitted to RVC, said Ken Venner, planning consultant with Brown and Associates hired to facilitate the application process with the County.
“We’re still very early in the process. We still have a lot of checklists, a lot of circulations, a lot of stakeholders are going to be looking at our plans,” Venner said, adding he expects to be before council for a public hearing and a decision from council by mid-2014.
If approved, construction is expected to begin on the complex next year and it will open in 2015. The mall is expected to create 1,000 jobs and generate an estimated $900,000 in annual net tax revenue for RVC.
Bingham Crossing, an 80-acre commercial and seniors housing development project, was given land-use re-designation and conceptual scheme approval by RVC council last year. It will be located kitty-corner to Calaway Park, on the north side of Highway 1.
Another area-resident and mother of three said she has concerns about the increased traffic along Range Road 33 if the development is approved, and in particular, about the safety of the bridge that crosses over Highway 1.
Glen Pardoe, a traffic analysis consultant hired for the project, said the developers are proposing to restripe the lanes across the bridge to enable two southbound lanes and one northbound lane where it is currently one lane in both directions.
“In the grand scheme of things, to do Bingham Crossing and Tanger Outlets, you need that bridge twinned, but re-stripping the lanes buys about five to 10 years for developers to figure out how to pay for it,” he said, adding the proposal is pending Provincial and County approval.
Phil Nottveit, engineer with Urban Systems, said developers are also proposing to build two new on-and-off ramps connecting Highway 1 to Range Road 33, as well as two roundabouts where the ramps will intersect Range Road 33 on the north and south side of the highway.
He said the projected cost will be about $5 million and will be cost-shared by the developers of Bingham Crossing and Tanger Outlets at Calaway Park. He added the developers are also proposing to expand a portion of Range Road 33 to four lanes, at the developers cost.
“We’re resting right now on what the County and the Province tell us... once we hear back, we’ll know better what the area is going to look like.”
