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Mayor Naheed Nenshi says proposed plans for the redevelopment of two aging Calgary shopping centres are lacking when it comes to their design and connection to the surrounding community.

Nenshi made the comments at a public hearing on redevelopment plans for two Calgary Co-op locations Monday.

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The more than 40-year-old locations — one in Oakridge and one in Dalhousie — could see significant changes, including the addition of residential, commercial and office space, if the plans are approved by council.

But at Monday’s meeting, Nenshi, and some councillors, critiqued the plans for not deviating enough from Co-op’s traditional vehicle-centric model.

“I’m not convinced these plans are good enough for those neighbourhoods,” Nenshi said. “I think they could be better in terms of design, in terms of interface with the neighbourhood.

“Because you don’t want to build just a power centre with a few apartments in it, you want to build something that is really next-generation, urban neighbourhood and I think both of these neighbourhoods (are) really in a position where they could accept something that would be really cool and really add to the value of the community.”