Councillors on a city committee voted to delay the discussion and initial approval of an overarching Calgary planning document, pushing it off until next year.

Discussion of the Calgary Plan, which is the merging and streamlining of the Municipal Development Plan (MDP) and the Calgary Transportation Plan (CTP), was to take place during the Dec. 11 Infrastructure and Planning Committee meeting.

The document is the highest-level statutory plan for land use and mobility in the city and guides the long-range planning and development for Calgary for the next several decades.

City administration had a plan to have the document reviewed by the committee, with it to come back to a future public hearing for citizens to weigh in. After potential city council approval, it would go to the Calgary Metropolitan Region Board for their approval. City admin said this had to be done by late summer 2025.

That’s why they wanted it to come to Infrastructure and Planning now. Some councillors, however, said they felt this was a rush job.

A series of 20-some amendments had been submitted in the late stages that some councillors were concerned with. Others, like Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot, said they haven’t had time to meet with their community members about the new plan. Chabot said he’s still wrapping his head around 2020 MDP amendments.

“So, whilst I appreciate that some members of council may feel very comfortable with this current document, I, for one, am not nor have I had a chance to engage my community myself to get their feedback,” he said.  

“While the administration has stated that they’ve reached out to communities, no one that I’ve spoken to within my community associations is even familiar with this document, let alone the fact that it’s coming now with a final draft.”

City engagement over the past year

According to the City of Calgary, they’ve heard from more than 21,000 people over the past year. They’ve done this through pop-up engagement sessions at recreation centres and malls, and they had conversations with people at the Fair Entry lines at city hall and transit pass locations.

They said also spoke with youth and people with limited mobility to reach people who are typically underrepresented in engagement.  

“From these sessions, we heard what was most important to Calgarians: A passion for parks and natural spaces, the importance of building housing and commerce closer to transit, and a focus on accessible, reliable supporting infrastructure,” the city admin report said.

“This feedback was directly incorporated into the Calgary Plan.”

Ward 12 Coun. Evan Spencer said these are two documents that Calgary city councillors should already be very familiar with, and to delay it because the document isn’t well thought out is “silly.”

“We’re talking about streamlining our development processes and helping the city respond to the changes and the growth pressures it’s facing right now,” he said.

“This is very well thought out. It has an awful lot in it. Is it perfect? Nothing we pass here is perfect. This is we are right now, in the middle of the process of helping it get to where it needs to go. The fact that we’re doing this (delaying it) before we’ve asked the questions and pointed out pieces that we think need us to do this, points to me for some other motivations that I think are kind of rather silly.”

Both Coun. Jasmine Mian and Mayor Jyoti Gondek also said that there was nothing wrong with asking questions at the Dec. 11 meeting, hearing the presentation, and sending admin back with areas to refine.

Those pleas fell on deaf ears, and committee members referred the matter to the February meeting of the Infrastructure and Planning Committee.