Citizens continued to share their views on Calgary’s proposed citywide rezoning plan, with the pressure on infrastructure being cited by several speakers.
It was Day 3 of Calgary’s city council’s largest-ever public hearing, and dozens more people got their five minutes to share their perspectives with councillors. There are roughly 850 citizens registered to speak, with city council still needing to hear from more than 600 of them.
In Wednesday’s proceedings, several speakers raised concern over the pressure increased density would have on city services.
Lorraine Robinson, president of the Millican-Ogden Community Association (MOCA) said they’ve generally been supportive of redevelopment in their area.
“Our main concern right now about the blanket rezoning is that the capacity and the age of the existing utility infrastructure in the community higher density was not envisioned in the early 1900s,” she said.
“The community board wants certainty that any additional density will be supported by required upgrades due to infrastructure. This would be an additional cost and whether it’s borne by the developer or the city, it will become an added burden to the affordability of the project.”
Amenities and infrastructure were also a concern for Amanda Mauch, president of the Northern Hills Community Association, who spoke on Tuesday. She said there are significant challenges in the planning and development process around these issues.
“The problem is that the infrastructure services and amenities that already exist is not enough for the population we already have,” she said.
“We cannot fulfill the needs of 1000s more residents with the infrastructure we have. I’m not against bringing more people into our area. I want a vibrant, diverse and engaged community culture. Unfortunately, this is almost impossible when we live in an area that requires people to get in their cars and commute a minimum 25 to 30 minutes to access most basic services and workplaces.”
Councillors say infrastructure is a key component of density
Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp said that Calgary’s downtown, in particular, was built for offices, not necessarily the flushing toilets of thousands of residents. She doesn’t believe the city’s done a good enough job to ensure the right infrastructure is going where there’s density.
“As soon as you add people, you need more infrastructure. The toilet flushing is a big deal. Do we have the capacity in our streets?” Sharp said.
“That’s downtown, let alone some of the older neighbourhoods like Bowness or Meadowlark and things like that. Once you add more people, you add more infrastructure.”
Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot said one of the challenges with blanket rezoning was that infrastructure upgrades would become ad-hoc. In contrast, when the city approves new greenfield communities, under a new policy, they must approve capital upgrades to ensure there’s infrastructure for new growth.
“When you do concentrated upzoning, you can then look at how you can maximize on that revenue to provide some of that additional infrastructure,” he said.
“When you do it city-wide, you spread it amongst the entire city so thin, that you actually can’t invest heavily into one part of the city without somebody saying, ‘why not us?’”
Most of the established area communities are well below their peak populations, according to city administration’s presentation, which would mean there’s infrastructure capacity to handle more people already. That was reiterated by Ward 3 Coun. Jasmine Mian.
But she said that conversation wasn’t confined to established areas.
“Whether you’re growing in established areas, or whether you’re growing on the perimeter, there are always infrastructure constraints,” she said.
“The city is always going to have to check on infrastructure, wherever we’re growing, whether that’s in the established areas, or whether that’s on the perimeter. It’s an ongoing conversation and it’s not something that is simply constrained to established areas.”
Other ways to streamline approvals
Marc Henry, a Meadowlark Park resident, former Chief of Staff to three-term Calgary mayor Dave Bronconnier, and president of ThinkHQ Public Affairs (a research firm that produces regular polling on civic topics), spoke against the citywide upzoning.
Henry said that this is a one-size-fits-all solution when not all rezoning applications are the same. He also said he was concerned about removing the public input from these land-use decisions. If city council approves more than 94 per cent of applications, that means six per cent still get held back.
“Six per cent may seem a small number, but going forward, if approved, previously unacceptable developments will be increasingly finding their way into communities and they’re going to be there for decades,” he said.
“A greater concern to me, however, is that if this amendment is approved there will no longer be public hearings for neighbours to voice their concerns to their elected officials about these six per cent, these unacceptable developments and that assumes the lack of council oversight won’t increase that number over time.”
Henry suggested that council could still keep the public hearings and they could cut down turnaround time administratively instead. He suggested concurrent land-use and development permit (something pitched to council in Sept. 2023), incentivize the aforementioned process, eliminate Calgary Planning Commission input in land-use decisions, and reduce advertising time (a month) to two weeks.
Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek said a lot of speakers have mentioned ways for the city to tackle the housing situation.
“We appreciate hearing them. There are some that could work, and there are some that we are looking at right now,” she said, noting the concurrent land use and development permit idea.
“The fact is, that not everyone who submits a land use application wants to put forward a development permit at that time, so it could work. I don’t know how it’ll work.”
She also noted citizens mentioning that the city should divest of its land. She said that 27 sites have already been made available to non-market housing.
Youth movement at the public hearing
On all of the first three days, there’s been a strong contingent of younger Calgarians sharing their views on citywide rezoning. Their views have generally been in stark contrast to more experienced Calgarians.
Luka Lachner, a Ward 14 resident and University of Calgary student in the Bachelor of Design in City Innovation program spoke in favour of the citywide rezoning.
“We cannot allow the largely unfounded claims made by well-off homeowners stop us from creating a city that shows through its actions that they care about their citizens’ well-being, they’re authentically engaging with its citizens most affected by these pressing issues,” Lachner said.
“Housing should not be treated like a commodity. You’re playing with people’s lives, and housing is a human right.”
Fellow student Natalie Ofukany has completed her undergrad degree at the University of Calgary and will be going to law school this fall. Though accepted at the University of Calgary – her first choice – she’s attending the University of Saskatchewan.
“I’ll be going to the University of Saskatchewan directly because housing is cheaper there and so is the cost of rent,” she said.
“I can assure you I’m not the only person leaving the city after graduation due to the rising cost of housing.”
City councillors said they’ve noticed the generation gap in views heard at the public hearing. Ward 3 Coun. Jasmine Mian said those under 50 are often coming out in support, while those over 50 are often against.
“I’m not the only one to have noticed that. Many of the speakers themselves have noticed that and I think it’s because they have had very different lived experiences with the housing market,” Mian said.
“Younger people typically want to see change and are demanding us to take action. I think that’s why we’re seeing some of those differences.”
Mayor Gondek said there are people in various demographics expressing support both for and against.
“I will say though, that when we are hearing from people who are saying that they’re living with their parents, and they can’t get out of that situation, and they’re incredibly concerned about their parents as well, either having to maintain a home that they simply have aged out of, or being able to live somewhere if they sold that home, these are incredibly grave concerns,” the mayor said.
“So, I’m looking at what we do to make sure that housing is in good supply for everyone in our city, not just right now, but well into the future.”
The public hearing will continue into Wednesday evening and then Thursday morning. It will be paused so that the Calgary Planning Commission meeting can go ahead, and then they will resume the public hearing after that.
