Calgary homeowner fears hillside infill will damage family home

The current plan for the property calls for two single detached, three-storey dwellings built above garages with front driveways. The design requires the hillside at the front of the lot to be excavated down to street level

Calgarian homeowner Vivien Harben and her family have roots in the southwest neighbourhood of Richmond going back 57 years — all tied to a quiet hillside property passed down from her father. Now, she is preparing her latest appeal in a decade-long battle against a new infill development next door, which she fears will cause irreparable damage to her property and change the neighbourhood for the worse.

Her house, built in the early 1950s, was “very avant-garde for its day,” Harben said. It was built in an era before poured concrete foundations became the standard, res