After a full 12 days, Calgary city council has closed an ultra-marathon public hearing meeting on the contentious issue of citywide rezoning.

It was by far the largest-ever public hearing in Calgary’s history.

The hearing, which had more than 1,000 people register, saw hundreds of speakers share their thoughts on how the city should handle this item, which was one of 97 other recommendations included in the City of Calgary’s Housing Strategy.

It was marked by dozens of passionate Calgarians presenting on all sides, describing how they viewed the pros and cons of making R-CG the base residential zone in Calgary. R-CG would allow for an increased density of up to four units (plus potential backyard and secondary suites) per residential lot in Calgary.

“It’s been amazing to hear from so many Calgarians,” said Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek.

“It’s over 760, I think we’ll get a final number later. But we have done a very good job of accommodating everyone that wanted to come and speak.”

An official count was published Tuesday morning, with 736 speakers and 238 panels having spoken before Mayor Gondek closed the hearing at 9:17 p.m. on May 6.

The opening day, April 22, started in a bluster, with hundreds of people jamming into council chambers and the overflow area, along with dueling protests from citizens on both sides. It quickly settled into a regular, largely uneventful pattern the following day and continued that way for more than two weeks.

Council will now hear a recap from administration on what was heard from the public. That will go ahead on Thursday morning (May 9). Then, councillors will have a few days to mull what they heard before returning with questions of administration, amendments and debate starting on Monday.

This delay was the subject of debate in council, however. City clerks had already issued a weekly schedule for the public hearing that included time Thursday morning, and then again Thursday evening after a planned Calgary Planning Commission meeting. 

They would then go Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.   That schedule was changed, with a motion from Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot.

“Personally, and I’m sure all of the members of Council could benefit from having this extra time to be able to better structure and format their questions to administration to ensure that our questions are concise, well-structured and efficient,” Chabot said.

REVISED SCHEDULE

Valuable insight from both sides

The motion to push the decision off until next week succeeded 8-7.

Mayor Gondek said that admin had worked hard to create the schedule after having worked on a public hearing that went far longer than anticipated.

“I think it’s irresponsible for us to push this off because we’re tired,” she said.

“That’s part of the job. This is what we signed up for. This is why we got elected.”

While council will have some time to let the hundreds of submissions settle, the input from Calgarians was invaluable, Mayor Gondek said. She thanked citizens for their participation.

“It was 12 almost-full days of a public hearing. We appreciate everything that you brought forward to us. We’ve got a lot to consider and many questions to ask to administration and much debate to have,” she said.

Ward 11 Coun. Kourtney Penner said that Calgarians came out to express how much they loved their communities and that they appreciated the time to be able to speak.

“People acknowledge the need for more homes. How we get there is what’s up for debate,” she said.

Penner said there are a “swirl” of amendments expected. Some are directly related to the citywide rezoning land-use change and others that are broader policy changes.

“Then some amendments are trying to sort of give a nod or credence to the public that we heard their concerns and through future reporting or metrics that we will try to show and or prove the work that we’re doing,” she said.

Coun. Penner said that the conversation didn’t just happen in council but happened in the broader public sphere after each presenter got their five minutes at the public hearing.

“It was not only an important process for council, I think it was an important process for Calgary as a whole to hear right from all sides of the debate, to hear the different perspectives,” she said.

“Whether they be fact-based public policy, economic arguments, whether they be concerns about investments and quality of life. We heard a gamut of things.”