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Calgarians don’t head to the polls until the fall, but a new political party is hoping to make citywide rezoning a ballot box issue by vowing to repeal the policy.
October’s municipal election will be the first with political parties, including Communities First, the group pitching the policy reversal.The party, which includes sitting councillors Sonya Sharp, Andre Chabot, Dan McLean and Terry Wong, said it would repeal citywide rezoning and implement major reforms to the city’s planning department if a majority of its candidates are elected.“People were really upset, and it’s what we’ve heard over and over again since the decision was made,” Chabot told Global News.“This is what we heard through the public hearing, so our intent is to fix that when we get re-elected.”
Last spring, Calgary city council voted to change the city’s base residential zoning after the largest public hearing in city history.Council heard from more than 730 speakers, but the majority voiced opposition to the idea.The new base zoning, called R-CG, allows for higher-density housing types on a single property, including row houses and duplexes.While redevelopment to those housing types now doesn’t require a zoning change, or a public hearing, it still requires a development permit.
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“We’re not against smart development and making sure housing is being built,” Sharp said.“It’s about removing people from the process and that is what’s pinning people against each other.”
City data showed after city-wide rezoning was implemented on Aug. 6, the city received 152 development permits for rowhouses and townhouses — a 271-per cent increase over the same time period in 2023.The zoning change also directly enabled 46 per cent of all new low-density housing development permits applied for within established communities, the city said.When asked about the proposal on Thursday, Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek refused to weigh in, but noted her job is to ensure Calgarians have a wide range of housing options in the city. “I want to make sure everyone has all of those options in all communities in this city, that’s the job I was elected to do,” Gondek said. “As far as speculation about changing zoning coming from parties in the municipal election, I won’t weigh in on that.”Other mayoral candidates have announced plans to repeal citywide rezoning, like former councillor Jeff Davison.Jeromy Farkas, who is also running for mayor, called the policy a “failure of leadership,” on social media but didn’t clarify whether he’d keep the policy in place.
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Brian Thiessen, who is running for mayor under The Calgary Party banner, said his party would take 18 months to look for improvements to the policy through community engagement. The first-time mayoral candidate accused Communities First of trying to create a ballot box question.“It seems like a cynical approach, to pour gasoline on the fire and create an issue and distract from the hard work that should be done by this council,” he told Global News.Lori Williams, an associate professor of policy studies at Mount Royal University, said politicians often seek to define a main question for voters to consider at the ballot box that gives them a political advantage.But given Calgarians won’t be voting municipally until Oct. 20, and a variety of issues being dealt with by council, Williams said it’s too early to determine what the main issue will be in the upcoming vote. “The ballot question going into an election can change dramatically and quickly, and so we don’t know what the election issue is going to be in months, we don’t know what it’s going to be even in weeks,” Williams said.“The reality is, we’ve got folks who are trying to stake out their political territory.”
The councillors that make up the majority of Communities First attempted to block the citywide zoning change, but each attempt was defeated.Within 12 months of the decision, a reconsideration vote would require a two-thirds majority of council to be approved.If elected, the party would need just eight votes or a simple majority, to make the policy change.
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