Six city councillors and Calgary’s mayor plan to introduce a motion to kickstart the repeal of Calgary’s contentious citywide rezoning policy, a major campaign promise amongst several candidates elected to council in October.
The motion, which calls for the repeal of citywide rezoning, will be up for a technical review at a meeting of the city’s Executive Committee on Monday.
It’s co-sponsored by Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot, Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean, Ward 1 Coun. Kim Tyers, Ward 11 Coun. Rob Ward, Ward 12 Coun. Mike Jamieson, Ward 14 Coun. Landon Johnston, and Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas.
“This is the first step to addressing the concerns Calgarians have had,” Farkas told Global News. “Obviously it’s going to be a long-term process to get this done, but it was very important for us as council to be able to show Calgarians that we’re taking those concerns seriously.”
The motion calls on city administration to revert the city’s land-use bylaw to what it was prior to the previous city council approving citywide rezoning, but would exclude properties that had development permits approved prior to the motion or any currently under review in the permit process.
Repealing citywide rezoning was a campaign promise amongst all of the motion’s co-signers.
“I committed to bring forward a motion to bring an amending bylaw or at least a motion to do an amending bylaw,” Chabot said. “I said I would do that as part of my campaign and here it is, living up to my commitment.”
The previous city council approved a plan to change the city’s default residential zoning in May 2024, after the longest public hearing in city history that saw more than 730 speakers. The majority voiced opposition to the idea.
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The move meant Calgary’s land-use bylaw was amended to make residential grade-oriented infill (R-CG) the default residential zoning district across the city. The changes took effect in August of that year.
R-CG allows a variety of housing types including single-detached, semi-detached, duplexes and rowhouses.
The move was a key recommendation and one of more than 80 in the city’s housing strategy, aimed at boosting supply and improving housing affordability.
According to the motion, the rezoning policy has “failed to deliver greater housing affordability,” and created public concern around loss of neighbourhood character, increased pressure on infrastructure, inadequate parking in established communities, as well as traffic congestion on roads and in alleyways due to the city’s blue, black and green card program.
“We heard from Calgarians that this idea of eight-plexes in the middle of a block without parking, it just hasn’t worked to be able to deliver housing that is affordable and in the right places,” Farkas said.
However, the policy has had an impact on reducing the cost of homes, according to the Calgary Inner City Builders Association (CICBA), which noted citywide rezoning cut six months off the timeline for a typical townhome, saving $90,000 in costs.
Shameer Gaidhar, the chair of CICBA, said the organization is already reaching out to city council to discuss a potential replacement for the policy rather than reverting back to previous processes.
“We want to work on addressing all the housing needs we have in Calgary so we’re hoping those conversations can be opened,” Gaidhar said.
“We don’t need rowhomes everywhere, but we do need them somewhere and affordability is top of mind.”
Details around what could replace the policy were absent from the motion, after Farkas campaigned on not just repealing but replacing citywide rezoning.
According to Farkas, those conversations are taking place amongst city council to determine what could come next.
“This is just one piece of the puzzle,” he said. “We’re going to be working alongside members of council on amendments to get a sense of how we can move forward on the needed housing but in a way that actually works alongside the community rather than against them.”
However, some on council didn’t run on a campaign to repeal citywide rezoning.
Ward 4 Coun. DJ Kelly said he hopes to take what worked from the policy while addressing concerns like parking requirements.
“I don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, there’s a lot of improvements they made to the process in the previous incarnation that we have, so we want to be able to keep those things,” Kelly told Global News. “We can sit down and start having the conversation about what replacement looks like because repeal and replace have to go together at the same time.”
Chabot suggested using the city’s local area plans to identify where higher density development is supported.
“I think if we’re going to do it right, we’ve got to do it in a very thoughtful and methodical way,” he said.
If the motion passes a technical review on Monday, it would then go to city council as a whole for a debate sometime in December.
If it’s approved there, the motion asks city administration to have a draft bylaw prepared for a public hearing in February.
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