Opposition to Calgary’s city-wide rezoning change is coming into the courtroom – Calgary Achi-News

A group of Calgarians is trying to get a court to overturn a decision by Calgary city council to change the default residential zoning across the city – a move approved earlier this year.

The application for judicial review to general rezoning has 288 applicants, with dozens packing a Calgary courtroom Monday morning.

“This is not about development per se,” said Robert Lehodey, a retired lawyer leading the legal challenge. “It is a matter of taking your right away without full consideration by the council and a study of the infrastructure and the effects on the community.”

Lawyers for the group opposing the zoning changes argued for a stay of proceedings to temporarily prevent the city from issuing development permits under the new zoning rules until a judicial review is complete.

According to Lehodey, the delay of those development permits is necessary because of the “irreparable harm that will be caused to people who live next door to these developments.”

However, the city attorney noted that he only received the applicant’s materials on rezoning at the end of last week, and argued for a delay so he can have more time to review.

The Court of King’s Bench Justice Robert Hall agreed and postponed the matter, but a hearing on the request to stop the entire city rezoning bylaw changes on a temporary basis was fast-tracked and must be heard by November 8 at the latest.

“Today’s result was quite positive for us,” Lehodey told reporters.

Calgary city council voted in favor of a bylaw to change the city’s default residential zoning in May with nine councilors in favor and six against.

The move meant Calgary’s land use bylaw was amended to make grade-centered residential infill (R-CG) the default residential zoning area across the city. The changes came into effect on August 6.

R-CG allows a variety of house types including single houses, semi-detached houses, duplexes and terraced houses.

The move was a key recommendation and one of more than 80 in the city’s housing strategy, with the aim of boosting supply and improving housing affordability.

Trend Now

• Hurricane Milton is growing stronger as it blows toward Tampa Bay, Florida

• Elon Musk joins Trump at US election rally, declares ‘I’m a dark MAGA’

According to city projections at the time, the change to R-CG would generate 250 additional properties redeveloped into townhouses per year, which could translate to approximately 750 net new additional homes.

Alkarim Devani, founder of developer RndSqr, told Global News that the changes create more certainty for higher density developments; and delaying development permits would be counterproductive.

“All of a sudden get rid of or ask all these people who are in their development consent process or in the process of building these neighborhoods to stop building this type of housing while we are in a housing crisis ; there doesn’t seem to be any logic to that idea,” Devani said.

The vote came after the council spent 12 days and 100 hours in a public hearing — the longest in the city’s history.

Of the 736 speakers who presented to the council, 458 people were opposed, while 227 spoke in favor; another 51 remained neutral about the changes. The city also received 6,101 written submissions.

“There is an opportunity now for us to look past zoning, for us to look past density, and focus on the building form and how it meets the pedestrian zone, and focus on the things that are important and bother people,” said Devani. “Maybe there is this opportunity to work with the community to get the results they are looking for.”

But critics of the zoning changes argue that the decision affects property rights, and hope the court will overturn the city’s decision.

According to the City of Calgary, there were 145 development permits between May 15 and October 6 that would have required a zoning change if not for the general decision to rezone by city council.

& copy 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.