new data<\/a> made public by the City of Calgary. <\/p>\nApplications for townhouses and rowhouses largely drove the increase, with 140 submissions in the fourth quarter, compared to 51 in the third and 43 in the second.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In total, developers submitted 304 permit applications in the fourth quarter, a 27 per cent increase from the same time period in 2024. <\/p>\n
Of those, 104 were for single detached homes, 26 for semi-detached, 15 for front-back semi-detached, 140 for townhouses and rowhouses and 20 for multi-unit dwellings.<\/p>\n
The city said 161 of those proposals would have required a land use amendment were it not for blanket rezoning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The applications, if approved, would create 947 more units.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shameer Gaidhar, chair of the Calgary Inner City Builders Association, said the increase is likely twofold. He said the winter months can be a good time to get applications submitted with the intent of building once the spring thaw comes. <\/p>\n
And he said there are likely some developers looking to get their permits in under the wire before a repeal might happen. <\/p>\n
Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean said it does appear developers are moving quickly to get applications in while they can, something he said is to be expected. He said he looks forward to council settling on a new policy. <\/p>\n
“All I’m hoping for is a better solution going forward than what we just passed. Blanket rezoning was lazy,” he said.<\/p>\n
Future of blanket rezoning<\/p>\n
The fourth quarter of 2025 notably included the October municipal election, where the majority of councillors elected, as well as Mayor Jeromy Farkas, expressed their desire to overturn the controversial policy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The bylaw was approved under the previous council following marathon public hearings in an effort to boost the city\u2019s housing supply.<\/p>\n
It removes the requirement of a land use amendment for permits, speeding up approval timelines and allowing for new units to be built more easily in established neighbourhoods.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In December, council voted 13-2 in favour of moving ahead with a repeal of blanket rezoning. It will next be discussed March 23 at a public hearing that could spill into multiple days due to the large number of speakers expected.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gaidhar anticipates the number of permit applications to drop off after that hearing, as developers wait for clarity around the bylaw. He said he is already hearing from developers who have already pulled back on property purchases. <\/p>\n
“Every single business wants predictability,” he said. “And right now, there is no predictability on what can happen.” <\/p>\n
Last month, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) warned the city could risk millions in federal housing funding should it go ahead with reversing blanket rezoning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The quarterly data is part of a briefing report on the agenda for the infrastructure and planning committee, set to reconvene next week. <\/p>\n
In its briefing, city administration continues to stand by blanket rezoning as an effective policy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBy removing land use amendment requirements, housing supply timelines, costs, risks, and complexity have been reduced,\u201d the report said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has enabled many projects, previously considered too expensive, risky and lengthy, to proceed, contributing to a more responsive and efficient housing system that supports Calgary\u2019s growing population.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-532285","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-calgary","10":"tag-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Text](\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\")
<\/p>\n