City of Calgary officials have repeatedly said that they are finding skatepark users are not practicing physical distancing. Physical distancing means staying at least two metres (six feet) away from other users at all times.
Skateparks are in danger of being temporarily closed due to the lack of physical distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Please respect the rules so that parks may remain open.
Here’s some Calgary skateboarding history! CASE member Jeff H sent us links to these old Calgary City Council meeting minutes from 1999. They talk about Millennium Park as well as skateboarding at Eau Claire Plaza. Click here to read the agenda: Regular Council – Agenda – 1999-02-01 – Regular Council
Minutes: Regular Council – Minutes – 1999-02-01 – Regular Council
Here are some highlights:
A Calgary Herald article talks about a proposed helmet law that will be discussed at this year’s AUMA conference. CASE has not been consulted.
Read more by clicking the image below:
Calgary’s municipal election is coming up on October 16th. There’s also advanced voting– check that out here.
Our current council has done some pretty good stuff for skateboarding. Some of them, anyway. Remember, they vote on issues and majority wins. Here’s a list of positive skate-moves by city hall since 2013 (the last election):
We’ll have more information before the election that will keep you informed when it comes to how the candidates (incumbents and challengers) feel about skateboarding. We’ll also post the incumbents’ voting records on the above issues.
Here’s how the current council voted on the proposed update to the ramp bylaw:
The updated “sports ramp” (skateboard ramp) bylaw goes to City of Calgary council on November 7th for final approval. Administration has been working on the wording and technical aspects of the bylaw and now council must vote on it.
On June 20th, council voted to “Direct administration to prepare amendments to Land Use Bylaw 1P2007 that would implement the proposed regulations set out in Attachment 2“, meaning city staff could keep working on the bylaw changes. The vote was 10-5 with the following councillors against:
R. Pootmans, A. Chabot, S. Chu, D. Colley-Urquhart, P. Demong
On September 22nd, the Calgary Planning Commission recommended that council approve the new ramp bylaw.
If you support having the ability to have a ramp in your yard, feel free to contact these councillors mentioned above and respectfully explain why this new bylaw is needed. A lot of work has been done regarding the perceived noise of ramps and the city’s studies have shown that ramps are no louder than any other recreational activities that people participate in on their property.
You may also attend the council meeting on November 7th to support changes to the skateboard ramp bylaw by speaking in City of Calgary council. #calgaryskateboarding
Last year, we aided Councillor Evan Woolley in writing a notice of motion to change the outdated ramp bylaw which prohibited ramps on private property.
We’re happy to say that, on June 20th, city council passed updates to the bylaw which will allow ramps that are 6 meters long by 5 meters wide by 1.5 meters high (or smaller) on private property.
You can see how each councillor voted here. View the statistics of what citizens of Calgary thought from City of Calgary Engage studies here.
The bylaw isn’t finalized yet. City staff still need to do some consultation on the wording of the new bylaw. This will likely be completed this fall. We’ll keep you updated.
Read more about it in the Calgary Herald.
We’re extremely grateful for Councillor Woolley’s support on this. He’s one of the forward thinking politicians on council who has supported skateboarding since he got into office. Give him a high five or buy him a beer if you see him!