Update from Kevin McLean, president of Foothills Nordic Ski Club:
“This report by CBC may not be entirely accurate. Rick Lundy has reached out to Foothills to clear up some mistakes in the report: Rick is not a resident of the Triwood community. Rick has not expressed any opinion for or against the Foothills proposal. As the Executive Director for the Triwood Community Association, Rick would never express a personal opinion on a matter such as this.”
I’ve contacted CBC to see if we can get some clarification. -Bob
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The following is a word-for-word story from this morning’s CBC Eyeopener.
The Foothills Nordic Ski Club hopes to fire up its new snow-making machine at Confederation Park golf course as soon as the weather — and city officials — allow for it, but not everyone is happy about the idea.
Residents of nearby Confederation Park are against a private Nordic ski club making snow and using the golf course this winter. (Colleen Underwood)
The initiative is one of the first in Canada to be undertaken and some area residents are worried about bright lights, increased traffic and noise.
“There will be increased traffic for sure, parking issues, we have parking issues in this area already so we want to make sure that the residents don’t have additional parking issues because of this,” said area resident Rick Lundy.
“Even so this is happening already, this is going to bring more [people] to the area”
The Foothills Nordic Ski Club will make snow at Confederation golf course where people can xc ski, but some residents are opposed to the idea. (Foothills Nordic Ski Club)
“There’s a lot of excitement for sure,” said Kevin McLean, Foothills Nordic Ski Club president.
“We have interest from many different potential users, boy scouts, board of education, outdoor program centres, there’s a lot of people that want to ski and they see this as a great solution.”
The plan was prompted by the recent closure of trails at Canada Olympic Park. The Nordic club has been working with the City of Calgary to bring the snow-making machine to Confederation Park.
Click for larger image
Area resident Rick Lundy isn’t happy about a plan for the Foothills Nordic Ski Club to use Confederation Park golf course during the winter months. (Colleen Underwood/CBC)
Mclean tried to assuage fears, saying they are hoping to use the golf course lot for parking.
“It’s a lot less noisy than people think,” he said, noting the club must adhere to the same noise bylaws as all Calgarians.
“We’ll most likely limit the snow- making to the hours of 7 [a.m.] till 10 [p.m.] which is the normal hours when you are allowed to make a bit of noise. Unfortunately, there’s a fair bit of misinformation out there and really all those concerns have been addressed, but I’m not sure they’ve heard that.”
The club hopes to get the machine up and running by the end of November.
Greg Steinraths, with the city’s recreation department says their breaking new ground with this initiative.
“This whole approach to snow-making on a golf course, from our understanding, hasn’t been undertaken yet so we’re going to look at piloting, what’s the lessons learned, what can you do to protect that asset but also get more people out, and really start to share that on a national level.”
But the city says it still needs to see a finalized plan, and address any community concerns before granting an approval.
Can anyone offer any updates as to how the approval process is going for allowing snowmaking, snow harvesting, grooming, etc… at Confed golf course for this winter? It’s been silent for several weeks now.
thanks.
Rich
Things are continuing to move along, slowly but surely. I think that Foothills has managed to submit their final proposal (hopefully the last of many iterations) to the City for their review.
So, nothing has been approved yet, but Foothills is waiting for equipment to arrive and for this warm spell to end.
There is at least one nearby resident who seems to be adamantly against the Foothills project in any form and has/will go to great lengths to stop it. This resident has frequented this website in the past so there is the concern that any additional information posted here would be taken by the individual and misused.
I grew up next to Confederation Golf course and in the mid seventies saw more than 800 skiers using the golf course for recreation on a nice weekend. No harm was done back then so why not now.
I recall fondly living on 25Ave NW and being able to walk with my skis to the top of the hill at the edge of the park. That’s why I supported the initiative. If a garage in that neighbourhood didn’t now cost $800K, I’d move back!
It is very important that the City of Calgary knows that the nordic ski community supports the efforts to improve cross country skiing in Calgary.
We asked the City “What is the best way for the nordic ski community to express its support for our proposal?”.
This is the process that was provided to us:
Follow this link:
https://311online.calgary.ca/pdcsrweb/ServiceRequest.mvc/SRIntakeStep3?guid=56c7956ed5d942febb79bb4f8aab9ce4
Select “Recreation – Golf Course Inquiry” as the service type and click “Go”.
Then let the City know that you support Foothills’ proposal for improving nordic skiing factilites at Confederation and why you think it is so important.
Let your voice be heard. Thanks!
NIMBY’s make me sick.
How can someone think that it is even reasonable to purchase property near a public taxpayer owned golf course in a city of over a million people…and then not want to see the facility used by the tax paying public for healthy, quiet recreation?
Great plan! If we consider our self’s a Nordic nation then we should embrace this initiative fully! Get off the couch Triwood and join in what is a on of the healthiest sport, XC skiing. Snow making is far less noisy than your neighbours truck!
Would these folks rather the city sold the golf course to a developer as happened in Harvest Hills? And are they the same ones who complained about trees being planted in Brentwood.?
I think this is a fantastic idea and a great use of the open space for all Calgarians. Good on the “private” foothills Nordic for organizing – a great group of dedicated volunteers.
This report by CBC may not be entirely accurate.
Rick Lundy has reached out to Foothills to clear up some mistakes in the report:
Rick is not a resident of the Triwood community.
Rick has not expressed any opinion for or against the Foothills proposal.
As the Executive Director for the Triwood Community Association, Rick would never express a personal opinion on a matter such as this.
I’ve sent an email to CBC asking if they can clarify their story.