The Calgary Planning Commission spent the better part of three hours on Thursday afternoon debating the merits of the design of Scotia Place.

And then shortly after a recess to fix some technical hiccups with the meeting, the commission’s eight members voted unanimously to approve the project’s development permit, clearing the final administrative hurdle for construction to begin on the future home of the Calgary Flames in 2025.

In the end, the approval of the design was probably just a formality, but some additional information was revealed regarding several aspects of the project.

There’s not a lot going at street level around the Saddledome, something that the designers tried to address with Scotia Place. There are several public plazas and patios, and a flexible play area outside of the community rink’s entrance.

A few of Scotia Place’s street-level amenities will be open all the time. They include the cafe within the historic Stephenson & Co. grocery building, the associated food hall, the restaurant on 12th Avenue (the Wood Fire Grill) and the community rink. As the district develops, it was mentioned during the meeting by Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation vice-chairman John Bean that the business case for keeping everything else open 365 days a year would increase – when the building opens in 2027, it’s more likely that the places that aren’t open all the time will open a few hours before events at Scotia Place (and stay open for a few hours afterwards, too.)

It also sounds like the public accessibility of the community rink would extend to occasions where the Flames (or Wranglers or Hitmen) are practising in that venue, similar to how Winsport practices are also open to fans. We’ll likely have a better sense of how that looks – how often and the logistics involved – the closer we get to the arena’s opening.

We all love the Saddledome’s roof because it looks awesome. But it poses logistical challenges in regards to hanging things from it. It was mentioned in the meeting that the ‘Dome’s roof loading capacity is “about one-fourth of what you’d want and need” for a modern building.

Speaking to the media during the break, CSEC vice-president building operations Susie Darrington noted how different Scotia Place’s roof will be in terms of what it will enable the building to do.

“We will go from about 90,000 tons that we can hang in our roof to 400,” said Darrington. “So if you think about that, that brings us those big A shows that are going to Edmonton right now or other markets that we’re not able to host. And then in addition, the Saddledome roof design with the dip in the middle prohibits concerts where artists are now using the vertical space and programming it. Our scoreboard will fully nest up into the structural steel. So artists will have a completely blank canvas to play with.”

Fans hate waiting in line for washrooms. In fact, in speaking with fans, lines and congestion are the thing fans hate the most about the Saddledome concourse. Well, Scotia Place will have a lot of toilets: approximately 340 fixtures, 60% more than the building code requires, 20% more than Rogers Place in Edmonton, and more than twice as many per person than currently in the Saddledome.

(We did the math and Scotia Place will have just slightly less than double the amount of toilets as the ‘Dome.)

Darrington was part of the team that opened Rogers Place and remembers their bathroom challenges.

“We’re opening the doors with a better ratio,” said Darrington. “And then one of the things we’re really pleased is we’ve come up with our architects with what we’re calling a flex bathroom plan. If you’re hosting – let’s all hope someday Taylor Swift tours arenas and we have her back in Calgary. But if you have a female artist and you’re 80% female, you have to be able to accommodate that. You have to be able to accommodate events that are typically more of a male demographic. So we’ve built what we’re calling flex space: a third male, a third female and a third flex. And that gives us a really great opportunity to change the bathrooms back and forth, depending on how we want to customize that event for the fans coming.”

City of Calgary project lead Bob Hunter discussed what will make the fan experience at Scotia Place better than the Saddledome, noting the street-level accessibility to the building, multiple concourse levels, and increased washrooms.

“Well, again, I think it’s always cool to be in something new,” said Hunter. “So, you know, all the amenities that go with all fan levels, accessibility, as I mentioned, is going to be a big, big plus compared to what it was at the Saddledome. I just think the food and beverage, just everything that goes with it, and more and more concerts, that’s another big thing that we’ll be able to accommodate all concerts in the building. But, yeah, I think it’s a whole bunch of small touches that are going to make it so much better.”

The development permit has been approved, which allows the project to obtain a building permit and get started on building the actual arena structure. In the meantime, the “Big Dig,” digging down 35 feet below the street level, continues.

“Well, we’ve got till, I would say, late spring, we’ll be down as deep as we need to go,” said Hunter. “And then we obviously start back up. So we’ll be back up to grade with all the concrete and the foundation work and the creation of the two or three levels that are below grade by the fall. So, again, that’s when people really start to see what this thing is going to look and feel like. So those are the key milestones. Go to the bottom of the hole and come back up to grade. And then the superstructure starts in the summer.”

Per Hunter, Scotia Place is on track to open in fall 2027 in advance of the 2027-28 NHL season.