Live in Auburn Bay
A 43-acre lake with a 13-acre beach park, and a major hospital literally next door.
Auburn Bay was established in 2005 and grew faster than almost anything else in Calgary — 18,090 residents by 2021. It is built around a 43-acre freshwater lake, one of the city's deepest at about thirty feet, with a 13-acre beach park and the 7,000-square-foot Auburn House at its centre. The South Health Campus hospital and the Seton district sit immediately south. This is what living here is actually like.
A hospital, a beach, and eighteen thousand people in fifteen years
Bounded north by Stoney Trail, west by Deerfoot Trail, east by 52 Street SE and south by Seton Boulevard, with Mahogany, Seton and Cranston adjacent. Ward 12, inside the City of Calgary, Alberta.
Auburn Bay was established in 2005 and grew about as fast as a Calgary community can: by the 2021 census it held 18,090 residents in 6,245 dwellings, making it one of the largest communities in the city by population and one of the densest at roughly 4,020 people per km².
It is organised around a 43-acre freshwater lake — one of Calgary's deepest at about thirty feet — with a 13-acre beach park and the 7,000-square-foot Auburn House at its centre. The lake is stocked twice a year with rainbow, tiger, brown and brook trout.
Housing mix. Broader than the older lake suburbs: about 19% of housing is condominium or apartment and 25% is rental, with a median household income of $125,000. Around 22% of households spend 30% or more of income on housing, which is worth weighing against that median.
Services and transit. The South Health Campus hospital and the Seton district sit immediately south — including one of the world's largest YMCAs. The Green Line CTrain is planned along the eastern boundary but is not built; today this is a car-dependent community.
- Downtown is 22–32 minutes on a good day; there is no CTrain station yet
- The Green Line along the eastern boundary is planned, not built — do not price it in
- Three fee tiers: standard $523.92, lake access $720.41, lakeshore $1,047.80 for 2026–27
- Fees are due 1 April and accrue interest from 1 May — and rise with compounded inflation annually
- At 25% rental and 19% apartment stock, this is a more mixed community than the older lake suburbs
How Auburn Bay got here
- 2005Auburn Bay is established in Calgary's far southeast, built around a 43-acre freshwater lake.
- Late 2000sAuburn House opens — a 7,000 ft² community centre on a 13-acre beach park at the heart of the community.
- 2012The South Health Campus hospital opens immediately south, transforming the area's services overnight.
- 2010sThe Seton district builds out south of the community, adding retail, cinema and one of the world's largest YMCAs.
- 2021Federal census counts 18,090 residents in 6,245 dwellings — one of Calgary's largest communities by population.
- PlannedThe Green Line CTrain is planned to run along the community's eastern boundary. It is not built.
One of Calgary's deepest lakes, and a beach park to match
Private and resident-only, run by the Auburn Bay Residents Association, which also operates Auburn House. Every property carries the fee, and the amount depends on whether the lot is standard, lake-access or lakeshore.
- Due 1 April 2026; outstanding accounts accrue interest from 1 May
- Standard $523.92 · lake access $720.41 · lakeshore $1,047.80, all including GST
- Subject to annual compounded inflation increases
- Credit card payments carry a 2% processing surcharge
- Administered by the Auburn Bay Residents Association, which also operates Auburn House
- Contact: auburnbayra.ca · 403-537-2601
| The lake and Auburn House | Figure |
|---|---|
| Lake surface | 43 acres |
| Maximum depth | ~30 ft |
| Beach and park site | 13 acres |
| Auburn House | 7,000 ft² |
| Standard fee (2026–27) | $523.92 incl. GST |
| Fees due | 1 April |
Fifteen playgrounds, two ponds, and a dog park
Auburn Bay has no provincial park or river valley at its edge, so the open space is what the developer built: fifteen playgrounds, two ponds, an off-leash dog park, two baseball diamonds, two soccer fields and a walking and cycling network through the community. The 13-acre beach park is the centrepiece.
The resident's angle: be clear-eyed about what this is. Developer-built parkland is well-maintained and genuinely inside the community, but it is not protected the way a provincial park is, and there is no equivalent here to Fish Creek or the Bow valley. What you get instead is services — a hospital and a world-class YMCA within five minutes, which no other community on this site can match.
22 places, with real drive times
Road-adjusted distance and drive time from the centre of the community to each destination, nearest first. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 22 places, nearest first.
Method: distances and drive times are estimated from the community centre to each destination using Calgary's road grid, and are rounded to honest ranges rather than presented as precise figures. The numbers that matter most here are the short ones — hospital, YMCA and Seton are all within about five minutes — and the long ones, because downtown, the airport and the mountains are all a genuine haul.
Every gym within reach
One facility dominates the picture here so completely that the rest is almost a footnote — plus Auburn House, which your annual fee already covers.
- Among the largest YMCAs in the world — multiple pools, twin arenas, gymnasiums and a climbing wall
- A Calgary Public Library branch sits inside the same building
- Auburn House, the beach park, tennis, pickleball and volleyball are already covered by your ABRA fee
- Chain clubs and studios cluster at Auburn Station and across Seton
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Brookfield Residential YMCA at Seton open | Among the largest YMCAs in the world: multiple pools, twin arenas, gymnasiums, climbing wall, running track and a library branch. | 4–7 min |
| Auburn House open | Included with the ABRA fee — 7,000 ft² community centre, 13-acre beach park, tennis, pickleball, volleyball and a splash park. | 1–4 min |
| GoodLife Fitness — Seton open | National chain club in the Seton Urban District. | 4–7 min |
| Anytime Fitness — Auburn Bay open | 24-hour access chain gym at Auburn Station. | 2–5 min |
| Orangetheory Fitness — Seton open | Heart-rate-based group interval training studio. | 4–7 min |
| F45 Training — Seton open | Functional group training studio, 45-minute classes. | 4–7 min |
| Auburn Bay rinks & toboggan hills open | Hockey rink, pleasure skating rink and toboggan hills — all covered by the annual fee. | 1–4 min |
| Cardel Rec South open | Four indoor rinks and a field house in the deep south — worth knowing, but Seton is far closer. | 18–25 min |
The free option is a good one. The community's pathway network, fifteen playgrounds and two ponds cost nothing, and in winter the lake, the hockey rink, the pleasure rink and the toboggan hills are all already paid for through the annual fee.
Five schools inside the community
Auburn Bay School (K–4), Bayside (K–5) and Lakeshore (5–9) on the public side, with Prince of Peace (K–9) and St. Gianna (K–6) on the Catholic side — an unusually complete set for a community this young.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Auburn Bay School | Calgary Board of Education | Public K–4 inside the community. |
| Bayside School | Calgary Board of Education | Public K–5 inside the community. |
| Lakeshore School | Calgary Board of Education | Public grades 5–9 inside the community. |
| Prince of Peace School | Calgary Catholic | Catholic K–9 inside the community. |
| St. Gianna School | Calgary Catholic | Catholic K–6 inside the community. |
Alberta funds Catholic education the same way it funds public education, so there is no tuition for a resident student at either board. In a community that added eighteen thousand people in fifteen years, attendance boundaries and overflow designations change often — confirm the current designation for a specific address with the board before you buy, not after.
Month by month, what living here looks like
Not a highlights reel — the actual annual rhythm, including the dates residents have to remember.
- Lake frozen — skating, shinny and ice fishing on your membership
- Hockey rink, pleasure rink and toboggan hills all running
- Seton YMCA's twin arenas carry the organised hockey season
- Deerfoot and Stoney both ice up in cold snaps — leave extra time
- Skating season continues at the lake and both rinks
- Family Day long weekend — Auburn House programming runs all weekend
- Chinooks can take the ice out for a few days at a time
- Indoor season peaks at the Seton YMCA
- Ice off the lake late in the month in a warm year
- Spring break — Seton's cinema and YMCA fill up
- First bare pavement on the community's pathways
- ABRA fee invoices land ahead of the 1 April deadline
- ABRA fees due 1 April — interest accrues from 1 May on unpaid accounts
- Lake thaws; floating docks and the boat fleet return
- First trout restocking of the year
- Goslings and ducklings appear on the lake and the two ponds
- Beach and the 13-acre park readied for the season
- May long weekend — first beach evenings of the year
- Tennis, pickleball and beach volleyball courts open
- Fifteen playgrounds across the community come back into use
- Swimming season opens on one of Calgary's deepest lakes
- Splash park opens for the summer
- Longest evenings of the year — light past 10pm
- June rains: Calgary's wettest month
- Calgary Stampede — ten days, 22–32 minutes up Deerfoot Trail
- Beach, boating and fishing at full tilt
- Canada Day at Auburn House is the community's biggest day
- Evening thunderstorms roll in off the foothills
- Warmest water of the year in the lake
- Second trout restocking of the year
- Back-to-school runs at Auburn Station and Seton
- Spruce Meadows Masters, about half an hour west
- Aspens turn across the community's parks and ponds
- School year starts at all five community schools
- Boats out of the water by month end
- Migrating waterfowl stage on the lake and ponds
- Last reliable dry-pathway weeks around the lake
- First hard frosts; furnace season begins
- Halloween — enormous in a community this young and this large
- First snowfall often before month end
- Lake begins to freeze; stay off until ABRA flags it safe
- Crews prepare the hockey and pleasure rinks
- Winter tires on — Deerfoot and Stoney both ice up
- Christmas lights go up early; dark by 5pm
- Lake typically freezes mid-to-late December — skating season opens
- Shortest days: sunrise about 8:38am, sunset about 4:30pm at solstice
- Chinooks can strip the snow overnight and bring it right back
- Toboggan hills are the community's busiest winter amenity
36 photographs of the community and its surroundings
All freely licensed and served from this app — nothing loads from a third party. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 36 photographs.
Honesty note. This page uses only the general Calgary, seasonal, Alberta-wildlife and day-trip photography from the site's shared library — the Fish Creek and Midnapore-specific images used on the other southeast pages are deliberately excluded, because they are not this community's surroundings. Nothing here is presented as a photograph of Auburn Bay itself.