Parents in the ever-expanding Far South communities face extra difficulty reaching the proposed U of C site.

In this letter, Dave Fryett's points include:

• travel times from South Fish Creek never under 35 minutes;
• Bridgeland site is much more central and accessible;
• there are some advantages to the Foothills site;
• but the CRHA let go of a South hospital site despite local protests;
• good city planning involves community participation.

Subject: Site Selection Planning Concerns for the Children’s Hospital

As a parent of two young children living in the South Fish Creek Region of Calgary, I share the concern being expressed by some members of the Calgary community over access times to get to the selected site for the new Children’s hospital.  I found the analysis of travel times to be a very useful planning exercise that is used by reputable planning agencies working on community infrastructure.  In fact, the Calgary Board of Education uses the same criteria to site new schools. 

My comment to the REACH committee is that your work probably understates the problem for those of us that live South Fish Creek (Communities South of Fish Creek Park in deep south Calgary). 

Calgary now has 3 hospitals, Rockyview, Lougheed and Foothills.  Two of these are in north Calgary.  The Lougheed (NE) is a long way away via Highway 22X (two lanes and 22+ deaths), the Deerfoot Trail and then 36th St. NE.  These are three of the must-avoid roads in Calgary, so few people would consider this a viable option.  The Foothills Hospital (NW) is the designated trauma center for all of Calgary. 

The closest hospital is Rockyview on 14th St. SW.  Our only access route to hospitals is via Macleod Trail to 14th St. SW and then Crowchild Trail SW if you continue on to the Foothills.  The main problem here is that Macleod Trail and 14th St. SW are two of the most congested roads in Calgary.  The 32-minute time quoted for Deerfoot Trail and 22X could not be achieved for the SFC region. .  Having just used these routes to access Foothills for the birth of our second child, my commute time to the Foothills was never under 35 minutes in moderate traffic.  This can easily double in rush hour congestion and can potentially triple with accidents or inclement weather, as there are no alternate routes. 

The moral here is -- only have medical emergencies in off peak hours in good weather!

Given these concerns, I too share the opinion that there are considerable merits that seem to favor the Bridgeland location:

• More central location - what ever happens to Calgary’s road and transit system in the future, the fact will remain that Bridgeland will always be a more central location.  One has to only look at house price trends across the city; properties in the central communities near the downtown core always go for a significant premium.  This is the free markets valuation of the advantage of central location.
• Better Road Access - it is just off Deerfoot Trail via Memorial Drive.  Deerfoot Trail is Calgary’s central north-south freeway,  and part of the Canamex Highway. It seems to be getting all the upgrading work these days.  The province is now upgrading the south end of the freeway so it will soon be free flowing across the entire city by 2005.  There is now talk of further upgrading this route to an 8-lane road within city limits. 
• The east freeway (52 St. SE) has secured a ROW but is just a plan with no funding commitments.  The City’s west freeway (Sarcee Trail) remains mired in ROW problems and could conceivably never be built.  Right now, Bridgeland’s superior road access is a no-contest winner over the Foothills.
• Better Transit Service - The Bridgeland site is on the NE leg of the LRT system that the city and province are investing considerable capital as the central focus of Calgary’s public transit system.  With growing congestion and the increasing cost of automobile ownership, more and more Calgarians are turning to public transit for transportation.  The Foothills site is nowhere near an LRT line and will require shuttle bus service to connect to the LRT.  The Foothills site will be troublesome to access for those who choose not to drive or can’t afford a car.  This will include employees as well as patients.

Given all these concerns, it is curious that the West Campus site was quickly chosen for the new Children’s hospital.  I am dismayed at the lack of public consultation and the lack of transparency in the site decision making process.

That said, theseconcerns are from the viewpoint of a SFC user of the Children’s Hospital services. There are some advantages to the west campus site.  It is proximal to Crowchild Trail that is being upgraded for people living in the NW.  Crowchild Trail SW is free flowing for residents living north of the Glenmore Trail.  The site is close to the Foothill’s trauma center, the U of C Medical School and the research facilities at the U of C.  There is therefore, a certain rationale for this location from the perspective of a service provider.  Hospitals are large institutions and it is no doubt difficult to find suitably large parcels of land except on the city’s outskirts, especially at reasonable prices. 

This illustrates the need for good long term planning within the Calgary Regional Health Authority to identify and secure sites well in advance of the actual need.

Unfortunately, this is not the only instance where the CRHA’s planning could be called into question.  The South Calgary Hospital site just announced at Deerfoot Trail and 196 Avenue shows similar lack of foresight.  I say this because just a few short years ago the province relinquished a much better site in Shawnessy at 162 Avenue, just across from the 162 Avenue LRT station to be opened in 2003. 

This site was secured in the early eighties as part of the master plan for the Shawnessy Town Center.  In the mid-nineties, it was sold to private developers and rezoned for commercial development.  There was community opposition and I opposed the redesignation; but since this was the time of cutbacks and hospital closings, I was told there would not be another hospital built for decades if ever. It is now the site of a Canadian Tire and Zellers store in the notoriously congested Shawnessy Commercial center. 

Depending on timing, the new location at Deerfoot Trail and 196 Avenue may very well serve future growth South of Highway 22X.  It no doubt will have great road access on Deerfoot Trail but will again have dismal transit service with no plans to build LRT near the area for the foreseeable future.  From the South Fish Creek perspective, our access will be by the notoriously deadly Highway 22X. 

I think it would be valid to express concern about the short-term nature of the CHRA’s planning process. Good public service flows from well thought out long term planning with a commitment to carry out the plan.

I hope that our elected officials will oversee and bring together a cohesive long-term plan for the city.  If we are going to site the City’s trauma center and now the Children’s hospital at Foothills, we will need to upgrade the transportation infrastructure to give all areas of the city reasonable access.  Recent history doesn’t leave a lot of reason for optimism. 

A few years ago, the city tried to formulate a plan for upgrading 14th St. SW, the same road we use to access hospitals.  Powerful community opposition groups with their representatives on council and caucus were successfully in stonewalling and scuttling that effort.  It appeared there was considerable support for a road but just not in my neighborhood.  Move the road a few miles west to Sarcee Trail!  Now the Sarcee Trail initiative is underway facing, you guessed it, strong opposition from the adjacent communities and appears to be going nowhere fast, just like Calgary traffic.  Again, there is considerable support for a road, just move the alignment further west away from our neighborhood onto native land. 

Somebody has to have the ultimate responsibility to pull the entire planning process together to develop a city that works.  Decisions that site community services such as hospitals, schools and institutions should be coordinated with the decisions affecting transportation infrastructure.  Nobody seems to have the authority to get anything accomplished and nobody seems to be accountable for the poor decisions that created this congested unworkable mess.

I think that I can speak for a number of people in that we are tired of the way these major decisions are debated and resolved behind closed doors.  What would be wrong with the site selection process inviting public submissions, having a public debate and then publicizing a justification for the decision?  With such an open process, the weaknesses associated with the eventual winning site, and every site will have some, are out in the open, spurring follow up work to be undertaken to rectify those problems. 

In terms of the Foothills site for the Children’s, how are we going to improve transit and road access to make it work for the people that use the services?  Will the CHRA fund shuttle bus service to the LRT terminal?  Should the taxpayers of Calgary be forced to pay for the shuttle bus service thus subsidizing the poor planning by the CHRA?  Ignoring the problem isn’t going to make it go away.  We have tried this for too many infrastructure deficiencies and the resulting congestion is an ongoing proof on the folly of this line of thinking.  It doesn’t appear that anybody has a workable plan.
 
 

Dave Fryett P. Eng., M. Eng.