Calgary’s blanket rezoning debate likely to carry into next week

The debate and a decision on the future of Calgary’s land use bylaw is not likely to come until next week as the second week of the public hearing on blanket rezoning continues.

Just over half of the roughly 520 people who signed up to have their say on the contentious issue have spoken as of Monday afternoon.

“We are in the homestretch, but we have more and more people signing up, to speak, which I think is a great thing,” said Mayor Jeromy Farkas.

“I know that some people would like us to be able to get to a decision, but we can’t start on that until we’ve heard from absolutely everyone.”

Due to previously scheduled council and committee meetings, the blanket rezoning issue will be set aside for Tuesday and Wednesday.

The issue, which was passed in 2024 to allow the building of more townhomes and rowhomes, will be back on Thursday before council has the Easter long weekend off.

The vast majority of people who have spoken at city hall over the last six days are calling for a repeal of blanket rezoning.

That includes officials from the Calgary Real Estate Board (CREB), who say the bylaw is not “achieving the objectives that they were stated to target.”

“Improving affordability, increasing missing middle development in the inner city — it didn’t really do that. We’re seeing things that are pretty similar to what they were before rezoning," said Ann-Marie Lurie, the chief economist with CREB.

“Our purpose on this is more about how do we go back to something that really gives more certainty for buyers and sellers and builders,” she added.

When council reaches the debate stage, there is a slew of recommendations for changes to the bylaw. The biggest, if passed, would redesignate more than 300,000 residential parcels of land to low-density residential districts.

Also set to be considered is prohibiting rowhomes and townhomes from being built mid-block and limiting each parcel to six suites, down from the current limit of eight suites for R-CG zoning.