BACKGROUND:

Mayor Gondek and Calgary Counsel make their ‘blanket up-zoning’ sound warm and cozy and designed in some manner to make your community a better place. The realty is very much the opposite. If approved, the proposed changes are going to make your neighbourhood a much colder place with greatly reduced lifestyle value.

If you like private space, sunshine, parking your car near your home, trees, and gardens… let us draw for you a clearer picture, if Gondek has her way, of what’s coming soon to your neighborhood.

Imagine yourself living in a mostly single unit residential neighborhood. Take a close look at the associated artist rendering of a real example of a proposal to build 8 townhouses on a duplex lot next to single dwelling home(s).

“Up-zoning” means densification and the word ‘blanket’ means every neighborhood in Calgary will be impacted by the proposed changes.

TOP REASONS TO STOP BLANKET REZONING

LACK OF MANDATE:

• There are many valid reasons Calgarians are opposed to the proposed Blanket Rezoning. First, it is by far the most consequential and far-reaching decision ever undertaken by any Calgary Mayor/Council and this Mayor/Council is attempting to rush forward with this at a time when they are at the lowest approval rating of any Mayor or Council in Calgary’s history (ThinkHQ Survey, Dec 2023). In the first place, the Mayor and Council Members did not run on a platform of Blanket Rezoning.
  
• This policy feels rushed and it is unclear. As a general pattern, the more people learn the details, the more they are opposed.  It’s not even clear how the stated goal of affordability can even be advanced by the Blanket Rezoning policy.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST:

Blanket Rezoning is being imposed upon Calgarians by third-party special interests including an entity called Calgary’s Future.

• Calgary’s Future established a Third-Party Advertiser (TPA) that committed $1.7 million towards electing Mayor Gondek and 8 of the 14 Council Members in office today.
• Most of Calgary’s Future $1.7 million came from Public Sector Unions.
• Calgary Future’s agenda includes strong support for Blanket Rezoning for Calgary in the name of ‘affordable housing’.

The Blanket Rezoning is being forced upon the City of Calgary as a condition of receiving funding from the federal government. The federal funding should be available with minimal strings attached, to allow Calgary to build or facilitate affordable housing where and how we decide.

• Why is our Mayor and Council allowing the federal intrusion on municipal jurisdiction?
• Why is ‘funding for affordable housing’ being held as ransom for giving up municipal autonomy or jurisdiction?
• How can any self-respecting Calgarian be agreeable to giving up our autonomy or jurisdiction, specifically the right of our own citizens to decide on the character and nature of our own city, in exchange for money from this Federal government?
• As Canadian taxpayers, the funds being offered to the City, come from Calgary taxpayers, and as such the Federal government has no right to extort or hold hostage the City of Calgary with our own (citizens’) money.

RESPECTING DIVERSITY AND CHOICE: Many residents, of all ages and cultural backgrounds, would like to preserve their ‘right to choose’ to live in single family neighborhoods. The proposed Blanket Rezoning disrespects citizens in that it removes lifestyle choice.

• Why is lifestyle choice being taken away from Calgarians?
• Why is it not possible to provide both lifestyle choices for people and affordable housing at the same time (like we see in most of the USA)?
• Many who are retired have a life-long dream to stay in their homes, they value their home as a place of good memories, a place for family to gather, a place to garden or tinker in the garage. The Blanket Rezoning will eliminate this dream for many people to live in their homes during their golden years.

OTHER MAJOR CONSIDERATIONS:

COMMUNITY INPUT CIRCUMVENTED: In every community across the City, proposed changes will allow for row houses, town houses, condos, and other denser development with only a development permit required.

• In the past such a proposal would require a rezoning application and invite public input.
• People put their minds to these kinds of issues when it is a) clear that they are being asked for input and b) when a proposal for zoning has direct implications on their own neighborhood.
• Going forward, when a developer proceeds to build what the Blanket Rezoning permits, your input or that of the people living in your community will no longer matter. In fact, you will not even be notified, never mind asked.

BLANKET REZONING IS NOT GREEN: With the form of high densification the Blanket Rezoning allows, it will become nearly impossible to grow trees or gardens in our future neighborhoods:

• The max footprint of new permitted buildings under the Blanket Rezoning will increase greatly and limit if not eliminate the option to grow gardens or trees on the lot being developed.
• The shadow cast by a 3½ high story (10 M) building will be such that it will become difficult to sustain any garden or even to keep existing trees healthy.
• For homes currently equipped with solar panels the shadows cast by these enormous buildings will greatly diminish the efficiency of the panels.
• How is that fair to people who invested in solar panels never imagining the possibility that a 35 ft high townhome would or could be built immediately beside their home?
• Many have invested in expensive heat absorbing windows that rely in winter on direct sunlight. Again, the shadow cast will render these windows useless.

FIRE HAZARD: When buildings of this magnitude are also built so close together, and so close to their neighbors, the fire hazards are obviously enhanced.

• See example of what these new buildings will look like based on proposed guidelines right next to single family homes.
• Keep in mind, in many places the building can be built with no setbacks, right on your property line.
• Can the city guarantee that insurance companies will continue to insure homes when in proximity to this level of density, proximity and building size?
• What kind of increased insurance should Calgarians expect?
• If insurance gets cancelled, is the city prepared to cover the fire risks associated with the Blanket Rezoning?

PRIVACY IMPACT. As an example, townhouses permitted under the Blanket Rezoning can be as high as 3½ floors (near 35 feet high), built right beside your one floor house with very limited setbacks. In some instances, the builder will be allowed to build right on your property line, and/ or with windows and balconies of multiple units looking down on your back yard.

• Backyard privacy becomes a thing of the past.
• Will people still feel safe having their children playing in their own backyard?
• Will people feel comfortable sunbathing in their own backyard?

PARKING IMPLICATIONS: Traditionally, developers have been required to match or even exceed the amount of parking they are providing to the number of units they are building. The Blanket Rezoning, in many instances requires only .5 parking spaces for every unit being built.

• The average household in Calgary has 1.85 cars.
• By providing only one parking spot for every two units, this Blanket Rezoning will greatly exasperate the availability of street parking where there is already a shortage of parking.
• This will most negatively impact lower income neighborhoods where lots are smaller, and most homes do not have a garage or driveway.
• This will create a shortage of on street parking in every neighborhood across the city.
• Is the city planning to do to all Calgary neighborhoods what they are already doing in numerous inner-city, mostly detached residential neighborhoods, where people are now required to pay a monthly fee to park their car on their own street?
• Note also, the city only permits one such pass for each household!

INADEQUATE INFRASTRUCTURE: To support increases in density in our built-out and already established communities.

• How will the city address the increased demands an existing roads, water, sewer, gas, and electrical demand be met by so much increased infrastructure?
• Who will pay for upgrades to infrastructure where required?