Marathon rezoning meeting and transit troubles among Calgary City Hall's biggest stories of 2024
CTV
Calgary’s city council had a busy year in 2024, contending with backlash over bag fees, a marathon debate about city-wide rezoning, broken water mains and a stop-and-go process with the Green Line LRT project.
Just two weeks into the new year, Calgary council faced its first hurdle of 2024: backlash over bag fees.
The city's single-use items bylaw went into effect on Jan. 16 and the repeal process for the contentious bylaw started by the end of the month.
"I think it's ridiculous," Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean said at the time. "I doubt they're going to start lowering the price of Big Macs if they're not giving you your bags."
The bag fee was officially tossed later in the year, thus starting another busy year at City Hall.
The new event centre—named Scotia Place – officially broke ground and had its development permit approved by the planning commission; the expanded BMO Centre officially opened up just before the Calgary Stampede.
Spring at city hall was then dominated by Calgary's longest-ever public hearing on proposed city-wide rezoning. Over a span of about 100 hours, 736 people spoke to council on the issue. Nearly 70 per cent of the people who spoke were against blanket rezoning, city officials said.
