City of Calgary Information 

June 5, 2024:  Catastrophic Water Main Break in NW Calgary

On June 5, 2024, the City of Calgary experienced a catastrophic break in a critical water main in the northwest part of the City, This event resulted in shutting down the TransCanada Highway through a portion of Bowness and Montgomery, placing all Calgarians under stage 4 water restrictions and portions of Bowness into a boil water advisory.

May 14, 2024:  City Council Votes to Adopt Blanket Rezoning 

Sadly, against the wishes of the vast majority of Calgarians, Calgary councillors approve blanket citywide rezoning after amendments, Calgary Herald, May 14, 2024.  Council voted 9 to 6 in favour of the contentious policy with Ward 1's Councillor, Sonya Sharp, one of the six Councillors in opposition.   Unquestionably, this will become a high profile election issue during the 2025 municipal election. 

The VRCRG opposes blanket rezoning.  Also termed "up-zoning", this represents the most significant shift in Calgary’s planning policy in decades. The rationale for our position is provided in our May 3, 2024 letter to Councillor Sharp, cc'd to City Councillors, and in this earlier March 1, 2024,  document posted on NextDoor. 

The images below show one existing example of an R-CG rowhouse and the City of Calgary's schematic showing the potential increase in density now allowed by R-CG zoning on former R-1 lots:

May 9, 2024: City Council receives Administrations "What we wanted to hear" report 

Public Hearing on Blanket Rezoning:  April 22 - May 6, 2024

This was the longest Public Hearing in Calgary's history with 736 people presenting their position to City Council over 12 days that also included 6,101 written submissions.  

On Thursday, May 9, 2024, Tim Keane, the City's new Chief Planner presented City Administration's "What we heard report" to City Council, in part summarizing results from public feedback over a 12 day period.  Incredibly, Mr. Keane's analysis only addressed the 736 presentation to City Council, EXCLUDING all 6,101 written submissions from members of the public.  Mr. Keane provided a breakdown of the 736 presentations showing:  227 in support (31%), 458 opposed (62%), with 51 neutral (7%) towards adoption of blanket rezoning.  These data indicate a 2:1 ratio of opposing blanket rezoning.  

After brief introductory comments, Mr. Keane then devoted less than 5 minutes of his 45 minute presentation to City Council on a factual summary of public feedback. This was followed by nearly 40 minutes of Mr. Keane's own opinions.  The purpose of Mr. Keane's presentation to Council was to present a factual summary of the results of public feedback from a 12 day public hearing, not to utilize the majority of his time to inject his own opinions and interpretations.  

A pdf file of all 13,434 pages of City Council's agenda for the April 22, 2024 Public Hearing, including those written submissions received by that date are available for download on the City's website.  In his May 12, 2024, letter to Mayor Gondek and City Council, Mr. Brian Donaldson provides a more thorough analysis of public feedback on blanket rezoning, that includes the 6,101 written submissions in addition to the 736 presentations made to City Council.  In strict contrast to the Mr. Keane's stated 2:1 ratio of opposition, results from Mr. Donaldson's analysis suggest a nearly 10:1 ratio of opposition to support when written submissions are included.  City Administration's selective "cherry-picking" of available public feedback supports the use of a biased approach in their comments to City Council via Mr. Keane's presentation. 

We note that Mr. Keane's May 9, 2024 presentation to City Council also omitted several key points relating to R-CG blanket rezoning that many of those in opposition spoke to during the Public Hearing, including:  

(1) increased allowable lot coverage to 60% for all lots rezoned to R-CG, 

(2) elimination of public hearings on land use redesignations and residents' right to object; nor

(3) any mention of the high degree of public concern regarding Council's vote NOT to hold a plebiscite on blanket rezoning.  

At best, one can only conclude that Mr. Keane's presentation was misleading and lopsided, and that it is best characterized as the City of Calgary's "What we wanted to hear" report on blanket rezoning.  His presentation was indeed a blow to the credibility of City Administration.

Blanket rezoning needs to be rejected entirely, until a plebiscite on blanket rezoning can be held as part of the 2025 election. 

Next steps are that Council will reconvene on Monday, May 13, to ask questions of Administration, propose amendments, debate, and finally to vote on whether the City of Calgary will adopt blanket rezoning.

May 6, 2024: Public Hearing on Blanket Re-zoning Ends 

(April 22 - May 6, 2024)

At 12 days in length, the longest Public Hearing in Calgary's history spanning a 12-day period finally came to an end on May 6, 2024.  Over 730 people presented their views to City Council, each allotted a 5 minute period to make their statements.

On Thursday, May 9, City Planning will present their "What we heard report" to City Council that is to be a summary of public feedback received on this contentious issue.  Council will then reconvene on Tuesday, May 13, to ask questions, propose amendments, debate, and finally vote on whether Calgary will adopt blanket rezoning.

REZONING FOR HOUSING

This link takes you to the City of Calgary's rezoning website providing details of the City's proposal for blanket rezoning.

Also include is a link where you may sign up to subscribe to receive updates from the City of Calgary as they are released.

HOUSING STRATEGY (2024-2030)

Here, you will find details of the City of Calgary's Housing Strategy, 2024-2030, approved by City Council in September 2023.  This was developed by the CIty's Housing and Affordability Task Force.

HOUSING ACCELERATOR FUND

The City of Calgary has entered an agreement to access up to $228.5 million from the Federal Government's $4 billion, Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF).  This link will open the City's website for the HAF and provides further details, including a pdf copy of the agreement available for download.  Schedule "A" states the first of four, $57.1 million advances will take effect on March 31, 2024.   The City of Calgary executed this agreement last October 27, 2023, prior to the April 22, 2024 vote by City Council whether or not to implement blanket rezoning on April 22, 2024. 

In answer to one of the FAQ's, "Will the rezoning decision impact HAF funding?", the City's website states, "If Council does not approve the rezoning on 2024 April 22, the final HAF payment may be impacted."   The website also states the City of Calgary's Secondary Suite Incentivization program will be funded from the City's share of the HAF funding.

LAND USE DISTRICTS

This link takes you to the City's website for Land Use Districts.  Here you can select and display on a dynamic map, any, or multiple combinations, of Land Use Districts (as presently defined) from across Calgary.  The resultant map enables an understanding of the distribution of any particular Land Use District in Calgary.  

As an example, the map below shows the current distribution of R-CG Land Use Districts as of April 17, 2024.  R-CG zoning was first introduced in 2014 as a new land use.  It was primarily utilized within inner city or established communities.