Council to look at plan for annexed Shepard hamlet

Council is set to look at a new master plan for the area around Shepard, a hamlet that was annexed with surrounding land by the citysix years ago in Calgary's southeast.

The draft plan envisions new housing and commercial projects for 27,000 people in the area, which is east of the new southeast section of Calgarys ring road.

The area stretches from the Canadian Pacific Railway line near 114th Avenue S.E. south to Marquis of Lorne Trail and Highway 22X, and from Stoney Trail east to 104th Street S.E.

Zoning was slowed by the discovery of a landfill that was abandoned in the 1970s, said Ald. Shane Keating.

"As it turned out, there's nothing. It was a ... old burning pit where garbage was put in and then set afire and the vast majority underneath was ashes and the hazardous possibilities are really none to speak of," he said.

Keating said it's possible there could be new residential development within five years on the southern portion of the land at Stoney Trail and Highway 22X.

"The south part of this Shepard ASP will fit in because it will cost the city very, very little to have development on it, as services are very close," he said.