article content
A Calgary council committee is recommending accelerated approval of five new city communities that would add 2,400 new units to the city over the next four years.
Announcement 2
article content
The decision, which followed a marathon 20-hour debate over two days, could still be overturned once it goes to council for final approval at the end of the month.
The debate pitted councilors who want the city to appear business-friendly to developers against those who want a more strategic, environmentally-oriented approach to decisions about the city’s future growth.
The discussion began Monday when city managers recommended that members of the infrastructure and planning committee approve five new communities in the fall budget, and the possibility of three more, as part of a report on the city’s overall growth strategy. city for 2023-26.
According to the report, Calgary’s population is expected to grow by 22,000 people a year during that time.
Announcement 3
article content
Developers also had the opportunity to present the merits of their projects to councillors.
On Thursday, the committee had the option to approve the administration’s recommendations as they stand. Instead, councilmembers began adding projects from their neighborhoods that they felt might need attention.
To top it off, there was an amendment to immediately begin the process of removing the “growth management overlap” that the five community management was prepared to move forward on, rather than wait for budget time.
Removing it would allow developers to begin construction work on their land. It also commits the city to pay the costs of providing major services, such as water and roads.
District 12 County. Evan Spencer pushed to move forward with the five recommended projects, three of which are in his neighborhood.
Announcement 4
article content
Among his reasons was to give developers part of the build season to start, instead of waiting until November.
Another was to confirm those projects before budget discussions, so they don’t become “victims” of the budget, as Spencer put it. Once the growth management overlay is lifted, council capital dollars are committed.
Approval would also signal to the industry that some council members are listening, he said.
“I think the industry knows that they have council members who are willing to listen and respond, when it makes sense, to some of their concerns, because they are going to have much bigger concerns,” he said. Those larger concerns include a new federal building code and the city’s own focus on a climate strategy, according to Spencer.
ad 5
article content
Committee chairman and District 8 Earl Gian-Carlo Carra said Spencer’s push will compromise the budget process, which considers all potential city investments, if approved by the council.
“They are compromising our processes,” Carra said. “They are compromising the integrity of our decision-making and buying their developer sponsors a few weeks of accelerated schedules.”
Carra said simply stopping new development is not an option, as the numbers in the report show.
“We’re talking about, in the next four years, housing Lethbridge in the city of Calgary,” he said. “That’s 80,000 people, right? Lethbridge, which took 100 years to build, we are accommodating them in four years.”
In the long term, not allowing any new housing has implications for housing affordability. Outlying communities can pick up many of the people who would otherwise choose to live here. The city will lose that tax base and gain more commuters, according to Carra, who said he wants more emphasis to be placed on density than new construction.
ad 6
article content
The administration told councilmembers that there is more than enough housing supply to cover the next few years.
District 3 County Jasmine Mian said she understands both sides of the debate.
“Not passing these business cases would not create a short-term challenge on housing affordability,” he said. “But what it would do, I think, is certainly relational harm.”
Mian wants to work with developers to meet the city’s climate goals. In an amendment Thursday night, she asked the administration to explore ways he could incentivize green building methods.
He said one of the challenges he often hears from the industry is that it will be expensive for them to offer net-zero products in the short term, meaning those homes will be exclusively mid- to high-end.
ad 7
article content
“The reality is that people need houses, just like people need energy. And we have to figure out how to transform both industries to be more sustainable,” she said.
The previous council approved the development of 14 new communities in 2018, but rejected the start of an additional 11 new communities in 2020. Developers were invited to return this year to make their case for new development.
Spencer’s motion to expedite passage of the five communities passed on a 6-5 vote, with support from Councilmembers Sonya Sharp, Jennifer Wyness, Andre Chabot, Dan McLean and Sean Chu.
Mian and Carra were in opposition, along with councilors Courtney Walcott, Terry Wong and Raj Dhaliwal.
The recommended motion will go to the full council for approval or amendments on July 26.
[email protected]
Twitter: @brodie_thomas
