Calgary city councillors to hear motion on repealing blanket rezoning Monday

The push by members of Calgary's new city council to repeal the controversial blanket rezoning policy rubber-stamped by their predecessors takes a step forward on Monday.

A notice of motion to repeal it will be brought before city council's executive committee.

The motion is sponsored by six councillors: Andre Chabot, Kim Tyers, Rob Ward, Dan McLean, Mike Jamieson and Landon Johnston, as well as Mayor Jeromy Farkas.

For Chabot, who is one of four returnees to council, this a promise made, promise kept.

"I stated publicly immediately ... that I felt this was the worst decision this council had made and that I would be running for re-election, and if successful, that the first motion [I] would bring to council would be a reconsideration on that decision " Chabot told the Calgary Eyeopener.

Chabot said projects already underway would not be stopped, while recently green lit applications would have a limited timeline to move forward to the development stage.

Blanket rezoning has proved divisive among Calgarians from the start. More than 700 people shared their thoughts for and against it during a string of marathon hearings in 2024, and voters remained split on the policy in a pre-election poll by Janet Brown Opinion Research.

The motion argues blanket rezoning is putting stress on aging infrastructure, causing issues finding parking, worsening traffic for communities and damaging the character of neighbourhoods.

Calgary Climate Hub co-chair Robert Tremblay supports blanket rezoning, and said there could be workarounds for some of those concerns, such as a single garbage collection unit for row homes rather than individual green, blue and black bins.

He also believes many neighbourhoods can withstand the increased population, if say they are full of single-family homes where the kids have moved out, and the parents now live alone. "A lot of these communities are well below the their peak population levels or the population levels they were designed for," said Tremblay.

This motion, once it is brought before the full council, will need eight of the 15 votes to pass, one more name than currently attached to the motion.

Chabot said he feels confident they have the votes to make it happen.

Ward 6 councillor John Pantazopoulos campaigned on the need for a full repeal.

He said he did not sign on as a sponsor to the motion because he wanted to see amendments added, particularly one requiring community engagement, though he says he does not want to see a repeat of those marathon public hearings.