Plans & Projects
Council has adopted a new Strategic Direction, Communications Strategy, and Brand that work together to pursue an ambitious vision of the future:
Home is where the heart is in Calmar – as the Edmonton region’s most affordable community. Connected to the earth in what we sow and grow. Connected to the neighbours you know. Pursuing an energized downtown, imaginative new housing options, and new types of spaces and places for entrepreneurs to grow their craft.
“We started this initiative with a question: What if we could achieve the exceptional as a community?” says Calmar Mayor Sean Carnahan. “And how do we create the transformative in our plans that help get us to an ambitious horizon line for Calmar? Led by Councillor Gardner and Councillor Faulkner, our newly developed Community Strategic Direction, Communications Strategy, and Brand work together to answer these questions in a way that stirs resident pride, and attracts investment, new residents, and visitors.”
Core elements of Community Strategic Direction are: Fast tracking downtown enhancement, creating more housing choice and affordability, nurturing niche shopping experiences, expansion of industrial land supply and focus on agriculture services/production and regional industrial services, more physical space and programming options to enable entrepreneurs, and gigabit broadband service enhancement.
A Communications Strategy will work to enhance communications with residents and deepen resident connection to community; with all of its benefits from volunteerism to business investment. Some early implementation will include Council (Meeting) Highlights, a rolling Top 3 Initiatives output, and a new online format for the Chronicle newsletter.
A new Brand – including a new visual identity and website (to go live early January 2022), will enhance community image and the sense of “salesmanship” needed to better connect with residents and potential newcomers. The Brand is deeply grounded in the land, in people, and in the idea of a quintessential small-town that embraces simpler and more meaningful pleasures to be had in a safe, friendly, and deeply connected community with affordable lifestyle living. Calmar’s new logo is gritty and modern, yet straight-forward and progressive — as indicated by a simple, yet striking stylized stalk of wheat, and through the use of worn and rugged lettering. A natural life in motion is suggested through the gathering and rising of simple, abstract flower petals representing not only the vibrancy of the setting sun (a striking image in Calmar), but the coming together and connecting of individual people, ideas, stories, industries, and opportunities into a single, more cohesive and more rewarding body of work. On the face of it, Calmar is slower and simpler, but dig a little deeper and you’ll find rich, raw beauty, a bounty of land, and room for action and adventure, for innovation and opportunity, and for personal and professional growth and expansion. Whether looking for relaxation or vibrancy, opportunity or ease, Calmar provides, enables, and supports. It connects us to land and people, and encourages us to get busy living life for all its worth.
“Great things have been happening in Calmar,” says Mayor Carnahan. “We’re growing. Our housing costs are the most affordable in the Edmonton region. Together with new Recreation and Downtown Plans, we have a tremendous opportunity to build a legacy our children and grandchildren will be proud of. Our time to shine is now.”
Background
Calmar’s “Ambitious Future” and rebranding initiative was led by the town of Calmar in collaboration with Town Staff, the Public Communication Committee, and international award-winning Fort Saskatchewan-based “brand-first” marketing and communications firm Unfussy
(www.unfussybrands.com).