"We're mindful of how we're addressing that so it doesn't cause disruption in future years." Clare LePan of Calgary Municipal Land Corporation told CBC Calgary this in July 2026. "That" was parking. CBC said it was one of the biggest concerns raised about the plan to turn the Fish Creek–Lacombe Park and Ride into housing. The same story reported that nobody yet knew how many stalls would remain.
That's still the case in October. Since the June survey closed, the project has missed its own posted milestones without saying so publicly. So the most useful thing for a Shawnee Slopes household right now is knowing which questions are still open and which date to watch.
Where the lot sits and who is planning it
The site covers 25 acres of City-owned land at 5019 Shawnee Gate SW. CMLC lists its neighbors as Fish Creek Park, Macleod Trail, and the communities of Shawnee Slopes, Shawnessy, Evergreen and Millrise. CMLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of the City. It's leading a series of Transit-Oriented Communities on Red Line Park and Ride lots under the City's Home is Here housing strategy. Fish Creek–Lacombe is one of the first three sites, along with Dalhousie and Anderson. CivicWorks leads the planning and engagement, with Hindle Architects and Scatliff + Miller + Murray on the consulting team.
CMLC's project page still lists the phase as "Planning – Pre-Approvals," marked active. No home count, building heights, retail plan or open-space layout for this site has been published.
The posted schedule, checked against early October
CMLC's engagement page still shows the timeline it published in the spring. Here is how each step stands as of October 4, 2026.
| Milestone | What CMLC posted | What is public now |
|---|---|---|
| Online survey and social map | Open until June 3, 2026, 11:59 p.m. | Closed, with 25 map contributions |
| Land Use Application and Concept Plan | "Anticipated late June 2026" | No filing near the site found in City land-use data since June 1 |
| Spring 2026 engagement report | Summer 2026 | Not yet posted. The site still links to a 2025 preliminary report |
| Next engagement round | Fall 2026 and winter 2027 | No dates announced |
| Council decision | Early 2027, per CBC | A target, not a scheduled hearing |
| Construction start | Late 2027 if approved, per CBC | A target |
The order of steps explains why that blank matters. CMLC describes a sequence. The City does an initial review of the application. The plans are then refined and shown to the community again. Next comes resubmission, review by Calgary Planning Commission, and finally a public hearing at City Council. The fall engagement round is the "shared with the community" step, so it comes after a filing. With no application visible in the City's records yet, there's no fixed date for that round either.
None of this means the project has stalled. A gap between a posted schedule and the public record is common in planning work. What it does mean is that the early 2027 Council target from the summer depends on steps that haven't shown up in public yet.
The lot as it works today
Calgary Transit's current figures for Fish Creek–Lacombe:
- 1,031 free stalls
- 71 reserved stalls
- 17 four-hour stalls
- 11 accessible stalls
That adds up to 1,130 stalls. Dalhousie, the sibling site in the same CMLC program, has 737, and a City count on June 11 found 701 of them occupied, or 95 percent full. CBC reported that no similar count was done at Fish Creek–Lacombe. So the larger of the two lots, by roughly half again, has no public occupancy figure. That makes it harder for anyone outside the planning team to judge how much parking the station needs.
Reserved stalls at Fish Creek–Lacombe are held weekdays from 2 a.m. to 10 a.m. After 10 a.m. and on weekends they're open to anyone. In 2026 the monthly reserved fee is $95 plus GST, up from $90 in 2025. On October 1, 2026, Calgary Transit began converting some free stalls to reserved ones at Brentwood, Dalhousie, Tuscany and Somerset-Bridlewood. Fish Creek–Lacombe isn't on that list, so the reserved count here stays the same this month.
The parking answer is the one that decides the most
CMLC has been plain about where parking stands. Its current plans show developable parcels and no Park and Ride stalls. It's working with Calgary Transit and the City to decide how much parking stays at the station and in what form. The options it lists include structured or surface parking on or off the site, plus more walking, cycling and feeder bus service. Parking for any new residential buildings would likely go underground. CMLC says the amount would be set at the Development Permit stage, after it brings on development partners.
CMLC also says it's studying parking demand along the whole Red Line, so the answer for this lot may come out of a corridor-wide strategy rather than a station-by-station one. It has committed to defining the parking solution "before any changes are made on-site." That commitment and the late 2027 construction target, which depends on Council approval, are the two firmest points anyone planning around the lot has to work with.
Parking has come up from the start. In a preliminary online survey in late June and early July 2025, promoted with postcards mailed to homes in Shawnee Slopes, Evergreen, Evergreen Estates, Millrise, Shawnessy and Midnapore, traffic and congestion, multi-unit development and parking were among the top concerns. Those answers came before any concept plan existed. They show early sentiment, not a reaction to a design.
In the same CBC story, Matthew Sheldrake, the City's manager of growth and strategy, said Park and Ride use is "just one of several factors" in choosing sites. Others include housing need, market interest and fit with the surrounding community. David Cooper of Leading Mobility Consulting, a former Calgary Transit senior planner, told CBC that suburban Park and Rides are busy with weekday commuters but underused in the evenings and on weekends.
Where the neighborhood put its pins
The 25 contributions on CMLC's social map show which streets got attention. Five pins landed at 502 James McKevitt Road SW, four of them under "Connections." Others were dropped along Shawnee Gate, Shawnee Rise, Shawnee Boulevard, Shawnee Hill, Shawnee Drive, 6 Street SW, Millrise Point and Macleod Trail. The public feed shows where the pins are and which category each one is in, but not the comments. Even so, the cluster at James McKevitt Road suggests that how people get to and around the station was the main concern for those who took part.
The block that is already here
CMLC frames the project as bringing "new services and amenities" that complement the surrounding neighborhoods. Any new amenities would join the businesses already operating at 88 Shawnee Street SW. John Chinese Restaurant is in unit 1160. DC Pizza–Shawnee, in unit 1120, also sells rolled ice cream. Shawnee Medical opened in unit 2170 in June 2025 and offers free validated parking for patients. Shawnee Physiotherapy and Massage Clinic is in unit 2155. A short way over, Rootbar runs its Shawnee salon at 22 Shawnee Boulevard SW.
What to watch this fall and winter
- A land use application on file. When one appears in the City's records for the site, the formal review starts and the rest of the schedule can be measured from it.
- The spring 2026 engagement report. It was promised for the summer and will be the first summary of feedback collected after the planning team came on.
- Dates for the next engagement round. CMLC has said fall 2026 and winter 2027 but hasn't set sessions yet. Its Fish Creek–Lacombe Project Bulletin is the subscription CMLC points people to for updates.
- A parking number. How many commuter stalls stay, and whether they end up in a structure, on the surface or off site, is the detail that will affect daily trips from Shawnee Slopes the most.
If you're planning a sale or purchase over the next couple of years and wondering how this lot fits in, we're happy to walk through the timeline with you and keep you posted as each step becomes public. Schedule a call with Donna Delaney & Co to start.
