Mayor Stephen Mandel
City Councillors
City of Edmonton

Nov. 15, 2010

Dear Mayor Mandel and City Councillors,                                         

The Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues would like an opportunity to make a presentation to City Council on the subject of mature neighborhoods and their ability to retain and attract families with children.
We are quite concerned about this issue.  For many years, we have seen the number of children fall in our older neighborhoods and the trend only seems to be gaining in momentum.
We believe this has a number of negative consequences for these communities and our city.
For example, we believe it seriously reduces the connectivity of households in these neighborhoods, as the activities of children are often the first and most common point of contact between local residents.    This negatively affects the number of friendships that are formed, the number of neighborhood-based activities that take place and hence detracts from the general quality of life in these neighborhoods.
It also puts at risk billions of dollars in infrastructure, when you stop to think of all of the schools, pools, arenas and parks that become underused as well as the large-lot, single-family houses and local shopping facilities that are not needed when families are no longer there.
We have begun to work on this issue.  For example, we sponsored a one-day workshop last fall which was designed to review ways in which high-density, infill housing could be more attractive to families.  Key concepts that emerged at this workshop were the need for enclosed yard space and indoor storage space when designing new housing projects for families.
Many of our member leagues are also working on ways to retain existing schools, which are critical to retaining and attracting families to these neighborhoods.
So we are more than willing to help address this issue.
What we would like to explore are ways in which the city could help.
Thank you for taking the time to consider our request.
Sincerely yours,
David Gibbens
President
Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues