After lengthy public hearing, Calgary council approves Viscount Bennett school redevelopmenton April 9, 2025 at 3:56 am

A developer’s plan to build more than 1,200 housing units on a former school site in southwest Calgary was given the go-ahead after a lengthy public hearing on Tuesday that featured both support and opposition to the proposal. Read More

’If we expect perfection, the reality is we’ll just get nothing because perfection is subjective,’ said area councillor Courtney Walcott

‘If we expect perfection, the reality is we’ll just get nothing because perfection is subjective,’ said area councillor Courtney Walcott

Viscount Bennett High School building demolishment — Heavy equipment works to demolish the former Viscount Bennett High School building in Calgary on Wednesday, March 26, 2025. The former school is being demolished to make way for a new housing development on the land. Local residents have expressed concern that the new development will bring in increased levels of traffic to the area and claim the city has sidelined their concerns. Photo by Noah Korver

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A developer’s plan to build more than 1,200 housing units on a former school site in southwest Calgary was given the go-ahead after a lengthy public hearing on Tuesday that outlined both support and opposition to the proposal.

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After hearing from approximately 40 Calgarians, city council voted 9-5 to approve the application to redevelop the former Viscount Bennett High School site in the community of Richmond.

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“If we expect perfection, the reality is we’ll just get nothing because perfection is subjective,” said the area councillor, Ward 8’s Courtney Walcott, just before the vote.

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“When you listen to the debate we heard throughout the day, so much of the perspectives of what is appropriate were entirely subjective. It was just in relation to, what is appropriate is based on what was built 70 years ago. Not to the principles of what’s in our MDP, not the principles of planning and not the hopes of many people who have been trying to find this type of housing across the city, but every single time it comes up, it’s only right if it’s found in the Beltline.

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“If that’s the standard of development in this city . . . we’re just not going to build anything.”

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Councillors Dan McLean, Sonya Sharp, Sean Chu, Terry Wong and Andre Chabot voted in opposition, citing concerns with the degree of densification, as well as the loss of green space and how public consultation was conducted.

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“I don’t want us to be Vancouver, I don’t want us to be Hong Kong,” said McLean, before the vote.

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Site has connection to BRT route

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The former school, which was built in the 1950s, is currently being demolished. While it originally served as Viscount Bennett High School, it most recently housed Chinook Learning Services before it was vacated and boarded up in 2018.

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After it was deemed surplus lands under the Municipal Government Act, Minto Communities purchased the property from the Calgary Board of Education in 2023. In November 2023, the developer submitted a land use redesignation application to the city to rezone the 11.5-acre parcel to accommodate a high-density residential redevelopment.

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At the public hearing, Norah Fraser, a representative from Minto Group, said the site is in close proximity to a BRT stop, as well as commercial amenities and parks.