Calgary city council has voted in favour of repealing citywide rezoning after weeks of public feedback and debate.
Council voted 12 to 3 in favour of repeal with councillors Nathaniel Schmidt, Myke Atkinson and Andrew Yule the sole votes against.
The vote comes after eight public hearing sessions over two weeks where 411 Calgarians addressed city council, and nearly 3,300 written submissions were also received.
“This vote was about restoring the voice in the community, understanding that change will continue to happen,” Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas said following the vote. “But on a go forward, Calgarians will have more of their voices heard and respected through that process.”
The move means 306,774 residential properties across the city will be redesignated back to their original low-density residential districts.
Approved back in 2024 by the previous city council after the longest public hearing in city history, citywide rezoning made residential grade-oriented infill (R-CG) the default residential zoning district across the city.
It allowed a variety of housing types to be built on a single property, including rowhouses and townhouses.
“Blanket rezoning does not reduce the cost of building, it hasn’t sped up development timelines, it does not get homes built faster or cheaper,” said Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean in his debate. “What it has done, however, is divide communities. It has created uncertainty, it has eroded trust and it’s attempted to fundamentally change the character of communities across our city.”
According to city administration, there have been 639 development permits enabled through citywide rezoning including 386 rowhomes, 41 single detached homes, and 53 semi detached homes.
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City data shows most of those permits, 165, were approved in Ward 7, followed by 86 in Ward 11, 83 in Ward 9 and 78 each in Wards 1, 4 and 6.
Wards 2, 3 and 12 had zero development permits enabled by citywide rezoning, according to city data.
“Too often we spoke of housing like it’s pollution, something that needs to be relegated to places that are less desirable and kept away from places we value now,” Schmidt said during the debate. “That’s not how we build a vision for the future and that’s not how we build communities.”
Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot, who introduced the motion to repeal citywide rezoning, said council’s decision opens the door to a new plan to enable housing in growth in a more targeted way.
“Ultimately, we need to increase our intensity of use to make our city more affordable and more sustainable,” he told reporters. “We can’t just continue to grow out, we have to grow up as well so a made-in-Calgary solution, I think, is going to be the best path forward and that’s going to require a lot of work.”
Calgary’s mayor also ran on a platform to find a replacement for citywide rezoning.
Some city councillors expressed frustration the housing policy was being repealed without a replacement plan.
“I believe in good governance,” Atkinson said. “This wasn’t good governance. You don’t repeal and then figure something out later.”
After nearly two years of concerns around the impacts from citywide rezoning, the group Calgarians for Thoughtful Growth was encouraged that city council “really did listen” to the feedback from residents.
Chris Davis, a representative from the group, told reporters Wednesday that they recognize there needs to be meaningful planning work to get housing built.
“I don’t think any of us are so naive as to think we don’t have to respond positively and effectively to density, it was all about how we did it,” Davis said. “This is an opportunity now for all Calgarians to come together and work collaboratively to find solutions.”
Housing advocates like More Neighbours Calgary said there wasn’t much surprise by council’s vote, but there remains disappointment and concern over the impact the repeal will have on housing.
“We should be trying to build as much as we can… we should be letting the market meet the housing needs of Calgarians,” said the group’s co-founder Kathryn Davies. “We just seem committed to restraining that as we can.”
According to city administration, the changes and repeal won’t take effect until August.
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