For most of the Calgary city councillors, citywide rezoning was an inherited decision.
Now, the new 15 get their chance to hear the public, see the data, ask questions of administration, debate with colleagues, and ultimately land on a repeal decision as the citywide rezoning public hearing starts March 23.
Surely all of the councillors will have painstakingly, meticulously gone through the nearly 2,400 written public submissions in the 6,804-page agenda for this week’s meeting.
At stake is a potential step back to the Land Use Bylaw from years gone by, reclassifying tens of thousands of lots back to their initial zoning before May 2024. That’s when the last council approved the move to R-CG.
The issue was a consistent theme during the municipal election in 2025.
After hearing from people about this issue while on the campaign trail, Ward 9 Coun. Harrison Clark said he’d initially come to the conclusion that amending the current rules was the best approach.
There was a desire among all to turn down the pressure of growth while still ensuring good results in housing, he said.
“It became quite clear talking with folks that the way it was being implemented, especially in Ward 9, especially with these historical neighbourhoods, there’s a lot more concerns than there were benefits, as far as people can see,” he told LWC.
“As the question has been posed by this notice of motion, it’s kind of come down to a yes or no. I mean, there’s not really a lot of room for nuance in the way that the question has been posed.”
Ward 9 has a mix of properties, from historic plots to those with a mature canopy that should be protected. It’s a different issue in each ward, too. He said a blunt instrument like a simple yes or no on R-CG isn’t particularly effective.
Clark said, however, he’s heard from many stakeholders not to “Frankenstein it,” by tinkering with the current form to get it right.
Each ward should see it different: Coun. Kelly
As Ward 4 Coun. DJ Kelly sees it, there should be a differing viewpoint on citywide rezoning by ward. He said the problems created by R-CG zoning aren’t necessarily applied equally throughout Calgary communities.
While he received the 2,400 submissions, he said it doesn’t represent all Calgarians.
“By that, I mean there are wards in the city where people are absolutely against blanket rezoning, but they already have the RG designation in their neighbourhood, and that’s not before us,” he said.
“We also have several wards in the in the city where they may have the R-CG zoning, but they haven’t seen a single application come their way. While every Calgarian gets a vote, every Calgarian gets an opinion, for me, I definitely am going to be looking at the ones who are most impacted.”
Likewise, when he sees a nicely personalized letter, or even a handwritten one versus a form letter that someone has just signed on to.
“I can tell you that if you write a personal email or a personal letter, those are the kinds of things that we pay extra attention to,” he said.
Ward 6 Coun. John Pantazopoulos, who campaigned in opposition to citywide rezoning during the municipal election, said that this public hearing signals a certain closure on the issue. However, once repealed, there’s the process of putting something in place.
“We knocked on 55,000 doors in Ward 6, and we heard overwhelmingly that blanket rezoning didn’t work. I’m looking forward to hearing what people say,” he said.
“But I think the most important comment, most important conversation that’s happening is, what do we build to.”
Pantazopoulos said heading into deeper work on the Calgary Plan, along with the never-ending work on the City of Calgary’s overhaul of the Land Use Bylaw, that the issue continues to evolve – much like the city.
“We’re going to get a lot of learnings. We’re going to hear directly from Calgarians what they want in that document,” he said.
“Hopefully not rinse, wash, repeat, but get those learnings that we heard at the doors, through the public hearing since being in office for five months, and we can implement those changes.”
Is ‘amenable to persuasion’ realistic
In a public hearing, councillors are required, under the Municipal Government Act, to remain amenable to persuasion. That’s means they technically have to keep an open mind about the topic under discussion.
Given that most of the members of council, including Mayor Jeromy Farkas, campaigned on a repeal, it stands to reason that most have their vote set – regardless of what they hear at the public hearing.
Mayor Farkas said it was important for Calgarians and city councillors to hear facts, and regardless of how they voted on the motion to repeal, have an open mind.
“We’re going into this engagement in good faith with Calgarians, and we legitimately want to hear from Calgarians,” he said.
“For me, I want to think a step further. It’s not so much whether or not blanket rezoning should stay or should go – it really needs to be about, how do we restore certainty for Calgarians.”
Farkas believes it’s not a binary ‘yes or no’ decision to be made.
“I was very clear in the campaign that if a repeal were to proceed, there needs to be a replacement strategy, that we need to have an idea about how we can continue to build the needed housing,” he said.
“We can’t be that city of 2 million people… let alone meet the needs of existing Calgarians today, unless we continue to build and develop and grow.”
Coun. Clark thinks that in some cases, his council colleagues will be amenable to persuasion, some maybe not.
“I do believe in having spent now a few months with these people, I think every one of them, when an individual steps up to that podium to sort of say their piece, I know that folks are listening,” he said.
“I do believe that some of these people that you know don’t necessarily align with and feel like they have their minds pretty much made up. I know that they’re listening.”
Like the others, Clark hopes that if citywide rezoning is repealed, that work begins to examine what a potential replacement might be. Particularly bringing together those who voted against the repeal, and those who voted in favour.
“I hope that we can invite these folks to the table, in a more collaborative way, realizing that we each represent different versions of the City of Calgary, can come up with a housing strategy that’s a little bit more nuanced.”
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