Calgary councillor will aim to reverse blanket rezoning if re-elected

It spurred the largest public hearing in the city’s history, and now a Calgary city councillor says if re-elected, he will introduce a motion to reverse the blanket rezoning decision.

Ward 10 councillor Andre Chabot made the comments while speaking at a town hall at the Calgary Marlborough Community Association on Thursday.

The five-term councillor told 660 NewsRadio that a vast majority of the Calgarians he’s spoke to are not happy about the concept.

“We heard a lot of folks that raised concerns about the blanket zoning decision that council had approved and many of these folks now are actually starting to experience the effects of it and we are only a few months into it,” Chabot said.

The councillor says this includes his own ward.

“It’s the unreported population that we have that’s challenging, insofar as trying to deliver the services. A prime example is public transit — in the northeast, we have high ridership, but if you look at the number of people that live here it doesn’t look that out of proportion as other parts of the city,” he said.  

Chabot believes that getting  a better idea as to how many people actually live in the northeast will help the city be more proactive instead of reactive when it comes to delivering essential services like transit.

Back in May, council voted 9-6 in favour of blanket rezoning.

Chabot voted against the idea.

During the debate the councillor attempted to exclude Ward 10 from blanket rezoning altogether, but that amendment was shot down by other members of council.

Other councillors who voted against blanket rezoning include: Couns. Dan Maclean, Sonya Sharp, Peter Demong, Terry Wong, and Sean Chu.