Four new suburban Calgary community growth applications received preliminary approval, less than a day after city councillors approved citywide rezoning.

There were seven proposed developments on the table at the May 15 Infrastructure and Planning Committee meeting, but only four were endorsed by administration. The committee-approved applications must first be approved at council before being heard either at a future strategic meeting of council or budget deliberations in November.

The approved developments were in Belvedere (x2), Keystone Hills, South Shepard. Development that city admin felt needed more time and work were in West View, Providence and Glacier Ridge.

The approved parcels would add 18,677 new homes to the Calgary market upon full build out. The upfront initial capital cost would be $81.2 million for consideration in the mid-cycle budget adjustment in November, with an additional $189.5 million from 2027 and beyond.

Ward 14 Coun. Peter Demong took issue with the sluggish timelines for all seven of the developments, given that the city is in a housing crisis. He, along with other councillors, tried to accelerate the process for approvals for specific growth applications.

While developers believed making immediate decisions on capital projects to move the developments ahead sooner, admin said it wouldn’t likely have a significant impact in expediting homes to the market given timelines for infrastructure planning and construction.

Demong pressed the issue at committee.

“If we are truly in a housing crisis, why are we waiting six months to decide at budget, how we can bring in literally 1000s of units into the city,” he said.

“I’m trying to understand where the urgency is. Where’s the emergency necessary to actually accelerate this? That was the point I was trying to make. I think I got my point across.”

Lingering discontent after rezoning debate

BILD Calgary Region’s Director of Policy, Strategic Initiative and Government Relations, Deborah Cooper, said that while there have been improvements to the city’s intake process, the transition has brought elements into play that make the process and timelines less clear.

“Unforeseen changes to the handling of growth applications introduced uncertainty into industry’s investment and planning processes,” she told committee.

“The implications of these changes are significant, especially amid the current housing supply crisis.”

With no clear path forward, it risks undermining confidence and discouraging investment in new Calgary communities, Cooper said.

She did provide council with a series of recommendations that would aid in clarifying the process and restoring confidence, including the creation of a clearer timeline for developers, along with a clearer criterion for approvals.

Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp, who chairs the Infrastructure and Planning Committee said it was supposed to be a different process for greenfield development than before, but it’s not. Coming off a public hearing where the housing urgency was pushed, she understood the frustration with putting these decisions off until budget.

“We’re coming off a very long public hearing. And now we’re talking about greenfield development. We’re talking about process. Part of the decision yesterday was to remove people from the process, but we have developers here today, pleading their case for their business case for their communities, to build homes for people,” she said.

“So yeah, I would say temperatures are a bit high coming off of the last couple of weeks, but we do need to strike a balance between inner city development and greenfield.”

Putting all seven of the developments through would trigger nearly $1 billion in capital costs for the city, a large portion of which would eventually be collected through developer levies.

Sharp said that there are always competing priorities for city infrastructure cash.

“I’m surprised that four of them were even recommended,” she said.

“We have to be able to look at all of these and say, what are our coffers at, what can we spend money on, what are our competing priorities.”

There will be additional discussion at a future strategic meeting of council around integrating new community approvals into their ongoing budget deliberation process.