Fonds ccg-2078 - Town Planning Commission (Committee) fonds

The Town Planning Commission (Committee) was established on November 13, 1911 by a resolution of Calgary City Council. The Commission was given the mandate to "obtain data and information on the subject of town planning and to prepare and recommend a comprehensive scheme of City Planning which will meet the requirements of this City of its future development." Members of the 1911 Town Planning Commission often referred to themselves as the City Planning Commission. Initial meetings were chaired by the Mayor of Calgary, John W. Mitchell but later, James W. Davidson was appointed to the position of President. Mr. Davidson served two non-consecutive terms as President of the Commission as did William Pearce. James H. Garden was the last person to serve in the position of President before the Commission dissolved in 1914. The major focus of the 1911 Town Planning Commission was the production of a planning scheme for Calgary. For this, they hired Thomas H. Mawson, a landscape architect and urban planner from England who had already contributed to Western Canada's urban landscape by developing designs for Stanley Park in Vancouver and for the Town of Banff. As well, the Commission also worked with provincial representatives to develop a Town Planning Act for Alberta. Mawson presented a preliminary plan to Calgary's City Council in April 1914, but the outbreak of World War I prevented the implementation of any of Mawson's ideas. Nevertheless, the Mawson Plan, as this design came to be known, remains one of the most popular early documents from Calgary's history because of the grandiose and optimistic vision Mawson presented to Calgarians. The Town Planning Commission (Committee) was dissolved on July 17, 1914. Calgary's next Town Planning Commission was not established until 1929.