Glenora vs. Everybody

While we like to think of revolutions as the acts of the oppressed, the working classes and the underrepresented, the truth is that, a lot of the time, they are in fact the products of the franchised and the wealthy.

The American Revolution? Led by rich, white, male landowners who talked about the need for equal rights, as long as they didn’t apply to the people they, cough, owned. The French Revolution? There’s nothing quite like the venom of the bourgeoisie. Heck, Elon Musk portrays himself as a counter-culture rebel, and there are people out there who actually buy it. Don’t even get me started on who the Jan. 6 insurrection was supposed to benefit in the end.

And, though they killed the tsar and his ministers, and Anastasia screamed in vain, The Russian Revolution ensured that high-ranking members of the Politburo all got their dachas.

There’s that great opening scene in Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life, when a group of old white men in the insurance business declare war on their American megaparent corporation. It’s meant to be absurdist humour, but it makes a great point about how the more successful revolutions have tended to play out.

So, this brings me back to Glenora, Edmonton’s original tony neighbourhood. (Yeah, we’re really moving from macro to micro. Bear with me.) Last week, the Glenora Community League invited representatives from the City’s planning department to come to the local hall for what was pegged as an information session about density, “priority growth areas” and commercial developments that will all be spurred by the LRT that is currently under construction on Stony Plain Road. Here’s a disclaimer… I live pretty close to the site of Glenora Station. In fact, my home is where the port-a-potties are set up for the construction workers to use. Yes, I am in the shit — and that bit literally wrote itself.

I went to the information session, 95 per cent as the editor of Urban Affairs and five per cent as a Glenora resident.

It wasn’t an information session. It was an ambush. The gym was packed, and no one was there to do anything but tell the City to, for the lack of a better term, fuck off. The residents weren’t happy that the LRT will divide the neighbourhood in two. They fear a parking rush on their once-quiet streets, as commuters will stash their cars in the area before taking the train downtown. They fear that kids from the north side of the neighbourhood will need to walk across the train tracks in order to get to Glenora School.

“The area is under siege,” said one resident, to an ovation from the audience. “We’re under attack.”

The City has targeted the future station at the corner of Stony Plain Road and 142nd Street as a “priority growth area,” ripe for higher density developments. That area goes from 145th Street to 138th Street. The West Block tower and commercial spaces are already there, and there is a medical building at that corner, as well. The planners said that there is no current plan to densify the area around the future Glenora station, at 133rd Street and Stony Plain Road — located in the heart of the neighbourhood and just a stone’s throw from some of the city’s most illustrious addresses at Alexander Circle and St. George’s Crescent.

But the planners said that the city would encourage development near Glenora Station if developers came in and bought properties. They just don’t see the market being there when the LRT line opens.

To the residents of the area, who have long fought the densification and commercialization of a neighbourhood filled with historic homes and massive lots, these maybes and could-bes were like waving a red cape in front of a bull.

This led to comments like:

“We do not want all these multi-family living areas that will change the value of our community.”

(Applause)

“You are penalizing people who have done well.”

(Applause)

“The stupidity of this city is killing it.”

(Applause)

“We don’t need any more commercial. We can’t fill what’s already there.” (Referring to vacancies at strip malls just outside of Glenora’s boundaries).

(More applause)

This wasn’t just about the LRT. It’s clear the Glenora residents see both the City’s planning department and council as a cabal that’s out to remake their neighbourhood. They pointed at previous attempts to rezone areas that are covered by the infamous Carruthers Caveat.

The Caveat, which is more than 110 years old, covers most of Glenora south of Stony Plain Road. The planning department confirmed that a) more than 400 residences are covered by it and b) so far, it’s proven to be legally bulletproof. (Our family home sits just outside Carruthers zone, a DMZ where, yeah, if you want to build an apartment building on our land, call us!)

When the subdivision was first built, the caveat was placed on land titles that ensured that the lots could only be used for large homes. It ensured large frontages. There can be no in-law suites or high-density living spaces. And, if your neighbour tries to go against that, more than 400 Glenora residents each have what basically amounts to a land-use veto.

The latest attempt will come October 1, when a City Council public hearing will hear an application to rezone low-density lots on 102nd Avenue between 138th and 139th street. This lot neighbours a spot that has already been the source of controversy; it had been targeted for a low-rise development two years ago. The rezoning issue is now in front of the courts.

In a report to council, administration recommends the rezoning go ahead, despite what it admitted was unanimous opposition from the neighbours.

“Approximately 70 people were heard from, all of whom were in opposition,” read the report. “Most concerns were related to the proposed zoning allowing development that is contradictory to the Carruthers Caveat and that is seen as going against the historic nature of the community.”

When applications like this have come to council in the past, Nakota Isga Coun. Andrew Knack, whose ward includes Glenora, has openly wondered why the City is approving rezoning for projects it knows are never going to get built, because of the caveat.

“Why does the City continue to ignore the legitimacy of the caveat?” cried a resident during the meeting.

Because the City Plan offers other direction on how Edmonton must expand, was the answer. But that’s the thing. The City has continued to try and take broadside at the caveat, and it doesn’t work. If the City is serious, it needs to find a way to challenge the caveat first, and then rezone later. It just continues to be a massive waste of time, and it only serves to make people angry on all sides — the Glenora residents who want things to stay the way they’ve always been, and those on the outside who see them as entitled NIMBYs.

If there is one statement that best summarizes this ugly get together, it’s this. One resident standing up and sending this message.

“Just leave us alone. Take that back to City Council.”

(Applause)