Okotoks is a nice place – a really, really nice place.
I share that rather obvious observation because the Town’s recently adopted growth strategy has many worried that it will cease to be so if too much development is allowed to take place.
Having moved here just over three years ago, I feel like a hypocrite to suggest others shouldn’t share in our little slice of paradise, but I agree with those who say that those cherished small-town vibes, as much as you want to preserve them, are lost bit by bit as a place gets incrementally larger.
Given work is already underway to add more housing in the Wedderburn, D’Arcy Ranch, Tillotson and Ridgemont neighbourhoods, the question now isn’t so much whether growth happens, but how quickly it all unfolds.
It's argued that growth helps pay for new or improved amenities but often the only reason those facilities are needed is because of increased population, so I’m not sold that’s a compelling argument.
What’s more, I’ve yet to come across a case of property taxes going down because of growth, so I remain unconvinced that increasing the population does much from a bottom-line perspective.
If I had an argument in favour of growth, it would be that everyone, which includes our kids and grandkids, needs a place to live so there’s some responsibility on all of us to provide them with that housing, even if it means a changing landscape and increased congestion.
The flip side of growth, the idea of pulling up the drawbridge and not letting anyone else in, sounds appealing in the sense that it freezes the town at a point in time before it gets too big. We might already be past that juncture for many people but given you can’t go backwards, the next best thing is to preserve the status quo.
That comes with its own set of challenges as shutting the doors will inevitably lead to rising house values and a shift in demographics toward an aging population, the only group able to afford those prices. It’s also likely that shops and services that require critical mass won’t set up here or will leave town and schools will close due to declining enrollment, trade-offs that some people would happily accept if it meant preserving their utopia.
If I look at this whole development issue with my glass half-full, I see a silver lining in the fact that Calgary has room to grow, which means there won’t be the same kind of pressure on its suburbs as there is in other major Canadian cities.
Vancouver and Toronto don’t have that kind of land, so their once-quiet suburbs – OK, so that was a long time ago – are booming, some even with populations north of half a million people.
The good news, and I’m being a bit facetious here, is that Okotoks is light years away from being in that situation. Heck, even at six per cent annual growth, the most ambitious projections in the Town’s strategy, the population would only reach 163,000 in 25 years.
Way too many people? I figured you’d say that.
