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Calgary city council voted heavily in favour of repealing blanket rezoning on Wednesday, on the policy\u2019s first reading.<\/p>\n
Council voted 12-3 to repeal the housing policy after weeks of public hearings. Councillors Myke Atkinson, Nathaniel Schmidt and Andrew Yule cast opposing votes.<\/p>\n
Blanket rezoning is a policy that allows for more multi-unit housing types, such as rowhouses or fourplexes, on lots that were previously only zoned for single-family homes. Council heard from 411 speakers on the policy and received nearly 3,300 written submissions from residents who wanted the policy repealed, replaced or left intact.<\/p>\n
The policy was introduced in 2024.<\/p>\n
Mayor Jeromy Farkas supported the repeal to work toward \u201crestoring trust\u201d with residents. He said he\u2019s fielded plenty of concerns from Calgarians about the process to introduce blanket rezoning, and that through public hearings he heard a desire for a reset.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMany Calgarians felt with the previous decision to adopt blanket rezoning that it had created uncertainty and it really broke trust in the planning process,\u201d said Farkas.<\/p>\n
“Many Calgarians felt that something as significant as this had happened too quickly and without the communities feeling fully part of the conversation.”<\/p>\n
Farkas ran during last fall\u2019s municipal election on a campaign that favoured repealing and replacing blanket rezoning. He stressed he\u2019s not satisfied with repealing the policy without introducing a replacement that can better manage growth and density in Calgary.<\/p>\n
Properties with housing projects approved or currently underway via blanket rezoning will be exempt from the policy changes.<\/p>\n
City council is continuing to debate potential amendments to the policy, after approving its first reading.<\/p>\n
Atkinson opposed the decision to repeal because he argued residents in higher density neighbourhoods are being asked to shoulder the city\u2019s tax burden.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are being asked to take that on while other folks get to continue to live in a place without change,\u201d said Atkinson.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are we here to do? Are we here to preserve or to steward a way to the future? And I do not believe that a repeal stewards a way forward for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":["post-591094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591094","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=591094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}