Rhatigan Ridge is located in the southwest, in an area annexed to the City of Edmonton in 1960.
In 1961 the area was included within a plan for phased development. In 1969 the RiverbendTerwillegar Heights Outline Plan detailed a development scheme for a comprehensively planned community including Rhatigan Ridge. With a planned population of 95,000 people, RiverbendTerwillegar Heights was the first of Edmonton’s residential areas to be planned on such a large scale.
The Rhatigan Ridge neighbourhood was first subdivided in 1980 but the uncertain economy of the early 1980s prompted a number of subsequent small scale changes to the original plan. The neighbourhood predominantly features single-detached homes built during the 1980s, with a much smaller proportion of semi-detached homes and row houses. Riverbend Road is the main collector road that bisects the neighbourhood from the north.
Rhatigan Road East and West is a minor collector. Interior residential streets feature curvilinear and cul-de-sac roadway patterns, while pathways promote pedestrian and bicycle travel through the neighbourhood. The
neighbourhood has a high point of land with a panoramic view just south of Riverbend Road. The ridge noted in the neighbourhood’s name runs north from the high point. Rhatigan Ridge was named in honour of Thomas Rhatigan, a farmer and landowner in the area for many years. He was famous for the quality of his wheat and oats and was proclaimed World Oat King at the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto in 1953, 1966 and 1970.