The emergence of the new Britannia Village exists as part of an unfolding tale of incredible opportunity and happenstance. Amidst a past of delayed growth and near environmental disaster, present-day progress and the revitalization of a cherished community is now possible.

Two main factors encumbered Britannia Village in its natural course, changing the face of the city itself. The first was an accidental gasoline leak from a Petro Canada gas station at the corner of Elbow Drive and 50th Avenue- which resulted in the largest environmental contamination from any gas station Western Canada had ever seen.  Unnoticed for many years, the leak created a plume of gasoline on top of the water table that extended from Elbow Drive all the way to Manchester Park over the course of decades. When this was finally discovered, the city of Calgary ended up buying many homes along this area as they were sitting on top of gasoline, Petro Canada commissioned the long clean up and O’Connor’s Engineering put a system in place that began to withdraw the gasoline from atop of the water. Known as a “bio-slurp” and taking over a decade to complete, the contaminants were gradually pulled off the water through a series of catch basins and pipes as the water tended to gravitate to the east. A part of the result is the area now under assembly in the more efficient and sustainable Windsor development.

The second element that transformed the history of Britannia concerned the roads planned to get people across the river- or rather, in this case, the road that was not built. Originally, a major corridor taking traffic from the east side over to the west side of the river was meant to be built along 50th Ave, but the surrounding lands were owned and donated to the city by the Harvey family, under the stipulation that the land was to never be developed and would remain a park. As a result, the thoroughfare that was initially planned could not go across the river at this location.