Lawyers for a group of Calgarians challenging the city’s rezoning changes are planning an appeal. Earlier this month, a judge dismissed the group’s judicial review application, saying the applicants “were off-target with each challenge.” This past spring, city hall was dominated by Calgary’s longest-ever public hearing on proposed citywide rezoning. Over a span of about 100 hours, 736 people spoke to council on the issue. Nearly 70 per cent of the people who spoke were against blanket rezoning, city officials said. Regardless, the land-use amendment passed by a 9-6 vote after the three-week public hearing. The application for judicial review cited challenges based on “a perceived lack of authority for the city to enact (the changes), a shortfall in procedural fairness and an allegedly closed-minded councillor.” The lawyers say their appeal will focus on what it calls constraints in the judicial review proceeding and the court’s conclusion on Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra’s alleged bias.
