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City of Calgary's Community Sustainability Project
"Exploring and challenging our collective concept of what a Community Association's role and function in Calgary's increasingly diverse communities."
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The Ideal Community: The Federation of Calgary Communities
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The Ideal Community: design criteria that foster participation in civic and community life
This research project examines design criteria for new communities so they will support community activities. Profiles, roles and challenges facing Calgary community associations are identified and criteria for evaluating community plans are defined. If you are interested in reviewing a copy of this document, please
Privatizing Community: The Growth of Private Resident Associations
The Federation of Calgary Communities research paper examines the Resident Association (RA) trend in the United States in order to conduct a comparative analysis with the RA trend in Calgary. Resident Associations or Homeowner’s Associations are becoming increasingly common in North America, particularly in new housing developments in the United States. Common features shared by all RAs are the use of collective property ownership, mandatory membership fees and community rules and bylaws that guide the operation of the governing association.
RAs in Calgary have a much shorter history and are less privately structured compared to many RAs in the United States, where extreme private areas such as gated communities are more common. Originally Calgary RAs were created by developers in order to manage large recreational amenities. The role of RAs in Calgary is expanding, so that now many are assuming similar responsibilities to Calgary Community Associations. Additionally, there is an apparent shift towards an increase in private communities with the development of community-sized bareland condominiums in the Calgary region that are similar to many American RAs. Bareland condominiums, such as Elbow Valley and Heritage Pointe, are very similar to American style RAs as they are responsible for additional services, such as street repairs and garbage pickup, and property controls.
The report presents several key recommendations for existing Calgary RAs and their relationship with established Community Associations as well as presenting recommendations for future RAs that address their limitations. The primary goal of the recommendations is to generate dialogue on how best to address the issues associated with RAs in Calgary. Calgarians must ensure that we do not follow the example of the United States, where the private community trend occurred without a thorough evaluation and consideration of the social, economic and political impacts of RA developments.
Click here to register and view the PDF version of the report.
Federal Charity Registration
The Federation of Calgary Communities is available to assist member Community Associations in their applications for charity status. For more information, please email the Federation of Calgary Communities | 
