The Public Hearing for Rezoning for Housing passed in a 9-6 vote, and I voted in favour. The long-term benefits combined with amendments to address the concerns of Ward 12, tipped the scale for me. Read on to learn more...

Here is the full list of amendments: Rezoning for Housing w/ Amendments

Below I have outlined two that were particularly important for me in supporting the final proposal:

CITY WIDE

Community Voice

One of the biggest concerns raised during the debate on Rezoning for Housing centred around the loss of the Landuse Redesignation Public Hearing as an opportunity for the community to speak up about concerns on individual projects. In response to this multifamily was moved from a permitted use to discretionary to ensure that the community could hold projects and the development authority to account at the Subdivision and Appeal Board. While it was acknowledged that this was better than nothing, concerns were raised that the process would increasingly push the conversation down an antagonistic and litigious path. This amendment is meant to foster a better conversation between the community, development interests, and the development authority.

The direction given on the engagement process aims to create a strong conversation around the impact of redevelopment in communities. This is an ongoing point of tension between Calgarians and The City requiring a process that honours all parties involved.

Here is the President of the Federation of Calgary Communities, discussing this very issue:

Leslie Evans on city-community relations | Calgary Eyeopener with Loren McGinnis, Angela Knight | Live Radio | CBC Listen (April 25, 2024)

Reaction to council passing rezoning bylaw | Calgary Eyeopener with Loren McGinnis, Angela Knight | Live Radio | CBC Listen (May 16, 2024)

If you listen to both of these, in light of what was outlined above, I hope you can see why there is room for optimism. The City is poised for a much better conversation with communities and is focused on incentivizing the best outcomes. This amendment was important for me to feel comfortable moving forward.

WARD 12

Worst-case Scenarios

One of the biggest themes I heard both through the survey, in emails, on the phone and even when door knocking on the issue was frustration that our Ward 12 communities are already compact, already have high densities, a healthy mix of uses and the associated issues with parking, traffic congestion, etc.

There was little appetite for added density, this led me to second the following amendment:

This amendment changed the .5 parking requirement to 1 for all communities in yellow on this map: See Map

While the probability of rezoning triggering new density is small due to lot sizes and a variety of other reasons in Ward 12, it was technically possible. I felt it was paramount to change this to be able to support the proposal. The amendment by Cllr Wyness achieved this by ensuring that any units added as a result of the rezoning would require an additional parking spot. This greatly restricts the possibility of the worst-case scenarios in Ward 12 by requiring space on each lot for those parking spaces and mitigating future impact to already tight parking in our Ward.

Ultimately, I voted in favour of Rezoning for Housing for three main reasons:

1. The rezoning removes steps to bring housing to market and stabilize prices over time.

This includes removing bureaucracy, bringing greater certainty, stopping the artificial restriction of gentle density, and facilitating movement up the housing ladder.

As the details related to this proposal continue to be a subject of conversation in our community I intend to come back and unpack my top three reasons in more detail. Until then, the original R-G in Ward 12 blog gives a great view into why I went into the Public Hearing leaning towards supporting the proposal.

I will be at the Seton YMCA on Friday, May 31st from 3-7pm and available to discuss concerns on this and anything else in our City.

As always, don't hesitate to get in touch via email: [email protected]

Evan Spencer

Cllr. Ward 12