A public hearing date for Calgary’s controversial city-wide rezoning has been set, but it’s left one councillor wondering if citizens need more time to prepare.
During the Dec. 14 Regular Meeting of Calgary City Council, councillors approved April 22, 2024, as the date when the public will have their say on Calgary’s introduction of a base R-CG residential district city-wide.
The minimum R-CG designation would allow for single-detached, semi-detached, rowhouse and townhouse building forms on all residential properties. This was part of the Calgary Housing Strategy approved in September. At that time, the approval was contingent on further public engagement, including a full public hearing.
The April 22, 2024 date provides time for the city to properly notify residents, according to Planning and Development General Manager Debra Hamilton.
“There’ll be three mailouts people will receive in their doors, one’s an official letter, two are more informative,” Hamilton explained to councillors.
“Then we will have a number of items, websites, online engagement, walking tours, bold signs, council toolkits for yourselves, helping to inform the public.”
Hamilton said they needed to set the date now to begin preparations for all the material, so citizens had enough time to get further educated on the topic before the public hearing.
The Calgary Housing Strategy did indicate that they would go through the public hearing in the second quarter of 2024. Hamilton said the date provided enough time and also didn’t conflict with other council matters.
Providing the public with adequate time
Calgary has been having ongoing conversations about the R-CG designation for the past few years, particularly as it pertains to land use redesignations. It’s also come up regularly during the local area planning debates.
While not R-CG, the city has already held a public hearing on the H-GO land use designation in October 2022. It’s the so-called missing middle land use that would allow for rowhouses or townhouses.
Ward 7 Coun. Terry Wong expressed concern that Calgary homeowners wouldn’t have enough time to educate themselves on the impact of the city-wide base rezoning.
“I guess the question I have is, have we consulted with the public and any other significant stakeholders at the timing of doing this in April,” Coun. Wong said.
“Is sufficient for them to do the research, consultation, not just attend the sessions that you were proposing here but also to have an opportunity to do their research, whether it be academic, industry or any others.”
Outside council chambers, Coun. Wong said he recognizes there’s a housing crisis that needs to be dealt with urgently. He wants to ensure the public hearing process yields the best results.
“Good participation really requires that we set the context of the conversation, understanding the policy, we set, the understanding, the urgency and the outcomes we’re looking for,” he said.
“If you do that ahead of time the public hearing becomes a much more efficient process.”
When asked if this conversation had been had many times in the past, providing a sufficient runway for people to engage in the process, Wong said that members of council, administration and media have a sufficient understanding, but the public still may not.
“The unfortunate part of the equation is that homeowners, property owners who have established wealth in their property, need to need to rise to the same understanding,” he said.
“So again, that they’re not feeling that we’re imposing on something that takes away what they think is valuable.”
Wong said it was incumbent upon city administration to provide the public with fair, transparent and “fully objective” information on the topic in the lead-up. He also said it was important to make sure it was culturally accessible, too.
“The second thing is councillors themselves, we have a duty and responsibility to communicate the best we can, set the context for them, and ensure that there’s no controversy,” he said.
“But if there is issues, we need to also bring back those issues to administration, ideally before the public hearing.”
During the Calgary Housing Strategy debate, there were multiple attempts to remove or scale back the citywide upzoning measure of the document.
