More than 350 people signed up to speak Monday at what is expected to be another marathon public hearing on Calgary’s highly divisive, citywide rezoning issue, and that number could grow as the hearing progresses.
The issue is back before council after it became a key point of debate in last fall’s municipal election, with many of the members of the new city council promising to repeal or reconsider the policy, which was approved by the last city council in 2024.
That approval came after a historically long public hearing with 736 people speaking to the issue, over 15 days.
The majority of them opposed to blanket rezoning, which resulted in the city’s base residential zoning policy being changed to allow for more housing types on a single property, such as row houses and duplexes.
The policy change was aimed at boosting the supply and affordability of housing in the city.
However, the new council voted in December, by a 13 to 2 margin, to kickstart the process of repealing the policy.
“At the end of the day, I can’t prevent change from happening,” Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas told reporters Monday.
“I can, however, work alongside the community and the rest of council to give Calgarians a voice in that and that’s what our public hearing is really about.”
If city council votes in favour of repealing the policy, 306,774 residential parcels would be re-designated back to their original low-density residential districts, city administration said, meaning 68 per cent of residential properties in Calgary would allow for only a single-detached home plus one suite.
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Chloe Chan, one of the many speakers in chambers Monday morning, told councillors that repealing citywide rezoning would add to the vulnerabilities the city is experiencing with its infrastructure and significant population growth.
“Reintroducing a bottleneck to development at this moment is as good as taking a crowbar to the kneecaps, when what we need is a brace,” she said.
“We cannot act like we’re the small town no one knows about, that can afford to sprawl if need be.”
While those in favour say the policy say it is working, opponents say it is damaging the character of their neighbourhoods.
“I hope that council will follow most of the proposed bylaw and repeal,” said Chris Davis, who was on hand at city hall Monday for the public hearing.
Others, like Tracy Chernowski, argued property owners should have the “acceptance of the neighbourhood” before redeveloping a home in the area.
“There’s got to be a process, not this willy-nilly blanket rezoning where you throw it up in the air and anything goes,” she said.
Along with the hundreds of speakers, council has also received nearly 2,400 written submissions on the issue.
Ward 11 Coun. Rob Ward took issue with the wording of the public submission form, which he claimed “misled” people in their responses.
Ward said he personally reviewed all 2,328 public submissions to determine where residents stood on what the public hearing was proposing.
According to Ward’s count, 1,854 people support repealing citywide rezoning, 295 oppose a repeal, while 26 were neutral. He noted 153 submissions were unclear on their stance.
“A lot of people… said that they put ‘opposed’ when really they’re saying they’re opposed to blanket rezoning, not opposed to the motion to repeal it,” Ward told reporters.
The public hearing is scheduled to run 12 hours per day for the entire week and into next week if needed.
Other people who wish to speak will be allowed to register as long as the public hearing is still going on.
Farkas said that if the policy is changed, there needs to be a replacement strategy on how the city will continue to build the housing it needs.
However, the proposal in front of city council doesn’t include a plan to replace the policy.
Others on council, like Ward 8 Coun. Nathaniel Schmidt, campaigned on finding ways to fix the issues the community had with citywide rezoning rather than a full repeal.
“We often hear a position prefaced with ‘I’m not opposed to density, but…,'” Schmidt said.
“I’m listening to all of the ‘buts’ because to me it’s about using as many tools in our toolkit as we can to build different housing forms that meets the needs of different people.”
Dozens of communities across Canada have amended their zoning policies hoping for a piece of the federal housing money offered through the Housing Accelerator Fund.
A report to the city’s infrastructure and planning committee suggests a full repeal of the bylaw could mean the city is non-compliant with its fund agreement.
Farkas said his vote on whether to repeal the bylaw or not won’t rely on the case for funding.
–With files from The Canadian Press
Only people who wanted this were the previous city criminals.
You can vote as much as you want, they will do what THEY want.
Farkas is a residential site developer, remember that.