Calgary court deliberates legal challenge against blanket rezoning

Dozens of Calgarians packed a courthouse to hear arguments on a legal challenge against blanket rezoning on Wednesday and a judge is expected to bring down a decision on the matter at a later date.

The group of homeowners who brought forward the legal challenge with their lawyers are arguing that the public hearing process that spanned several days was flawed and claim one councillor had already made up his mind before the hearing took place.

Richard Harrison, a lawyer representing the citizens, says Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra showed bias before the marathon public hearing began.

Harrison relied on an affidavit from a man named George Clark who was at an event earlier this year where Carra was invited.

The event aimed to help people present to city council and Carra said shortly after he was only invited to the event to provide advice.

Clark claimed Carra was guiding people on how to persuade other members of council to vote yes to blanket rezoning. He also claimed the councillor referred to those opposed to blanket rezoning as “racist” and “blowhards.”

Henry Chan, council for the city, took aim at Clark’s affidavit, questioning its reliability and calling much of it hearsay. He pointed out that a complaint was filed by Clark on Carra’s conduct to the integrity commissioner and it was dismissed.

Chan presented submissions on Wednesday afternoon, essentially arguing the Municipal Government Act allows municipalities broad authority to address things in the public interest — such as a housing crisis.

The retired lawyer who brought forward the review did not dismiss Chan’s point on the Municipal Government Act, but says there are other factors that still need to be considered.

“I don’t think the city has ever provided any evidence that blanket rezoning is indeed in the greater public interest,” said Lehodey.

There are hundreds of people involved in the court challenge, which had its first court hearing in October. A GoFundMe raising money for the cause has raised nearly $150,000.

Since council approved blanket rezoning in May, the city has received 189 applications for new row housing and other new high-density developments around the city.

The highly contentious topic continues to generate lots of discussion on both sides of the issue; those in favour of the decision say it will have a positive impact on the housing crisis.

The judge has reserved his decision to sometime in early January