City gives three established neighbourhoods a main street facelift

Showcasing a new main street The city is showcasing how a new design for Bowness Road N.W. can support various types of mobility.

Calgary — Three communities in Calgary that have had their main streets neglected are set to receive some much needed attention.

The City of Calgary’s Main Streets program has hit an important milestone and construction is underway.

Marion Hayes, executive director of the Montgomery on the Bow Business Improvement Area is pleased with the progress.

"It's exciting," she said. "It's really exciting because you go through that process and you’re waiting and really just not sure it's going to happen."

The facelift is the culmination of over six years of land use planning, public engagement, streetscape design and technical study. The goal is to create resilient, adaptable and vibrant main streets in Calgary communities.

"We’ve been doing this main street work for many years but this is the rubber hitting the road" said Evan Woolley, Ward 8 councillor. "Many of the conversations that we're having with many of the communities in and around main streets is how, when communities are seeing change, do we fix up their streets, do we fix up their sidewalks, do we make those improvements to the neighbourhood that they have been asking for since the 1950s."

Joyce Tang, manager of the program, says you can expect to see some great improvements in the communities. "Certainly you’ll see a better pedestrian environment, continuous and wider sidewalks. We’ll also have multi-use pathways and then also the introduction of some soft landscaping."

The three projects currently underway are happening at:

The projects are expected to be completed by the fall of 2022.