For Developers and/or Applicants
Pre-Application
Applicants are encouraged to connect with our Community Planning Coordinator early in the process to establish a plan for engagement with HSCA. We strongly encourage and support applicants who conduct pre-application meetings either directly with the HSPC or impacted residents/property owners.
All applicants must read the Hillhurst-Sunnyside Area Redevelopment Plan prior to engaging with the HSPC.
What to Expect
The HSPC will only spend time reviewing pre-application information when the applicant and/or developer legally owns the property in question. As a volunteer committee, our time needs to be focused. If you are a property owner and considering a redevelopment, we always encourage you to connect with us early.
Applicants are invited to attend a Planning Committee meeting pre-application to seek early feedback or have issues flagged by our committee members. Please note, we do not provide feedback during the pre-application process. It is the responsibility of the applicant to note feedback given these meetings. All feedback that is gathered is considered preliminary as it may not be reflective of all impacted stakeholders. The HSPC will submit formal comments to the City of Calgary once we have been circulated on the application.
Pre-application meetings are held in-camera with HSCA Planning Committee members only. All information presented remains confidential until details are publicly available.
As a best practice, the HSPC strongly encourages applicants to hold pre-application meetings with impacted stakeholders. We believe this is the best way to prevent misinformation from spreading and ensures that residents are properly informed of the proposed changes.
Presenting to the Planning Committee
We welcome applicants to engage early and often throughout the planning process. Our Planning Committee meets monthly on the first Wednesday of each month – you can find more information under the meetings tab. Should you wish to attend a committee meeting, please send a request via email to planning@hsca.ca with sufficient notice.
Our meeting format is as follows:
Development Discussion Procedure:
Applicant Presents
Questions from Planning Committee
Questions from public
Excuse Applicant - Residents/ Planning Committee Discussion
The HSPC understands that everyones time is important. To use your time efficiently, we ask that you do not focus much of your presentation on context (i.e. project location, community demographics, etc.) as our committee members are well versed on these topics.
Please note, the HSPC will not provide letters of support on applications, at the request of the applicant. Applicants can refer to the formal submissions the HSPC makes to the City of Calgary.
How to best engage the neighbourhood
We strongly encourage applicants to engage with directly affected stakeholders as early and directly as possible. In our experience good engagement goes a long way to decrease risk and create a smoother planning process. Please see our suggestions below on engagement best practices: