{"id":592321,"date":"2026-04-09T11:00:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T11:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/592321\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T11:00:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T11:00:35","slug":"after-weeks-of-debate-calgary-city-council-approves-repeal-of-citywide-rezoning-calgary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/592321\/","title":{"rendered":"After weeks of debate, Calgary city council approves repeal of citywide rezoning – Calgary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Calgary city council has voted in favour of repealing citywide rezoning after weeks of public feedback and debate.<\/p>\n

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Council voted 12 to 3 in favour of repeal with councillors Nathaniel Schmidt, Myke Atkinson and Andrew Yule the sole votes against.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis vote was about restoring the voice in the community, understanding that change will continue to happen,\u201d Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas said following the vote. \u201cBut on a go forward, Calgarians will have more of their voices heard and respected through that process.\u201d<\/p>\n

The move means 306,774 residential properties across the city will be redesignated back to their original low-density residential districts.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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It allowed a variety of housing types to be built on a single property, including rowhouses and townhouses.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlanket rezoning does not reduce the cost of building, it hasn\u2019t sped up development timelines, it does not get homes built faster or cheaper,\u201d said Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean in his debate. \u201cWhat it has done, however, is divide communities.\u00a0 It has created uncertainty, it has eroded trust and it\u2019s attempted to fundamentally change the character of communities across our city.\u201d<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

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Wards 2, 3 and 12 had zero development permits enabled by citywide rezoning, according to city data.<\/p>\n

\u201cToo often we spoke of housing like it\u2019s pollution, something that needs to be relegated to places that are less desirable and kept away from places we value now,\u201d Schmidt said during the debate. \u201cThat\u2019s not how we build a vision for the future and that\u2019s not how we build communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot, who introduced the motion to repeal citywide rezoning, said council\u2019s decision opens the door to a new plan to enable housing in growth in a more targeted way.<\/p>\n

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\u201cUltimately, we need to increase our intensity of use to make our city more affordable and more sustainable,\u201d he told reporters. \u201cWe can\u2019t 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\u2019s going to require a lot of work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calgary\u2019s mayor also ran on a platform to find a replacement for citywide rezoning.<\/p>\n

Some city councillors expressed frustration the housing policy was being repealed without a replacement plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe in good governance,\u201d Atkinson said. \u201cThis wasn\u2019t good governance. You don\u2019t repeal and then figure something out later.\u201d<\/p>\n

After nearly two years of concerns around the impacts from citywide rezoning, the group Calgarians for Thoughtful Growth was encouraged that city council \u201creally did listen\u201d to the feedback from residents.<\/p>\n

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Chris Davis, a representative from the group, told reporters Wednesday that they recognize there needs to be meaningful planning work to get housing built.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think any of us are so naive as to think we don\u2019t have to respond positively and effectively to density, it was all about how we did it,\u201d Davis said. \u201cThis is an opportunity now for all Calgarians to come together and work collaboratively to find solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Housing advocates like More Neighbours Calgary said there wasn\u2019t much surprise by council\u2019s vote, but there remains disappointment and concern over the impact the repeal will have on housing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should be trying to build as much as we can\u2026 we should be letting the market meet the housing needs of Calgarians,\u201d said the group\u2019s co-founder Kathryn Davies. \u201cWe just seem committed to restraining that as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to city administration, the changes and repeal won\u2019t take effect until August.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Calgary city council has voted in favour of repealing citywide rezoning after weeks of public feedback and debate.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":592322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[213324,49,2798,71388,48,24156,190319,714],"class_list":["post-592321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-blanket-rezoning-calgary","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-calgary-city-council","tag-canada","tag-city-of-calgary","tag-citywide-rezoning-calgary","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592321","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=592321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}