Calgary councillors hear summary of marathon rezoning hearings

Over 12 days of public hearings, 736 Calgarians presented their thoughts to city council about its proposed citywide rezoning proposal.

Beyond the hundreds who spoke at the public hearings, 6,101 written submissions were received and more than 50,000 people tuned in for at least some of the livestream of the hearings.

Today, city staff provided council members with a recap of what they heard during the largest and longest public hearings in Calgary's history.

In a presentation by Tim Keane, the city's general manager of planning and development, council members were told that — of the 700-plus speakers at the hearings — 227 spoke in support of the proposed zoning changes, while 458 were opposed and 51 were neutral. About 88 per cent of the written submissions were opposed the changes, according to Keane.

But Keane said that in a city growing as fast as Calgary is, with the population expected to hit 1.5 million by 2028, there was one point most speakers agree on.

"Certainly, most during the two weeks acknowledged we need more housing to address the growth. We've got to be careful about it, smart about it, but we certainly need more housing to address this growth," Keane said.

The marathon hearings centred on a proposal to redesignate virtually all residential areas to allow for duplexes and townhouses. People wanting to build these higher-density types of homes would still need to apply for a development permit and be subject to a variety of rules and regulations, but they would no longer need to go before city council to apply for a land-use change.

The proposal is just one plank in the city's broader housing strategy, but it's been the most high-profile and contentious aspect of the plan.

One of the PowerPoint slides used in a presentation by Tim Keane, the city’s general manager of planning and development, to illustrate how the current residential zoning rules are failing to create more — and more affordable — housing in existing Calgary neighbourhoods. (City of Calgary)

Keane said the most common concerns expressed by opponents of blanket rezoning were worries about property values diminishing, the strain densification would place on city infrastructure and questions about the capacity of Calgary schools to handle the influx of students.

But despite those concerns, and the fact that rezoning opponents outnumbered supporters at the hearings by a margin of two-to-one, Keane's presentation was largely a defence of the blanket zoning proposal, a fact that frustrated at least one city councillor.

Following the presentation, Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot said there are clearly plenty of Calgarians who are concerned about how these changes will affect their property and their neighbourhoods. It's something that he says should give council pause before proceeding to debate this.

"We had 6,000 submissions, of which approximately 88 per cent were in opposition, and we had 736 presenters … 70 per cent of which were opposed to it," Chabot told reporters.

"The presentation we saw at the beginning basically introduced the same concepts that I see now at the end. So, how much of the public's input was taken into consideration in drafting up the final plan?"

'File and abandon'

Chabot said he believes the public will feel they've been ignored on this issue, and he had some very clear thoughts about what he thinks council should do next.

"Ideally, personally, I think we should file and abandon this recommendation and start over," he said. "Developers will benefit from it. That's it. Calgarians won't."

Ward 8 Coun. Courtney Walcott agreed with Chabot that Calgarians probably won't feel that their concerns have been addressed, at least "not yet."

"It's pretty hard to allay fears with a PowerPoint slide," Walcott said.

But he disagreed with his council colleague's suggestion to "file and abandon" the rezoning plan.

"It would set this city further back than it already is," he said.

"If we're supposed to put people in homes, you've got to start allowing them to be built at some point."

Next Monday, council members will be posing questions to administration about the proposal. That will be followed by discussions of potential amendments before it heads to a final vote.