12 hour days ahead as public hearing on Calgary blanket rezoning gets underway

A marathon public hearing began Monday as hundreds of Calgarians lined up to urge city council either to scrap or keep the city’s controversial blanket rezoning bylaw.

The hearing will take over council chambers this week with more than 360 registered speakers and thousands of written submissions urging city council to reconsider the policy.

The bylaw, passed in 2024, allows a wider range of housing types across all neighbourhoods, an effort aimed at increasing density and addressing housing shortages.

Mayor Jeromy Farkas said the volume of public interest reflects the importance of the issue.

“I think it’s great to hear from Calgarians,” he said. “It’s not just about whether or not we should keep or scrap blanket rezoning, it’s more so about how we can continue to grow.”

The first day of hearings saw significant support for repealing the bylaw. Many speakers argued that the policy has accelerated the loss of older, more affordable single‑family homes, replacing them with multi‑unit developments at higher price points.

“There’s gotta be a better process,” said Tracy, who supports removing blanket rezoning. “Not this willy‑nilly blanket rezoning where you throw it up in the air and anything goes.”

But others urged council to keep the bylaw in place, arguing that increased density is essential for the city’s long‑term financial health.

“The quadplexes are gonna bring in far more tax revenue in the same location as the single‑family homes,” said Peter Harrison. “If you repeal blanket rezoning, what you are effectively telling Calgarians is that you want to increase taxes.”

Although the hearing is focused solely on whether to repeal the bylaw, many speakers used their time to propose alternative housing strategies. Representatives from the Calgary Inner‑City Builders’ Association called for clearer, more predictable development rules.

“What we want to look at is ways that we are encouraged to build that will give communities certainty and give developers certainty,” said chair Shameer Gaidhar. “Everyone wants certainty.”

The city has received 339 speaker requests, 69 panel requests, and 2,390 written submissions. Monday’s meeting agenda alone spans 6,804 pages.

Council has committed to meeting every weekday from 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., with breaks for lunch and supper. A proposal to shorten the days by eliminating the supper break was defeated after Mayor Farkas argued that longer hours allow more working families to participate.

“I think we’ll likely go to, perhaps three weeks, if we shorten the meeting,” he said.

Calgarians can still register to speak by signing up in person at City Hall, and the hearing is expected to continue throughout the week.

Discussion ongoing since passing in 2024

This hearing was prompted by a 13-2 vote by council in December to start the process to repeal the contentious bylaw.

The rezoning policy was approved in 2024 as part of Calgary’s housing strategy to allow for denser housing.

The public hearing for that bylaw ran 15 days, over 100 hours, and had 736 speakers. It also came with a price tag of $1.3 million.

Critics have argued it worsens traffic and parking, strains infrastructure, and changes the character of established neighbourhoods.

City data shows the nearly 1,150 town and row house development permits submitted in 2025 were enabled by citywide rezoning.

Opponents of repeal say rolling back the policy won’t fix those problems. They also say blanket rezoning has been successful in addressing Calgary’s housing shortage.

Questions have also been raised on whether a repeal of blanket rezoning would impact millions of dollars in housing funding from the federal government.

A letter sent to the city from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) last month said: “In order to remain compliant with the agreement, any updated zoning must not reintroduce exclusionary (single family only) zoning, allow for at least four units on a lot across the city without additional approvals, and must not reintroduce approval processes or other barriers that slow down development.”

City administration has previously stated the federal government interprets both “targets” and “initiatives” in the Housing Accelerator Fund agreement as binding commitments and reversing them could be viewed as reneging on the deal.

-With files from Joel Mendelson and Henna Saeed