City of Calgary data shows a 117 per cent increase in building permits for townhouses and rowhouses compared to last year, and an improvement in development permit timelines.

Those are just a couple of the pieces in a download of data in the quarterly update on citywide rezoning, which is included as a briefing note in the Dec. 3 Infrastructure and Planning Committee (IPC) meeting. Briefing notes are included on the agendas, but are not discussed at a meeting. (Data included below.)

According to the city administration briefing, citywide rezoning enabled 58 per cent of all low-density units with development permits between Q4 2024 and Q3 2025. There was also a 12 per cent increase in development permit volumes between Q3 2025 and Q3 2024, with 231 applications representing 580 additional units.

Of the development permits received in Q3 2025 alone, 68 would have required a land-use amendment before proceeding.

According to data provided previously to LWC, 460 land-use redesignation hearings have been avoided since citywide rezoning was enacted in 2024.

“Since coming into effect on 2024 August 6, citywide rezoning has allowed a wider range of housing types on affected parcels, making it easier to build more diverse homes,” read the City of Calgary admin briefing note.

There’s been a steady increase in the percentage of units made available through citywide rezoning, according to the city data. In Q3, 28 per cent of development permits were enabled by citywide rezoning, compared with 21 per cent in Q2, seven per cent in Q1, and three per cent in Q4 2024.

“Citywide rezoning is proving to be an effective tool for increasing housing supply, diversifying housing types, and streamlining development processes. In addition to reducing approval timelines, the removal of land use amendment requirements has significantly lowered the cost, risk, and complexity of development,” the report read.

The City said that elevated volumes of development permits kept timelines generally consistent from 2024 to 2025, though there were improvements overall since 2023 (before rezoning), particularly in the multi-unit developments.

Rezoning is doing exactly what it was intended to do: Coun. Schmidt

Ward 8 Coun. Nathan Schmidt said the data shows that more homes are being built in neighbourhoods where Calgarians already live.

“As an example, neighbourhoods that are losing schools, they are losing amenities, and by putting in these homes, along with $192 million of funding from the city and also the buy-in that we get from the developers, we are bringing life back into communities where it’s most needed. That’s what the map shows,” he said.

“The data tells me the program is doing exactly what it was intended to do.”

Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot, chair of the IPC, and also the lead in the push to repeal citywide rezoning, said too much of the credit is being given to rezoning when it should be directed at the overall policy change in greenfield areas where RG zoning already exists.

“I would say that many of those homes have gone from a single-family residential home to a single-family residential home. So, the blanket zoning has not changed that insofar as the approvals process,” Chabot said.

Chabot said even without citywide rezoning, Calgary would likely have achieved those numbers, as they already approved most of the land use changes. He said what they’re trying to fix with the repeal is the larger projects that pitted neighbours against one another.

“In order to fix it, you almost have to go back to the original zoning to then readjust some of the Local Area Plans that were converted under the premise of blanket zoning being approved,” he said.

“So, some of those (Local Area Plans) will have to be walked back to be able to then look at City-initiated redesignation in the appropriate locations as identified through the Local Area Plans.”

Infrastructure upgrades not required… yet

Also included in the Wednesday IPC meeting is a report on the R-CG infrastructure readiness. It showed that less than one per cent of the 1.949 R-CG homes reviewed since October 2024 required a utility upgrade.

It stated that new R-CG properties add about one additional home for every 240 existing homes.

The review came at the request of previous Couns. Sonya Sharp and Terry Wong last year.

“Based on current data, R-CG densification has had a negligible impact on water, roads, and parks systems,” the city report read.

“Existing programs and cost-sharing tools are meeting needs, and no new funding tool is required at this time.”

Coun. Chabot said that it’s early days. The question will be when more units come online, especially bigger projects, who will pay for the upgrades when the previously added density didn’t trigger them, but are definitely a part of the need.

“When you’re talking about incremental increases like that of 1, 2, 5, 10 units, there is no provision for that infrastructure upgrade,” he said.

“Therein lies the challenge. It’s not today. It’s a challenge that we’ll be facing in the future, as more developments come online.”

Coun. Schmidt said that it’s a relatively small amount of density added to areas that were overbuilt in the 50s and 80s, where there aren’t enough people to meet the existing utility capacity.

“I think it’s cheaper than a big infrastructure spend from continuing to grow outwards, because all infrastructure has a lifetime, and we build into our deficit in trying to refresh that infrastructure, no matter where it’s built,” he said.

“Overall, it’s a more efficient way for us to provide Calgarians with great infrastructure than building from scratch every time we need to add new homes.”