In 2024, Calgary passed a blanket rezoning law city-wide. Essentially, it automatically allowed new multi-dwelling builds across every neighbourhood in the city, instead of forcing each rezoning request to go through council.
It seems to have worked. Permit applications nearly tripled, and it’s helped the city receive millions in federal funding for housing. It’s also not perfect, with 6- or 8-dwelling townhouses sometimes being erected on a single lot without proper consideration of parking or congestion.
But given how disastrously governments across the western world have handled housing policy over the last two decades, an imperfect solution is far better than no solution. Yet the NIMBYs have spoken—loudly, it seems—and council will likely reverse the decision following public hearings beginning March 23.
I’m strongly opposed. What follows is a letter sent as a public submission to the hearings and to my councillor in Ward 4.
I bought a house in Highland Park in 2024. It’s an area with a ton of new builds going up: construction everywhere, more traffic on the streets, more parked cars on the side of the road.
Yet I still fully support the 2024 rezoning bylaw and stand in opposition to reversing it. I’m sure councillors have heard from many vocal constituents who are focused purely on the negative aspects of change. I urge everyone to focus instead on the positive: more housing available for young people trying to enter the market; more people living closer to the core vs. ever-expanding suburbs; in my area especially, new housing around the major transit hub of Centre Street North; more vibrancy in the neighbourhood, more opportunities for new businesses, new neighbours and fresh faces as we live, work and play in our communities.
By reversing the 2024 zoning bylaw, we allow the voices of a few vocal citizens to freeze our neighbourhoods in time. We should strive for more Kensingtons, more 17th Aves, more Marda Loops—neighbourhoods with energy, personality, character. Neighbourhoods people and businesses want to be in.
In cities across Canada and the US, councils have voted alongside the loud voices of the minority—often the only ones blessed with enough free time to raise such complaints—resulting in expanding suburbs, increased infrastructure costs, skyrocketing house prices and a lack of density in the neighbourhoods best suited for it. I urge this council to side with the interests of the many over the fears of the few—to imagine what our communities could become tomorrow instead of clinging to what they are today.
