The wheels are in motion on a potential repeal of Calgary’s controversial citywide rezoning, after six councillors and the mayor sign on to a Notice of Motion coming next week.

The Notice of Motion for the potential Repeal of Blanket Rezoning, with Couns. Andre Chabot, Dan McLean, Kim Tyers, Rob Ward, Mike Jamieson, Landon Johnston, and Mayor Jeromy Farkas sponsoring it, will receive a technical review at the Nov. 17 Executive Committee meeting.

If approved there, it would come to a future meeting of council for a full debate.

The motion states that at the April 22, 2024, public hearing, nearly 70 per cent of people opposed the bylaw and more than 6,100 public submissions were received. It also states that it’s failed to deliver greater housing affordability and given rise to concerns over loss of neighbourhood character, tree canopy, pressure on infrastructure, parking issues, density in areas without adequate transit and extra congestion due to an increase in waste and recycling bins.

It calls for an amending bylaw to restore the Land Use Bylaw Districts in Bylaw 1P2007 to the original state prior to the third reading of bylaw amendment 21P2024 for citywide rezoning.

According to Coun. Chabot, the plan would exclude anything that was approved before this motion, or anything that’s currently under review in the development permit process.

“Ultimately, the goal is to reinstate the land use the way it was prior to the blanket zoning,” he told LWC.

Chabot is looking for a draft amendment to come to the Infrastructure and Planning Committee by February next year. It has to be publicly advertised for at least 60 days.

While there has been some talk about tweaking the existing bylaw, rather than throwing this one out, Chabot said that would be far too difficult.

“We’ve got some local area plans that have been approved under the guise of blanket zoning being approved citywide, and we have some that have been approved with the understanding that strategic, planned, focused density should only go in certain locations,” he said.  

“It would be just too messy to try and tweak them to be aligned with some of those Local Area Plans, because some were done on the basis of blanket zoning, some were done without blanket zoning.”

Potential amendments are expected

Chabot said that he does expect amendments to be made to this document, particularly around an immediate city-initiated land-use redesignation in alignment with the specific areas in the Local Area Plans that call for added density.  Fellow councillors may have other tweaks they want to make.

His notice of motion also asks for a report on updated infrastructure capacity assessments and revised parking requirements.

Previously, Ward 4 Coun. DJ Kelly said that he thought it was a better idea to try to massage the current bylaw to address the problems that have arisen. Kelly sat on his neighbourhood’s planning and development committee for 10 years and saw firsthand the impact of the rezoning.

He said that he believes there are quick changes that could be made to deal with parking issues and allowing eight-plexes mid-block on laneless lots.

“As a result, these are quick changes that we can that we can make to the zoning bylaw,” he said.

“I am not in favor of a full repeal, primarily because of what comes next after that. If we repeal it, it throws us back to the old planning scheme that we had from the 1980s to 2023. That process was a massive waste of taxpayer dollars. I cannot, in good conscience, repeal it and then also try to reduce city spending.”

Kelly referred to the need for every land-use redesignation (eg: from R1 to R-CG) coming to city council, particularly when 95 per cent or more were approved.

“In addition to that, that process took six months at city hall. City council approved those applications 95 per cent of the time, and that six-month delay was causing, on average, a $50,000 price increase to the average home being built under these guidelines,” he said.

“The unaffordability of houses can directly be drawn to how terrible that old process was.”

Repeal is representative, particularly after the election, Chabot said

While 70 per cent of those attending the public hearing were opposed, it was only those who attended and didn’t necessarily represent the views of all Calgarians.  Chabot said, however, the result of the election – particularly the mayor’s race – is indicative of the citywide sentiment.

“I would say the mayoralty results are very indicative of exactly that,” he said.

“Look at the ones who ran on a platform that they would repeal blanket zoning and combine their numbers, compared to the one person who said they would not, and I would say it’s probably pretty close to 70 per cent.”

One of those mayoral candidates was former Ward 1 candidate Sonya Sharp, who said she wasn’t shy about the fact that she helped craft this notice of motion for her Communities First colleagues.

Sharp, who lost the mayoral race to current Mayor Jeromy Farkas by 616 votes, told LWC on Thursday morning that it was a team effort right from the start.

“I’m happy to see this come forward. It was a promise we all made,” she said.

“Those who were elected said they were going to do it from Communities First, and they did.”

As for why the current mayor signed on to something she campaigned on, Sharp said that Mayor Farkas would have to explain that. The two sparred over the issue leading up to Calgary’s municipal election.

“Why he put his name on it, you’d have to ask him. But maybe it’s such a good notice of motion that he wanted to.”

For his part, Mayor Farkas said that it was important to show Calgarians they were moving on issues that were important to them during the election campaign.

“There’s going to be a lot of work involved: financial, legal, and technical, to explore a repeal. I’m committed to advancing that process. It will be a long-term effort to get this done, but it’s important for council to show Calgarians that we’re taking their concerns seriously and getting to work on them,” he said Thursday.

Either way, Farkas said Calgarians want answers quickly.

“We need answers on the financial and legal elements. We need clarity on federal Housing Accelerator funds. We need to look at potential grandfathering or legal provisions, and we need to move forward with a targeted approach,” he said.

“Calgarians aren’t against housing — we need housing now more than ever. But it needs to be targeted. Near LRT stations, education hubs, employment centres — all those areas where infrastructure can support it. That’s the direction council will take: swift action on housing, addressing the concerns Calgarians had with blanket rezoning, while ensuring every Calgarian has access to safe, affordable housing.”