2024-05-02 (Thursday) City of Calgary Public Land Use Hearing (Rezoning)

City of Calgary – Public Hearing Meeting of Council
Thursday May 2, 2024
Calgary’s Housing Strategy 2024-2030 – Land Use Amendment Citywide, LOC2024-0017, and Land Use Bylaw Amendments, CPC2024-0213

Speaker List:
547. Matthew McIntyre 04:32
548. Doris Yaskiw 09:57
549. Austin Sersen 12:49
550. Charles Boechler 16:39
551. Michel Kapuscinsky 19:32
❓Questions for Panel 24:42
552. Michele Lillace 49:43
553. Stephen Shawcross 55:35
554. Sano Stante 1:00:30
555. Madi Carter 1:06:07
556. Laurence Hiebert 1:09:01
❓Questions for Panel 1:14:19
557. Chris Dowdeswell 1:57:20
558. Binithi Nadya Karunanayaka 2:01:54
559. Michelle Christoffersen 2:05:25
560. Robert Levis 2:10:44
561. Hong Wang 2:13:42
❓Questions for Panel 2:18:51
562. Margaret Crichton 3:31:57
563. Bill Black 3:36:44
564. Breton Smith 3:41:57
565. Barb Maier 3:47:44
566. Gabriel Kossovan 3:52:37
❓Questions for Panel 3:56:00
567. Ejlal Elsadig 4:16:16
568. Patrick King 4:21:38
569. Patrizia Valle 4:26:46
570. Chelsea Reid 4:32:13
571. Glen Wang 4:37:02
❓No Questions for Panel
572. Sage Green 4:44:06
573. Pamela Fortier 4:47:40
574. Dylan Rama 4:49:56
❓Questions for Panel 4:57:05
575. Chantal Tiedemann 5:03:22
576. Reuben Vander Meulen 5:08:45
577. Nathan Ross 5:13:45
578. Brooke Simaluk 5:18:21
❓No Questions for Panel
579. Jayden Tran 6:01:49
580. Clyde Johnson 6:04:51
581. Charlene Prickett 6:10:22
582. Wayne Gambell 6:15:41
583. Aharon Ikar 6:20:59
❓Questions for Panel 6:26:07
584. Melody Mossing 6:35:35
585. Lisa Poole, Elbow Park Residents Association 6:40:42
586. Kate Stenson 6:45:57
587. Julie McFadyen 6:49:36
588. Thea Wingert 6:54:46
589. Jeremy Barretto 6:58:11
❓Questions for Panel 7:03:12
590. Sondra Lavoie 7:34:32
591. Tom Spenceley 7:39:01
592. Brennan Howey 7:41:26
593. Gregory Scott Finney 7:44:13
594. Brad Young 7:49:10
❓Questions for Panel 7:54:04
595. CJ Fietz 7:58:27
596. Ydannia Hart 8:03:45
❓No Questions for Panel
597. Rob Zhang 9:30:19
598. Owen Kavanagh 9:34:58
599. Olga Knight 9:38:32
600. Douglas Ferguson 9:42:43
601. Sarah Popowich 9:48:13
❓Questions for Panel 9:53:26
602. Brenden David 10:41:47
603. Tammy Evans 10:47:49
604. Bob Schmal 10:53:00
605. Mike Atkinson 10:55:51
606. Helen Yu 11:01:20
607. Wesley Brindle 11:06:42
❓Questions for Panel 11:10:27
608. Janice Lo 11:30:28
609. Susan Fox 11:35:16
610. David Coutts 11:36:35
611. Corbin Auriti 11:42:02
❓No Questions for Panel

good morning everyone Oki da NADA Tic and ton welcome back to the public hearing here on treaty 7 territory Mr clerk could we please do a roll call thank you mayor on the rooll council sharp here counc Wess counc mean I’m here councel Chu here councel doell here counc pman here counc Wong here Council Walcott I’m here Council crra councel shabbo councel Penner here councelor Spencer here councelor mlan here councel deont here and mayor GC I’m here thank you all right so uh in order to make sure everything was kept confidential I took all of my papers to my office they are coming back right now so I will be assembling panels in just a moment but let me make sure I understand who was here from previous panels that’s actually here now do we have Austin cers thank you you were panel 162 right yeah do we have Charles Beckler okay you’re panel 162 as well okay is there anybody else in the audience that was on a panel that has already been called but you’re here today hi sir which panel were you 127 did you say Okay 127 can you spell the last name quickly okay perfect anybody else also yeah7 okay I’ve got 157 remind me the last name Lis l i l a c thank you very much and there was somebody else on the line as well panel 111 danty and shoss perfect is there anybody else Carter Maddie Carter for panel 153 153 okay anybody else anybody sitting in here that was on a previous panel okay so here’s what we’re going to do to start things off today yesterday we ended sorry everyone and if you’re on the phone line if you could please mute S I will call you when it’s your turn to speak we are starting on panel number4 or 64 164 so do we have Sarah gettis do we have Matthew McIntyre thank you you can grab a seat at the front thank you um um what about Doris yasu I’m remote okay but you’re here perfect thank you do we have Lawrence Hebert okay then what I’m going to do because we’ve got two people from that panel I’m going to insert three people that are here so Austin cers Charles Beckler please come on up to the front and sir you were on panel 127 you can come on up as well and then the rest of the folks from 157 111 and 153 I will get you in on the next panel so please hang tight so let’s start things off with Matthew McIntyre please I have a presentation that I’ve sent the clerk’s team will just get it up there for you they’ll just open it up for you the clerk’s team is just going to open it up for you yeah yeah just wait okay we’re ready when you are okay uh sorry I only have five minutes I’m going to get right into this I have a lot to talk about I’m going to break every rule about presentation presentations I know I hope you can read fast slide one every calgarian I have met supports taking action on affordability my youngest two are 27 and 30 I know the challenges they are facing this resoning proposal could be the most fundamental change to the nature of Calgary in his history is essential that you make the right decision for the right reasons slide two for several reasons I do not believe this Council has a mandate for imposing blanket resoning slide three you are the stewards of our most precious Investments the homes of every calgarian we bought them to live in them and enjoy them single detached homes have a value of 230 billion dollar please remember this as you make your decision slide four the process has been awful I don’t like to be negative but I don’t have time in five minutes to dance around the task force had a narrow view of the world there has been no public participation information sessions has have included misleading information please ask me about this and a hearing is not the way to build consensus Slide Five like some calgarians I got a formal letter in late March just a few weeks before the hearing way too late to be considered reasonable for such a complex issue and the only form of input is a daunting intimidating public hearing and a measly five minutes slide six the vast majority of rc1 homeowners are against this I’m sorry to say I don’t like the chances of some of you getting reelected if you impose blanket resoning on us please remember what can be done can be undone and if it’s just going to get undone in a year and a half then just don’t do it slide seven now having just complained that you are not representing your Wards the fact is that’s not your job is it Council you must consider the municipality as a whole and not place your W ahead of that obligation that seems to put you in a very difficult situation I don’t envy you slide 8 but we live in a democracy where the majority decides what is right so is the majority view of citizens who oppose blanket resoning what’s best is solving affordability problem at any cost what’s best or maybe your job is to find a balance of what’s right according to the majority and what’s necessary for those in need why has this become an All or Nothing discussion why are you pitting neighbor against neighbor why didn’t you seek a balanced solution before going to a hearing slide nine property owners have rights to trample all over those rights you’d better have a very good justification do you and you need to have followed a clear and fair process have you slide 10 sorry I threw in a joke that we have no time for the real point is what do the numbers really say is the sky really falling slide 11 Administration says about 85,000 households are in crisis that is very disconcerting but the detail is of the devil is often in the details uh slide 12 are we really in crisis or are we just close slide 13 there is an affordability problem but exactly what is it many who face an affordability ility challenge are young and single they just need time to get their careers going and they need to be patient uh but they also need help and I believe that should come in the form of a targeted solution slide 14 seniors are another key group in need and gang I believe they need a targeted plan slide 15 buying a house is hard this is not the only generation that has been challenged slide 16 but home ownership is still achievable for many an ownership will be more achievable when interest rates fall slide 17 what is the renting situ situation single and low wage earners who are often young are in an extremely difficult situation in general couples and roommates can manage single households need a targeted solution slide 18 we are at the center of the store and please do not panic demand will moderate interest rates will fall slide 19 without doing anything at all Supply is increasing especially in the Miss the missing middle slide 20 is there room for growth in Calgary you keep telling us there’s room for decades where is the problem slide 21 downtown office conversions uh needed to include affordable one-bedroom units too and community and Calgary is relatively good so growth anywhere is just fine slide 22 the bylaw must include what is necessary for electric cars electric cars need parking stalls whether blanket resoning goes ahead or not please address this critical issue slide 23 enable people some people don’t need a car good for them but for most people it is enabling critically it can help help them access better jobs and that too will solve an affordability challenge slide 24 are you doing enough for those who are truly in need slide 25 a possible solution targeted local area plans slide 26 conclusion I believe there are options markets are complex but didn’t have time to touch on that I believe you will lose a legal challenge that will surely follow if you approve this please ask me why and please don’t create chaos and spend my tax dollars in court for nothing my name is Matthew McIntyre and I’m here to say no thank you very 27 just have a quick look at that if I have a second I’m not going to talk to it thank you very much for your presentation let’s go to Doris yasu please hi Miss yasu are you still on the line yes I am yeah please go ahead can you hear me yes we can my name is Doris yasu I am saying no to blanket reson my husband and I bought our home in Hasboro in the 90s because we wanted a big old because we wanted big old trees and a large backyard for gardening 30 plus years later we’re now retired we loved our neighborhood and even though we realize that change is coming and something has to be done to fix the housing shortage we do not agree with blanket withing as a solution each neighborhood is unique with its own character and history calgarians should have a say on what will be built on their homes a home for what they have worked hard to acquire and pay for I have walked around all the neighborhoods in the city and what I have it’s very unpleasant if this is happening now before the blanket was Shing is approv what is to come in the near future please work a bit harder to find a solution that work in favor for all communities in the private sector when encountered with a problem we are asked to come up with a solution and if what we present is not acceptable we have to go back to the thaning tank I’m asking you to do that I also want to emphasize to calgarians that are on favor of this change that affordability affordability and availability are two separate issues blanket resoning will not make homes more affordable we have great minds in the city let’s engage them to find a new new solution to this old problem let’s not take the easy way out my fear is that we are going to end up like Vancouver where luxury homes in Cold Harbor sit empty and these Hastings is full of homeless people that to get from point A to point B will take hours because the roads are at capacity sore problems because the existing system has not been upgraded ahead of time loss of trees Birds and Wildlife and the most important water supply shortage to summarize I say not to blanket Sor let’s find a better solution thank you for your attention thank you very much for your presentation let’s go to Austin cers please hi good morning and uh thank you your worship members of council uh my name is Austin cers and I’m speaking for myself as a recent graduate at the University of Calgary and as someone who runs a small business and as a very proud season ticket holder to both the rough necks and Stampeders is it June yet I’d like to give you a little insight as to what my life was like as a full-time post-secondary student simply put my schedule was insane I feel like I’m still recovering from the constant burnout I work two jobs rarely Miss class volunteer two places on top of that while trying to squeeze in any little bit of learning a new language Korean and you want to say uh the only way I was able to graduate debt-free with nearly a $90,000 tuition bill was by intentionally living without a car many speakers mention concerns with parking and while I think those concerns have validity if that is the deciding factor we are prioritizing objects over people uh I’ll phrase it in a question who has more rights for a place to rest cars or people with the ever increasing Public Service Transit hours uh public transit service hours uh some of the best cycling infrastructure on the continent and the ability to rent a car or use commune auto car share there’s less of a need for every single person to have their own car uh one of the presenters last Thursday mentioned that sharing a bungalow is an ideal situation for University students I can assure you that it is not I live in a single family home with a total of seven guys when fully rented out that’s seven guys using one kitchen and in most of these Bungalows it would mean them sharing one or two washrooms if you have classes really early in the morning someone’s in there too bad um not only that but more students occupying single family housing means that’s one less home available to an actual family restricting the housing market for families which increases the price of housing rcg UPS zoning would help to increase our missing middle housing stock and provide more appropriate housing for various stages of life like the couple that want to start a family and need more space than a one-bedroom apartment uh or someone like myself with no romantic hope who is more than content living in a basement of a row house yes counselor shabo We need oh you’re laughing thank you yes councelor sh we need smart local area planning and Area Redevelopment plans but we also need to take action now and passing rcg would help to eliminate red tape which of course would help increase the housing much faster and by the way I am an immigrant I moved to Calgary 7 years ago to pursue a better life and a better country I was captivated by all the public engagement around both rout ahead and the green line and by the desire to live in a city that has great public transit my love for Calgary inspired my parents to buy me a Flames jersey for Christmas one year and I proudly wore it to game days throughout my final few years of high school and even went to flames Road games in Nashville rally Chicago St Louis Pittsburgh and while the topic of sports have also traveled otwa Hamilton Toronto and Winnipeg to support the Stampeders and even Rochester to cheer on the rough necks I’ve made Calgary my home for the last 7 years and I’d like it to continue being my home for the next 70 years please help me achieve this by voting yes for rcg and advancing many of the other 97 actions in the housing strategy as quickly as possible for both myself and all the people that would one day like to call Calgary home for life oh I have a minute and a half left so thank you so much for your time and attention I really appreciate uh the ability to speak to council thank you thank you very much for your presentation let’s go to Charles Beckler please thank you good morning mayor and city council my name is Charles beair I’m a resident of Calgary living in Thorncliffe which award four in Calgary I am appreciative of this public hearing the public submission process that helps inform you on thoughts and perspectives of the electorate and these nine days and every day you’ve served since hearing on this issue I’m here today to speak in favor of Citywide resoning I have faith through my observations since 2021 that you are elected members 15 know your job I have confidence you will continue to represent the interests of all calgarians making this decision I support a decision by all of you to ensure shelter opportunities for all residents of Calgary democracy is not a popularity contest it is a group who meets hears all perspectives becomes informed and makes a decision a pragmatic decisions on our behalf that is the job that I thank you for and I encourage you to do I’m in favor and and will support and act upon the future decision made by this Council accepting that it may not resonate with all citizens even me I’m in favor of these amendments as one tactic to open up a greater land Supply across all Calgary communities the land supply for housing is desperately constrained in established communities where we have access to infrastructure and man these Transit and are close to downtown our downtown it’s the heart of our vibrant City are downtown located at the Confluence of culture and tourism art education entertainment Commerce and employment creating more housing an opportunity for more housing and people near our V downtown is essential to sustain that Vitality I’m in favor of the mix that rcg will bring the maximum expression of these ups ownings will not and cannot be implemented across all properties each individual landowner will choose an outcome for their property each property will present its own opportunity of Redevelopment if the land owner chooses I am in favor of this housing strategy that is focused on benefitting those who want housing need housing and do not have opportunities to live whether by purchase or rental in our great existing communities thank you so much for your time and service and in advance of the eventual decision of on this matter many thanks to staff and all the information you’ve made available to get us here and for all those who have taken part along the way I appreciate their work their investment and I look forward to hearing your decision thank you thank you for your presentation let’s go to Michelle kazinski can I get the presentation up please good morning counselors uh thank you for having me here uh currently the information provided by the city seem appears to be misleading inaccurate incomplete bias or improperly defining the problem what are you actually trying to solve go to slide four please where is the support to show the pros and cons for this resoning I don’t see that anywhere I only see the pros information received and presented by the public over the past nine days is excellent we received more data supporting the pros and cons from the public than what was provided by city council or by the committee that put this together new information has come to me why are there car votes this seems seems to be unfair a lot of information has surfaced identifying the disadvantage with very little supporting benefits to building $700,000 houses Slide Five please each unit must be counted towards a total dwelling units a three units in the property should count as a Triplex anything more than three units should be considered multif family because you are getting into a different realm of financing when people try to purchase this in the future I will show you the metrics later on at the end of this that shows that once you’re into commercial financing you need more money down then homeowners can’t afford this CMH only caps things out at a million dollars if you’re going through cmhc which is 5% down for the minimum allowable slide six please I have had a chance to listen to about 80% of the current submissions and in my opinion most of you were unaware to the challenges or disadvantages blanket zoning is going to create and the decision to resoning was already made in a back room and it is in it appears to me that the ask by Council to the City Planning Department was deliberately watered down to show to not show the disadvantages give the City Planning Department the sufficient time to complete their analysis and properly do their job next slide please my biggest concerns okay city services uh water sewer lines all that infrastructure facilities some of them were not built in order to accommodate high growth that may be expected in certain areas ensure that existing Services can accommodate the density without uh increasing taxes and adding sech charges to the existing homeowners to support the density that you’re requesting on each lot or that they are capable of if upgrades are required they need to be passed on to the builders Developers slide nine please parking each unit that is four and Below should have its own parking spot as soon as you get above five units on one lot then you can give them a half parking spot but for those half parking spots the tenants got to be given the option of parking their motorcycle their scooter their bike in that spot not combine the two half lots and to give it to someone else on that who’s renting the property next slide 10 tree trees older than 40 50 30 years you need to come up with a tree police system if houses can be considered Heritage let’s start identifying some of the trees that need to be saved and maintain on a bunch of lots that’s not hard to do next slide 11 increase noise I think the only thing you can do on that side is you’re going to have to increase bylaw and get them to be able to enforce the noise that’s going to be coming from certain areas on the noise side you may need to consider also increasing the building code in Calgary if you’re going to have a bunch of units that are side by each next slide sunlight I’m going to lose my garden I’m not putting you s uh solar panels on my roof because I’m going to lose the Sun from my neighbors so I’m not spending the $30 $40,000 garbage bins anything more than a Triplex should have a commercial Ser uh service in order to pick up their garbage not through the city not having 14 bins out there or four garbage one week one day uh green bins and then blue bins uh next slide profit ask me how Builders are actually making somewhere between 20 to 40% uh profit on some of these buildings one of the key points that I do not allow current Builders to demolish the existing houses and have the current and have until they have received the building approval keep the renters in do not allow the builders to evict the tenants in order to actually do Renovations at this time ask me how this is going to impact Us in the next 10 years just at time thank you very much I’m going to go to questions of this panel we’re going to start with councelor shabbo please thank you um first questions are for Mr McIntyre uh I’ll just uh mention I’m a little hard at hearing so we going to have to speak up Mr McIntyre you um mentioned something about um Communications that you felt that the communication was inadequate can you elaborate a little bit on that yeah I have a couple of examples um if you could open up my presentation um and go to slide 45 or 46 um yeah do that’s slide so this so this is one example uh my daughter’s partner uh told me she said we’ll never be able to buy a house that house now costs 1 Point a new house now cost $1.6 million and I thought wow where’d that number come from must be some sort of social media uh misinformation going around uh this is from a city presentation it’s part of your information packages um I can guess how that number was created but it’s completely misleading um there I think you heard several I heard when I’m being trying to follow the hearing as much as I can I’ve heard several presenters talk about oh it’s going to cost $1.6 million for a house for a new house um mathematically that’s a difficult number to create um and that’s that’s very upsetting if you go to the next slide I can explain just a bit more um I went to one of the big websites I took the new construction homes that they had listed on it I’ve made the graph there um the median cost is nowhere close so just just to explain a bit most people don’t understand the difference between arithmetic mean or average versus median average I think most people understand it’s just the average cost we know how to do that median is how many if you got a 100 houses the median number is when 50 houses are more expensive and 50 houses are less expensive it’s a it’s a very different kind of a number um it’s difficult to get a big difference between median and average generally with a normal distribution that’s what the little chart up at the top uh is telling you they’re quite similar if you have a huge difference between the two numbers you’ve got to put your thinking hat on and say how is that possible anyhow um I was very disappointed to see that because that has um the young people are really upset and that shouldn’t have happened okay thanks um your um your assessment was looking at both Greenfield and developed area I assume your numbers yeah so so this is this I just went to the website they listed the new construction I’ll give you an example how how do you get 1.6 million um as so if we go back to the last slide um it says something to the effect of uh this is on a this is the median of the districts so how would how would you get this number you get this number by Mount Royal has one house for $9 million the average is 9 million the median is 9 million is 9 million aboya has three houses one house cost uh $800,000 another house cost 1.6 million another house cost $3 million the median is 1.6 million you’ve got one above one below the median is 1.6 6 now you go to one of the new districts with 30 houses all of the houses are between 700,000 and 900,000 the median turns out to be 820,000 now you take those three numbers 8206 and N 1.6 is the median of those districts but that’s completely distorting the facts what what the average kid wants to know is how much is the house going to cost me a new house will cost cost you generally speaking 78 $900,000 I would expect the city to know better yeah that that number shouldn’t have come out uh the other thing I’d like to do just quickly uh if we can go to slide 53 got 54 so uh I’ve I’ve seen row houses there’s some in the district they do look nice look at that that’s good I don’t have a problem with that go to the next one another great picture these are these are all from your from your information sessions uh one more one more okay I screenshot another uh presenter um this is what it really looks like if you’re uh in the middle of a process of development somebody comes in they build that giant thing beside you look at that poor little Bungalow beside that and this this is a hit and miss processor you’re you’ve created or you’re suggesting to create um some blocks won’t get touched other blocks are going to get touched heavily if you go one more slide if that happens on either side of that house he’s living in an rcg Canyon uh he’s all in the shade um that person is going to be in a really difficult situation um but that’s an example that should have been in the in the process people need to understand that well eventually that might look like nice roow houses across the entire block people will live a miserable life until until they move and then somebody will finally buy that house now devalued because who wants that single house the only person that will buy it now is a developer which arguably could be for more money pardon me which has been argued could potentially be for more money you just just took away half the buyers now the developers control who’s going to buy that property yeah I don’t feel agree that it’s like I don’t disagree that there would likely be a developer that would be mostly interested in purchasing that property because most people wouldn’t be able most homeowners wouldn’t be able to afford to purchase it and redevelop it themselves but an investor or a developer potentially could the vast the vast majority of us buy a house to live in it’s our home we’re there to enjoy it we’re not here to be developers we got a lot of other things in our lives anyways thank you for being here you said something about uh public hearing being daunting yeah you’re here you don’t seem to be intimidated uh I’m a former oil and gas executive I would say I found this hard I haven’t done this for a few years I’m retired now uh I am used to being in big presentations uh while I represent myself in fact I represent a lot of my friends some of whom have actually signed up and in the end they decided they could couldn’t come and do this um this isn’t easy I was nervous starting off I I was probably nervous in the whole darn thing uh this is hard and it’s confrontational um this isn’t public participation this isn’t sitting down and having a fair and open dialogue and having active listening and a two-way conversation I can’t ask you questions you can’t tell me things that I would might be helpy to talk this through right no it’s um those are interesting points um you mentioned something about a potential legal challenge about a potential legal challenge yeah well um I think it was in the paper there’s on the global news there’s a fellow laodi he’s wants to take an action um I know that uh if we go to um just trying to think of which slide it was um well one of my early slides uh land own property the one that says property rights property uh owners have rights there you go um under common law and under the Alberta Bill of Rights property owners have rights but in the Alberta Bill of Rights uh these rights can be changed uh but it requires a due process of law so councils have the authority you can you can pass a bylaw and you can change property owner rights but you needed to follow a due process of law twice now I’ve heard in this Council or in this public hearing process well what what process are we following what is the average calgarian understandable the process you’re following what was the notification um can you tick off follow the boxes in front of a judge and say we gave full disclosure of all the information we gave proper notification uh calgarians generally understand what’s going on my guess is a j I’m not a lawyer but I’ve done a lot of contract work I’ve had more than one legal uh vice president tell me I should have been a lawyer uh because I have a pretty good understanding of the law you go in front of a judge and say it’s going to be pretty easy I think to say this process was not well done and and the judge would I think likely say I’m going to injunct the decision go away and do it right oh that doesn’t mean you can’t come back and do it again but I don’t like your chances anyways you you have no plans on undertaking such such I plan to support laodi and a lot of my friends do and he’s proceeding and I think it if you there’s nothing to do until you make a decision if you decide to do it I don’t think this was fair well no I appreciate you your perspective and for coming here and voicing your opinion thank yeah further questions for you sir pardon me I said no further questions for you but I do have a question for Mr Boer thank you Mr Boer sorry I’m pronouncing it Mr Beck Mr Beckler my apologies I should know this um so Mr Beckler you you made mention about we should build units where there is capacity and when we talk to Developers are proposing developments in the Green Field we look at capacity infrastructure capacity Water waste water storm water etc etc and we assess the level of development that can occur in any quadrant or any particular part of the city and then we typically will impose limits on those developers as to how many units they can develop based on projected capacity and so when we look at that we also take into consideration allowing for growth in certain areas so how do we square that Circle as it relates to this when we do a blanket zoning to assess whether or not there is capacity how much capacity at what point do we pull the trigger can we pull the trigger like in in Greenfield we can right from the GetGo but here once we Implement a blanket if if for some strange reason we happen to get a whole bunch of development in one area and there is only so much capacity in that area how how do we how do we Finance the upgrade through your worship to councelor Sho um to clarify and I think if if I may ask a question your worship of the counselor that you’re talking about my statement regarding Supply is constrained within established communities no no you were saying we should build units where there’s existing capacity through your worship to councelor Sho I don’t believe that’s was something I said it might have been what someone else said but I I can I can answer your question about rounding that that square route so I I agree completely and have faith completely that an evaluation will take place as applications come in and where constraints are found decisions will be made to make investment either by the party that’s put an application the city or the community to increase Supply or to increase cons the the infrastructure limit that you’ve referred to or that growth won’t happen there yeah see it’s it’s kind of different with the these single family units I think um through the worship to councel shabo I think on a just like Greenfield right you’re on a Case by case basis you just have a smaller stamp that you’re working with right so if the infrastructure is there we have infrastructure capacity inside of communities I trust staff to explain which ones have that and when an application comes in that is evaluated um if you have many of them coming in that just increases the amount of things you’re comparing that Supply to right so I completely agree that it’s different in the established areas I think that what you have is tools to evaluate the existing capacity in my experience outside of me coming as a resident in Calgary right we will be told to go back and look at what the infrastructure requirements are of the development we’re proposing and then we’ll have to adjust our development accordingly or invest accordingly to allow for the project to move forward okay does that help answer your question sorry kind of so do you think it would be a valuable exercise for us to look at that infrastructure and assess how much capacity there is in a given area in my observation through your worship Council SPO in my observation uh you’re doing that you’re doing that constantly I’ve seen it I watch it every time an application comes in and you go online there are you know questions about what is the capacity the sanitary the water the fire coverage are considered in that evaluation it’s in the applic process yeah typically will apply those principles around larger developments just as a an example larger multi-unit type facilities not typically on a oneoff basis so I don’t I don’t believe that we necessarily go through that extens of a process on a per unit basis so the cumulative impact is what I’m concerned about uh it’s your worship to council shabo I and I I think that’s everyone’s concern right there whether it’s a new piece of land on the outskirts of the city right that a pipe is being sized to accommodate a plan and policy that is put in place or it’s an existing Community with pipes in the ground and Roads that has capacity I believe that evaluation is ongoing that’s my observation it it may not be yours yeah I may have a little more information you’re worship to councelor shabo on that statement if I me um I believe you do which is why my statement of empowerment I think you have access to those resources and you’ll be able to find out that those evaluations are happening anyways thank you thank you very much thank you let’s go to councel mlan please uh thank you mayor my question is for Mr McIntyre thanks for that presentation rapid fire it’s a lot of slides to sorry wasn’t my ideal approach but I had just one question on slide 20 if you could pull that up sure because we whipped by it pretty quick but I think I caught something I wanted to uh ask you about about yeah the Foothills annexation statement right um You didn’t really have much to say on that I didn’t know if you wanted to uh expand on that well I really the point of this slide is simply that um one of the concerns I hear from uh the city in terms of why do we have to you know do blanket resoning is well we don’t have enough space we need to we need more Supply um you just you decided not to continue with the annexation and this is a quote right from the press release the city has adequate land land supply for the next 35 to 49 years and then the next one I went into one of your uh documents that talked about what is this Supply growth possible and you’ve got 100,000 units already approved in service you’ve got another 150,000 that are approved but need to be serviced there’s lots of room for growth no I’m not saying like like you know I have to look at my whole presentation I realized that it was probably impossible to read a lot of this stuff um I completely believe in densification it’s going to happen every city does but that doesn’t mean you have to do it willy-nilly and just do a great experiment with a blanket resoning take the take the local area plans give them objectives a Target and say we need um like the shanuk one the aboya britania I’m familiar with that um set some goals you need to increase densification by a certain amount where can we do that we need apartment buildings we need this we need that work with the community come up with a solution if we’re in crisis accelerate it yeah I understand I think we agree we’ve heard a lot of that where uh densification in a lot of areas Works real good also in Green Fields I was just curious if like as far as the Foothills I don’t know if you’re aware we had like a 500 acre parcel that uh 5 years of council direction for Council to have that developed could provide 5,000 homes the pipes went right up to it ready to go and then we killed it so I don’t know if that’s mixed messaging we’re sending to a public where we need to grow but so I just wanted to kind of go down that line but we don’t have to go to that further because I just we talked that one I did a crash course in the last two weeks on all of this um because until I got that letter I I knew the community Association was involved I knew they were telling the same messages I wanted to tell I thought some sense would come into all this and then we would go down a different path I get the formal letter looks like I got to get involved at the same time I got the formal letter I got a letter from the Community Association saying the next week there was going to be a meeting so I thought okay I’ll go to the meeting find out what’s been going on and then that left me a couple weeks to prepare for this um so I don’t know the whole story of the Foothills annexation um we don’t have to go down that rabbit hole I just think again I think we agree that we just should be doing both I I didn’t know why we didn’t continue with it um the city’s eventually going to need more space but you guys understand the timing better than me yeah and I think the other question I had was probably on that legal you’re an Orland gas executive councelor shabo went down that already we’ve had some advice from our internal City uh uh lawyers and one way or another what my concern there I think most people is that legal battles cost money the lawyers get rich and would be good to avoid it but that’s all I have for you mind I wouldn’t mind just giving it I’ve got a list of 10 points that I think are all problematic if you go ahead um I don’t know if we are consideration of time oh I’ll be really quick okay so councelor mlan you have to ask a question yeah well he’s he okay can I please give go ahead go ahead could you ask him a question like this is an interesting exchange you’re having okay did you uh would you like to did I tell you your 10 points would you like to tell us your 10 points I would like to thank you thank you um so the so I’ve heard a couple of times you’re following the same redesignation process that you follow for a single property sometimes it’s used for a few properties you’re just doing it for 200,000 properties at once but you’re not actually following that process if you were following that process you would have made an application the application would have led to a posting of signs on the properties now I don’t expect every property get a a sign but you also send letters at the same time and I looked forever how much notification do you normally give to a land owner uh like a like an adjacent land owner it’s a know that whether you want to object or not well the reason you never never have set a time is because the normal process takes three or four months minimum from the development application uh a planner review uh the planning committee and then eventually to a hearing the point is I got less I got a month maybe I should have had at least 3 months notice minimum um and you didn’t make an application and you didn’t post signs I don’t know why there weren’t Billboards and other signs lots of people when I raised this two weeks ago they didn’t really understand what’s going on week just two weeks before and they still don’t know what’s going on um you’re both proponent and judge that strikes me as a bit fishy um I mentioned the time timely notification uh have you disclosed all the facts people are still confused about the two $228 million now I get you did a deal you probably didn’t want to advertise that the day after you signed the agreement to say well actually this is exactly the opposite of what Minister Fraser said but at some point you owed the calgarians before this hearing started what was the fact of the matter um what are the Alternatives you haven’t presented any alternatives you just said that this is the answer people should be able to judge and and give you feedback on what the alter alternatives are do you guys have all the facts the very fact that somebody had to ask about the $228 million deal puts doubt in my mind as to whether you guys have all the facts um can ask answer questions here’s one uh that’s about attitude can we go to uh slide this this would be a quick one slide 34 um this is on your website you can read it but basically you said uh we don’t think Krab understands what’s going on um they have a senior Economist that doesn’t seem to understand what’s going on were we not all impressed with an Marie lur when she when she’s here a couple days ago she’s the senior Economist at least that’s what I understand so you put on the public website that you didn’t think she understood she just didn’t agree she had a different point of view but where is an openness to really listen to feedback go this next slide so what did kreb say kreb said engage over and over again engaging in a robust community community consultation uh this could impact individuals uh won’t necessarily give you the supply in the price range you want you need condos single people need condos at a or backyard Suites um secondary Suites they don’t need a bro house I get it Mr M McIntyre I thinkk you’ve got our 10 points in actually I’m Marie lurry was on eye opener this morning I think we all enjoyed her presentation thank you I think you’ve uh you’ve thank you for your time thank you thank you very much there are no more questions for this panel so thank you all for taking the time to be with us we appreciate your presentations I’m going to announce the next panel and then I’m going to see who’s available for the panel after that the next panel is going to be a panel of four people it will be Michelle lce it’ll be Sano stante Steven shawcross and Maddie Carter following that we are going to panel 165 so I’m going to see who’s available from 165 do we have Nicole Chan do we have Chris dowswell thank you do we have Beni Nadia Karana Yaki yeah I’m on call perfect do we have Michelle Christopherson Michelle Christopherson on the line here thank you and do we have Robert leis I’m here perfect so you four folks will be the next panel so please hang tight for now let’s start off with Michelle lce please and just a reminder for everyone you have five minutes I will have have to cut you off when the 5 minutes are up so if you’re on the line if you have a timer that is probably the best way to go so Michelle please go ahead could you please pull up the presentation first it is ready to go let me know ready to go good morning your worship and members of council my name is Michelle Lis I am a resident of Ward 11 parent and real estate investor I work as a researcher and have been a disability advocate for 30 years next Slide the City of Calgary set the goal to increase housing Supply to remedy housing affordability and meet the growing housing demands with something called resoning for housing stating that our city needs more homes and that the blanket resoning strategy will increase housing Supply on the front page of your website there’s no mention about decreasing rent so we question is this strategy viable my presentation will help answer this question next slide let’s talk about the elephant in the room the ever increasing and debt burdening rental rates on students persons with disabilities seniors singles and newcomers to Calgary what is the root cause that is preventing lowincome rental options in Calgary the Alberta law unlike Quebec Ontario and British Columbia to name some provinces and territories where rental control policies are implemented Alberta policy does not limit landlord’s yearly rental increases next slide also 29 years of age Jeff wiggers spoke at this hearing on April 26 and he highlighted several points in Ward 11 alone there are multiple vacant land areas that sit untapped how about implementing strict land tax for unused land plus the age differences in constituents that are in favor and those who are opposed counter any argument that there is a generational divide or that single detached housing is a thing of the past Council we have an adequate supply of zoned Parcels to accommodate growth for the next 50 years without blanket resoning of single family neighborhoods next slide here is yet another vacant land area in Ward 11 that makes logical sense for multif family rental units as it sits directly next to the bus line next slide take other cities in Canada since the early 1900s that di D densified while maintaining housing diversity I’m fortunate to have Decades of firsthand experience in dollar dormo DDO a Canadian city where agricultural Focus was transformed into a highly densified yet diverse city where the numbers of affordable housing options have steadily grown all while preserving single detached housing areas next slide as Steven Donahue planning officer in DDO summarized this week historically the city of DDO has favored densification but always in a way that protects single family residential areas and their character at the dawn of a new wave of fairly intense densification climate crisis arrival of structuring public transit housing crisis the city is still advocating for the preservation as is of its s Le family zones as a Heritage next slide why am I highlighting DDO as an example DDO mayor Ed yanes family friend was the longest standing uninterrupted mayor in Canada and for good reason constituents were authentically heard and served as a result dodo’s housing diversity and growth are still multiplying next slide so is this strategy viable no blanket resoning will not solve the housing crisis and is dividing Calgary today in Fast Forward thir 30 years from now should it continue to be implemented Calgary will be divided in upper and lower classes minimizing or eliminating the middle class and diversity en closing Council please do the right thing for Calgary and its residents my request is that you not approve this bylaw table it and authentically engage residents in Calgary in two-way q&as rather than what appears to be a box being checked and calling it a public hearing also be inclusive in your solution help ensure affordable loow income housing a vital strategy for this is simple control landlord rent increases enforce affordable rent by controlling annual rental increases at 2% when property improvements are done at 5% if property improvements are done to improve renters quality of life and penalized landlords who evict or discontinue rental agreements without Fair cause simply to increase rents and lastly importantly hold a pleite on the question of blanket resoning do not continue to impede our well-being and threatened displacement of single detached homeowners invest in your con constituents and have them feel served thank you thank you for your presentation let’s go to Sante please Madam mayor our presentation is pre-recorded and I believe the clerk has uh Steve Shaw crosses which sequences ah head of mine so with your pleasure at your pleasure if you would present his first I’ll accommodate that because I know you’re both away so we’ll go to Mr shock cross Mr stante will come to you afterwards thank you your presentation is on the screen so we’re just going to uh play it now thank you and please be aware we have about a 60c delay from what we see on our screen to what we are speaking to you of thank you thank you while we fully support the city’s object your worship members of council my name is Steven shawcross I’m an urban planner practicing in Calgary and internationally for the past 44 years I am here with s stany a real estate professional to present a discussion paper entitled The unable case against blanket resoning while we fully support support the city’s objectives with respect to the blanket resoning bylaw we believe that these objectives can be readily and much more comprehensively achieved through existing planning tools namely local area plans without resorting to a sea change in the form of blanket resoling which comes with Myriad impacts unintended and otherwise greatly undermining its utility and efficacy in the interests of time our presentation is focused on the core aspects of affordability and offers a proven alternative to address this issue the biggest problem with blanket resoning is its inability to improve affordability in fact past experience and recent data from Calgary indicates it has the opposite effect the notion that over Supply by the private sector will cause a drop in home prices fails to recognize the economics of the Land Development process where developers shareholders demand requisite Returns on new projects second one from the city’s position regarding improving overall housing market dynamics they State adding new homes to the market even if they are initially priced higher contributes to overall housing affordability this statement is counterintuitive and specious in the extreme this graph depicts the average resident in Calgary over the past 44 years as you will note home prices in YYC have remained stable or increasing except when impacted by exogenous and extreme events the national energy program in the early 80s the global financial crisis in 2007 2008 and more recently the covid-19 pandemic it might be longer but we have never witnessed a price drop due solely to developer driven over Supply why is that okay Land Development and Home Building are for profit Enterprises they utilize sophisticated tools to prevent chronic oversupply of units in perpetuity I.E Supply demand analyses segmentation studies and sales thresholds these studies culminate in forecast of unit Demand by product type and price range by age of household head by Family type by affordability by housing attributes and by Loc ation they’re monitored and refined regularly to match market demand and prevent over production of Supply recent data in Calgary demonstrates the inflationary impact of upzoning on land value in Mount Pleasant an rc2 typical 1950s Bungalow with a 6,000 ft lot has an average price of approximately 722 th000 this increases to 9986000 or 36% after rezoning to rcg we make the same observation in Karne where that same Bungalow went from 740,000 to 1, 2016, while somewhat improving the affordability of town homes land prices for singles infills and duplex units will be significantly increased across Ross the entire District the unintended downside of blanket resoning is an immediate inflationary impact on land value P to the highest and best use extrapolated to the current inventory of rc1 and2 suggests a significant decrease in overall housing affordability as opposed to an increase now the way to prevent that is quite simple you don’t use a blunt instrument like blanket resoning you would identify specific locations for row and Multiplex via the lap process and Zone accordingly all right your slides are done you’ve got about 20 seconds left if you need it I’ll pass that to San if that’s all right okay so thank you Mr sha cross let’s go to Sante please you have five minutes sir thank you hi there are are you affordable housing and real estate I would first underline that we support the stated goals of city council behind the blanket resoning and Mr shawcross and myself studied the blanket proposal pragmatically to understand the implications our work has unveiled 14 unintended negative outcomes which we outlined in our full report which was provided to council due to the time constraints we are only touching on several of these today I’ll be providing some conclusions Alternatives and recommendations that culminate our Collective work on the issue these conclusions are aligned with the position of the Calgary real estate board collectively we strongly appose implementing blanket resoning and we would like to present some viable constructive Alternatives and recommendations for council’s consideration when citizens purchase a home with zoning in place there is an implied social contract between the land owner and the city the municipality May alter the contract obst for the benefit of the greater good however there is an obligation of proof on the city in this case the city has relied on examples of the strategy implemented in Auckland and Minneapolis on April 5th 24 the Auckland government reverted back to traditional planning proving a failed experiment in other words the lap approach in November of 23 Minneapolis discarded the blanket resoning initiative proving the model ineffective in conclusion there’s a need for a balanced approach to Urban Development that considers long-term impacts on communities infrastructure and environment and any of these methods need to be carefully evaluated and designed to mitigate potential negative outcomes there’s a need for planning in the traditional approach as opposed to a one- siiz fits-all approach that is a scalpel versus the sledgehammer land cost is identified as a barrier to affordability the land component of lowdensity housing contributes about 25 to 30% of the self price developers Target returns in the 20 to 25% range with Builders adding another more than 14% of the price developers are incentivized to deliver housing that renders acceptable profit margins given the fixed cost components there’s little scope for providing affordable versus market rate housing the city has no influence over these fixed cost components but it does have a land base and administrative capability to deliver housing at 25 to 30% below market for comparable units or truly affordable housing Ci’s land Supply is really a lost opportunity over the past 20 years the city has generated development schemes on city-owned Parcels adjacent to LRT stations School sites and larger Parcels so we’d like to introduce the concept of the Community Land Trust which is an opportunity to create a perpetually affordable housing Supply it works like this the city establishes a community land trust to oversee development of affordable housing the land is held in the Land Trust which is leak from the city for a nominal amount say €99 for uh a dollar durable long-term housing is then developed and sold by the trust absent of the land cost so at for about 30% Less in comparable housing purchasers then must meet an income or means test to qualify for purchasing and the property must then be resold back to the land trust at the base cost plus the cost of living increase over the duration of aumy the trust then may resell the property into the market gain at 30% below Market providing a perpetually affordable housing model our recommendations as evidence comprehensive neighborhood planning coupled with the creation of a Community Land Trust are far more effective methods to achieve the city’s stated objectives without the attended impacts associated with blanket reson accordingly we respectfully table the following recommendations to city council for consideration number one that the city abandoned the blanket resoning initiative in favor of comprehensive neighborhood plans that identify specific area and sites to be reson for duplex town home multi- sites along with multif family uses including four five and mid-rise and high-rise buildings number two that the city establish a Community Land Trust as previously I described to deliver below Market housing in both ownership and Rental year number three that the city identify and make available under a lease structure City owned Parcels to provide land for Community Land Trust initiative and additionally number four that the city consider allowing secondary Suites and laneway housing in all zones along with the review and modification of existing regulations thank you thank you for your presentation uh if you can hang on the line while you’re muted if there’s questions I will let you know let’s I’m going to do one more thing Lawrence Hebert from panel 164 is here is that correct you want to grab a seat up front there sir we’re going to go to Maddie Carter and then we’ll add Mr Hebert as our fifth member of this panel Maddie Carter please go ahead great thank you thank you mayor gondek and members of council for the opportunity to speak today I’m privileged enough to take time away from work to speak on this issue and I’m honored to be able to follow my peers friends and family who have done the same today to we stand at a Crossroads where the dream of owning a home seems to slip further away for many hardworking individuals and families the pressing issue of housing affordability demands bold and decisive action we find ourselves in dire need of solutions that not only address immediate concerns but also pave the way for a sustainable future I stand before you to advocate for blanket resoning this move is not merely a shift in zoning regulations it’s a Beacon of Hope for countless individuals striving to secure a place they can call home by transitioning to rcg zoning we unlock the potential to create more diverse and affordable housing options blanket resoning streamlines the development process Expediting the construction of multi-unit dwellings town homes and other Diversified housing this in turn increases housing density and optimizes land usage making Urban living more accessible and sustainable moreover blanket res zoning Fosters inclusivity and diversity within communities it promotes mixed inome neighborhoods where people from various socioeconomic backgrounds can live side by side fostering social cohesion and breaking down barriers the nimbyism that has come out during this past week has been absolutely staggering and it makes me want to join the droves of young people who are leaving Calgary for more open-minded welcoming cities there’s a common misconception among those who are opposed that they will be forced to vacate and redevelop their homes rezoning does not mean that you will be forced to knock down your single family dwelling those critics may also argue that such a move compromises the character of existing neighborhoods however I urge you to consider the alternative leaving housing affordability Out Of Reach for many perpetuating socioeconomic disparities and stifling the growth of vibrant and inclusive communities in the face of in aordable ility crisis we cannot afford to cling to outdated zoning Paradigm we must Embrace Innovation and adaptability to create a future where everyone has a fair chance at achieving home ownership blanket resoning is not just a policy change it’s a commitment to building a more Equitable and prosperous City for generations to come let us stand together and see this opportunity to make housing affordability a reality for all thank you thank you for for your presentation let’s go to Lawrence Hebert please a good morning Madame mayor and counselors I thank you for the opportunity to speak today I’m a little nervous I don’t usually speak in front of important people like this but I’ll do my best I represent myself and my wife uh we purchased our house 31 years ago here in the city and also our three adult children who are all property owners here in Calgary two of which have bought single family units within the last N9 months and the other bought a condo just last month I would like to say that I’m opposed to the blanket rezoning but open to discussion and new ideas I want to raise some practical concerns I have of my understanding of this blanket resoning and densification plan first the loss of Green Space there will be more concrete ashphalt walls Etc per square meter there’ll be less space for birds and squirrels Etc there’ll be less space for Hedges Lawns Rock Gardens and such secondly I’m concerned about the destruction and reduction of trees mature trees will be sacrificed there will be less space for future trees and even new trees that might be planted will have reduced space in which to grow to to be large enough to absorb carbon dioxide thirdly I’m concerned about jeopardizing gardening and composting space will be lost for gardening and flower beds will there be space for composting if yes where can it be used if there isn’t space for a garden or a lawn or such where we would use our compost so why should I continue to compost fourthly I’m concerned about groundwater depti depletion how will our groundwater be replenished if our surface area is covered with concrete decking and roofs my farmer friend tells me he’s happy because there’s be there’ll be more water going down the B River for him I’m Al concerned about possible sink holes in the future and what will we do to replenish or aquifi fifthly I’m concerned about lack of play area for children minimized room on the lot will for sandboxes swings tree fors playhouses lawn darts Etc will be a reality also there will be an increase in negative developmental issues and mental health issues of children that are confined to small spaces indoors and Outdoors uh they will be cramped and so I wonder why we should uh urge so many people to live in living resembling a cramped apartment living six I’m concerned about cruelty cruel existence rather for pets there will be reduced space to run and Roam and recreate smaller space inside the houses as more residences are squeezed into one lot will reduce the overall size this means an in-house space will be less and less for pets as well I’m also concerned about parking issues with more residents per lot there will be an increased number of people and cars per lot but there will be less area on each lot to park cars street parking will become a greater problem and I believe illegal parking will increase I can speak of my my wife’s uh childhood home in Vancouver where on a regular lot now there are four units and you go in the back Lane there is one garage for one car all the rest have to park on the front of the house along the street I’m concerned about the impossible how it’ll be impossible to plug in all our cars conveniently and legally how will people plug in their block heaters when parked on the street how can we charge our EV batteries if most of our cars will be parked on the street I’m also concerned about overcrowding each lot and surrounding Community will lack space and also ventilation not all of us can afford air conditioning so we want our windows open more people living in close proximity in residents will increase people problems I’m also concerned about increased risk with more units on a lot and in closer proximity there will be an increased risk of collateral damage through fires also less garages per unit uh per unit per lot will subject our cars to inclement Weathers snow ice and hail and so they’ll be exposed to damage and insurance costs number 11 I’m concerned about garbage collection issues semidetached homes in my neighborhood now have six garbage garbage bins how many will a fourplex or a clust of row houses need if there is a if there is no back Lane and the street is filled with cars parked there because of a lack lack of garages where will all the garbage bins be placed for emptying number 12 I’m concerned about the depreciation of property and reduction of wealth yes I know our Madame mayor has spoken to some people and said that they that this will be not will not be the case but how can a smaller piece of property let’s say one quarter of what I time sir you’re just at time sir okay thank you for your presentation I’ll let you know if there’s questions in the queue for you okay thank you thank you all right let’s go to questions of this panel let’s start with councelor Penner please thanks is Miss Lis on the phone [Music] still hi this is Michelle hi Michelle thanks for thanks for calling in today um I I have a couple questions for you on your presentation so one you compared you brought up an example from a city in um a city in Quebec and I’m just I’m I’m just wondering so they have a population of less than 50 ,000 and we have a population getting close to 1.5 million are the challenges around around density and accommodating people the same like I’m I’m just wondering like like what challenges would be the same and what might be different with those with those big population differences yeah this is Courtney Penner yeah yeah hi hi um yeah I just recognized your voice um that is a really good question uh when I lived there like there’s only so much that will fit in my five minute presentation I lived in Quebec City in the 1990s when the population of Calgary and Quebec City were equal at about 850,000 people and they’re a much older City Quebec and Montreal of course they’re you know 400 years old so they have um old infrastructure architectural buildings they’re all glumps together there’s a lot more density when I’m speaking of the example for density I’m speaking about in Montreal where um it and and I’ve also had um International guests staying like International students in my home from Soul from Korea like really large cities and they all come here and what I anyway so the issue is um when you have to wait 90 minutes for or 60 minutes for a bus in Calgary and it’s minus 40 outside and there’s no bus structure you’re less likely to do it um when it’s reliable as is possible when um when the the density is bigger like when it’s more dense then buses can come more often it’s more reliable people will use them more often that was my point around uh that example does that make sense or okay than thanks for would you say that’s irrelevant because it’s out of date or no no I I just was try I was just trying to understand what the comparison was and than you for clarifying that no super great um you brought up rent control um so as one of our housing as one of the recommendations in the housing strategy it was to actually Advocate to the provincial government around rent control what more it you know if that’s one of you know knowing that Calgary can’t impose rent control h how do we continue to Advocate that message to the provincial government around the necessity of that oh it it’s tough and I know you’re in a tough spot and I know not all of this is under your control I know you know some how some housing is under Federal jurisdiction the the Alberta Government just swooped in and said yeah you’ve getting grants and we’ll have some of that now thanks um so it’s just underlying that we need a variety of things some of which are in this the housing strategy now and some of which I know you’re working on and you know we have to keep pushing for for it I have a lot of friends who are renting um and and and that has come up in Rainbow Elders I did a call out on our social media for what are people’s concerns and that was one of the top ones is housing and housing affordability and we’re talking to people that are living in basement Suites or sharing a house with multiple people and and it’s the rent and I understand as a homeowner that when your electricity bill hits four5 $600 um you have to pass those costs on we simply stopped using our electric dryer last year so yeah it’s I don’t have unfortunately I’m not the right person to ask for a solution to that but I I think um yeah My worry is that if is what I’ve seen where my in-laws live in altador I just visited them this morning um you know they’re in a 1960s Bungalow and next door to them is a quite tall house and you know they were kind of like we we lost our sunlight in the backyard but those neighbors are actually great and nice and courteous they’re also almost never home whereas The Neighbors on the other side next to them maybe I’m going off track there um what was the point the point is around rent control um yeah we need it we need a variety of different kinds of Housing and um just advocating for for those needs of of people but I don’t have a solution wish I did yeah no that’s that thanks for that I I appreciate R that’s it’s a lot more complex and then the the last I I we have to ask it like a question so would you like to email our office and we can give you more information on some of those vacant Parcels that you presented uh would you like to email our office about that because we could we could get you that info vacant parcel yeah you you talked about um the YMCA which is actually part of our Our Land strategy that we’re releasing to non-market the Bonsai water slide site I think you showed the co-op so if you wanted um would you like to email our office and we could get you more information would you like to email us we could do that I wonder see there I’m there’s two Michelle there’s a Michelle in the panel I’m the Michelle Christopherson in panel 165 oh okay oh I we’ve been talking about is me but the other one I think is the other Michelle ah no wonder this conversation is sort of not going where I thought it was going all is good okay uh yeah I was looking for Michelle all good is is Michelle Lis on the line still H well Michelle Christopherson I I I appreciated this conversation nonetheless okay likewise take care talk soon okay everybody I’m going to clarify something if you are not a presenter who presented on the panel but you’re hanging on the line please wait until your panel’s up before you weigh in on questions and another call out do we have Michelle Lis well maybe she’ll watch it back and take me up on the offer okay all good thanks so much councel wot please thank you uh I guess I’ll work backwards so I’ll start with uh SOS Dante please um I assume that because the presentations were they weren’t exactly joint but uh if am I fair to say that you might be able to answer questions uh for both or just let me know if I ask a question that you’d prefer Mr Shaw cross to answer and then I don’t mind posing it to him afterward um your slides mentioned a list of solutions are you aware that all of the solutions mentioned in your slides are actually a part of the housing strategy underway and currently funded mad mayor to council walcot um I understand that that they’re not exactly as we [Music] stated what do you understand to be different I don’t believe that City of Calgary has perpetually affordable housing model uh in place I’m grateful to tell you in the form of a question uh that that action was something that uh we were able to do last year with attainable homes Calgary um I take it that information never made its way to you cuz it had to be a question yeah thank you I I understand that that property the that the program is not entirely the same uh I did investigate that but I understand that it’s not entirely the same I’m happy to hear that though thank you wonderful um Can following up on some of the comments made about infrastructure can you just like give me your opinion based off of some of the slides that you provided uh what has has a greater impact on local infrastructure small scale Redevelopment across a wide geographic area or large scale Redevelopment in singular locations uh I’m here with with Mr SCH to ask your previous question we’re both here on the line so if uh at your pleasure Madam mayor we can both answer them I suppose I can’t do that we’ve done that for nobody else so um if you can’t answer the question you can certainly say that would be best posed to someone what I’ll do is just I’m work through my questions for you uh Mr stante and then if if you’re not comfortable I just will star them and I’ll I’ll ask them again to the appropriate person Mr sh Ross afterward uh you’re not comfortable answering that question no if you could repeat it please thanks what has a greater impact on local infrastructure in your opinion based off your slid small scale Redevelopment across a wide geographic area or large scale Redevelopment singular locations uh I I would say across a larger geographic location yeah how come would have a greater impact uh on existing infrastructure especially in existing uh neighborhoods on older neighborhoods that weren’t plann for that uh density you gave an example of of something like Karne in there and colar is surrounded by several significant the brts there Transit but when you’re thinking about the actual pipes in the ground do you think the pipes in the ground are prepared to handle high density right now and I’m talking like high density around nodes and corridors not not tow houses I don’t know how I would be expected to answer that question uh counselor uh that’s okay that’s why I was asking make sure have the yeah thank I don’t have that information I’m not a I’m not prepared to answer that thank you yep the only reason I asked is just because of the information that you provided in your slides and the answer you just provided so uh that’s okay you also provided another example in your slides around the Karne actually I’m going to I’m going to I’m going to hold this one because I think this one actually came up in Mr Shaw cross’s slides and not yours um you had mentioned in your section of this one here that Calgary’s had pretty stable price increases over the last 40 years with marginal dips during massive Global crisis can you describe why do you suspect that Calgary prices have been so stable in their growth well I’m not I I don’t know exactly the rationale that uh but I can tell you that that’s been our observed uh The observed effect and so I think that it’s um for us to to pretend that we could affect the average price in Calgary by uh influencing you know the price or by influencing the supply uh it’s never happened in the past I would assume since the 1970s and so I we’re just providing the data to show that that would be uh exogenous and unprecedented can you potentially clarify why C if Supply doesn’t impact pricing in any particular way why different markets Across the Nation would have such different degrees of price escalations over the same period of time I think I’ll defer to Mr sha cross if You’ like to ask him that question absolutely do you have any experience uh with selling or building Greenfield yes I do are Greenfield homes built at a below market price they’re they’re built at uh they’re built at the market rate do you sus you mentioned that there’s no new Supply would impact the market rates uh do you if you build enough based off of what your analysises provide for the demand do you suspect that if there was demand you’d build more or I’m I don’t quite second could you restate the question please essentially I’m asking you you know since we know that you’re building Greenfield and you have experience in Greenfield and you’re building them at market prices if there was a demand for more homes uh would you build more and if or if there was simply a question of supply and there wasn’t that demand would you build less I’m afraid I I I I’m sorry if I don’t understand your question but I’m afraid that I I just simply don’t I’ll try and rephrase one last time just so that I’m not taking up too much of your time here but if there’s do you build you say you you claimed in the presentation that you build at demand correct correct okay so more demand more homes less demand less homes correct yeah okay thank you I I’ll I’ll pivot to um Mr sha cross Mr shr are you aware that Auckland did not reverse their strategy and rather it was actually recommended to become optional for all of New Zealand um all I heard Doug Leighton say was the new prime minister had called it a Dopey plan um and they had decided to revert back to the you know standard planning um okay that’s that’s that’s all we know so you do not know for sure that Auckland has reversed its planned as stated in your presentation yeah we are we’re just relating what we have heard and what has been reported and in both instances in Minneapolis and in Auckland uh they have gone back uh they’ve realized that they were the the the impacts that were being created and they weren’t achieving the objectives they were achieving and so they had gone back to more conventional methods of planning uh would you be comfortable with me sending you information to the contrary you can certainly do that thank you your example Mr sha cross in the colar example do you believe that competition for land has an impact on the value of land zone for higher density of course and what you know we made a simple statement that and we know this from again 40 years 40 plus years of of being in this business that uh upzoning has an immediate inflationary impact on land value uh so of course you know when you go from uh rc1 rc2 to rcg what the market what what what’s being demonstrated is roughly 36% increase in land value that’s those are recent examples I agree do you believe that that example represents a redesignation in a constrained Market it it represents it represents what will happen in any Market call it under normal market conditions um in a constrained Market you’re talking about there you know there there’s there’s high demand um but I want to point out that as we’ve indicated and as uh KB indicated the the highest pressures are coming at the lower end of the market right now uh you don’t have the same kind of pressure for $700 and $800,000 town homes and you know our point is uh if you flood the market with 7 and $800,000 town homes that’s not solving your current affordability crisis the the the the other aspect of of that inflationary impact is that you’re now making single family and duplexes that much more expensive to build in those areas respectfully Mr sha I just want to Circle back to the question the example represents What’s happen in a constrained Market you’re suggesting that in an unconstrained Market all land will go up by 37% it’ll go up it’ll go up according to again according to the market uh at the you know at the time based on highest and best use uh we’ve seen this in call it balance markets uh when you up Zone you get an immediate inflationary impact on land value it’s just it’s a it’s just a fact if you want you can go back and look at 50 years record sorry I had my last question there I just was to what scale you’re at time sorry all right so let’s go to counselor dong please yes M Mr stante um you’re you’re familiar with the new uh zoning we’ve done in the new land areas somewhat yes I am okay so it’s been suggested in a number of places that the point that the rcg is needed in established areas for fairness to new to newer neighborhoods like uh Legacy and other new new communities because they’re listed with an RG low rating as well my opinion is that it kind of turns around it’s not really reasonable comparison because in almost any location where there’s an R R1 or an R2 building type on an RG in these new communities none of those Footprints would ever allow for an rcg to be built what is your opinion on that well I I don’t necessarily disagree I think you know what what’s happened here in can what we’re hoping to achieve we’re using examples from the United States from uh blanket resoning in for example in Minneapolis what we failed to recognize is that zoning in the US the walks in the US are typically 10 to 12,000 Square F feet as opposed to 6,000 square ft so we’ve already achieved these measures in Canada and specifically in Calgary uh for higher densities okay and and and thank you for that you’re so so with regards to the new communities and whether they would be available to re to redevelop into to an rcg uh you have no thoughts if not I’ll go to the next qu person I I I I really can’t speak to that and that’s fine but I think Mr shawcross could he he plans many of these yep that’s that’s where I plan to go next thank you very much Sante Mr Sante Mr shawcross yes did you hear my questions or do I need to repeat it if you could repeat it that would be fine so in then it’s it’s been suggest suggested that the one of the reasons we need rcg in the established areas is because in the newer developed areas we’re giving it a granted RG uh uh connotation or land use um my understanding is that was done for Simplicity sake with regards to land uh uh land owners and and and planning so we didn’t have to keep coming to council for areas that are have not been developed yet now these areas that have been re that have been zoned RG but have an R1 or an R2 house on them I’ve looked at season I have difficulty understanding if they could ever redevelop into an A Row Housing in any way shape or form I was wondering if you could have give me your thoughts on that yeah you’d have to look at the specific plan and look at look at the size of the Lots uh you know that had been created in the new communities and let me just put it this way you know we the you have the ability to put any type of of uh of product within existing communities through a local area plan which would approximate uh you know a a concept plan and a plan of subdivision in a new community uh you know in a new community the the developer decides uh you know again what kind of product he wants to put on and where it should go uh and you have the ability to do that again in existing communities older communities through the local area planning process where you identify the most logical locations for higher density forms including Town Homes uh so it’s it’s you know the the the new communities aren’t being penalized it’s just you’re you’re adopting a slightly different planning process in in existing communities to achieve the same end and if you do it through the local area plan as we’ve indicated it’s much more comprehensively done and you can eliminate or minimize the impacts that are going to going to occur as a result okay thank you Mr sha cross appreciate that thank you let’s go to coun shabbo please um I think my questions for you Mr sh cross you um you made mention I believe with a a phased approach um through local area plans uh do you think there’d be better Community buyin if uh if we utilize that approach 100% uh positive because the community then gets you know a chance to work and and as we used to work collegially with the city planners to develop a plan that achieves those objectives uh and both parties can go away hopefully happy okay um a followup to that question if we utilize continue to utilize that local area plan to identify areas where this higher intensity use whether you consider this to be a low density development or or not um if we could identify locations where this would be preferred this type of built form do you think we should then progress to a staged approach into implementation of a city initiated redesignation or just blanket Zone those areas that are identified as as supportive like neighborhood local I think well the city is uh the city has undertaken a a blanket resoning previously I think the two 2007 uh bylaw update uh included uh an approach uh I think you could go to uh a fairly large scale resoning once you have the local area plan in place it would be the next logical step because then you can start implementing uh the zoning that’s been that’s you know that’s been agreed upon okay um do you think um the best way to achieve um Supply demand uh that the best way to achieve it would be this way or do you think maybe higher density type developments in in specific nodes and corridors could achieve a better outcome yeah you’ll always achieve a better outcome by you know doing proper planning uh and I think as as crab the the crab Economist pointed out the problem you have right now the the real pinch point is at the lower end of the market that is where you need to put the supply and that Supply is probably best delivered on larger scale projects uh a number of which I’ve you know I’ve been trying to bring to the market for quite a while midnapore station be sorry Midtown Station being the obvious example hopefully it’ll get a a reading when it gets to council um and and I want to point out I I have I’ve I’ve done a number of studies for the city over the years on intensifying around LRT stations uh 2011 and 2014 2015 uh we did almost all the stations on on the line and looked at opportunities uh this has been sitting really uh again it’s been sitting for what what’s that uh 13 14 years without action um you know these are the obvious places to start uh and you have a chance to really attack where the where you have problems in the market um the as I said the the notion of flooding trying to flood the market in in existing areas with 700 and $800,000 Town Homes is not solving your problem and as it indicated all it’s going to do is is going to drive prices higher in those locations so your affordability your attempt to improve affordability is going to end in uh the exact opposite uh it’s it’s going to decrease overall housing affordability I can’t stress that strong enough or strongly enough that you have to put Supply where it’s required uh putting it where it’s not required is not going to do anything so you brought up an interesting point in in regards to um um proximity to Transit stations that you believe that those types of developments could actually deliver lower end Market type housing yes they could okay thanks great um and just in terms of numbers there’s I’m aware of three or four projects uh as I said that are currently in the hopper that could deliver something in the order of 12,000 units and that will put that’ll put the biggest uh crimp in your affordability issue in the fastest amount of time and supply address the supply issue um you um I can’t I think it was you that talked about uh old product resoning a natural increase just from The increased in density and we’ve heard a lot of folks talk about how increasing the supply um in these older established communities could help with the affordability and a number of other things but you made a point that City initiated redesignation could potentially increase the value of those older units so I I guess it begs the question sorry let let me just finish if I may begs a question on is this going to um make some of those older units less affordable that were built under a a whole different cost um structure lower pric lands lower um wages lower priced uh um materials and replacing it with new based on new costs new labor um costs new material costs to build brand new units do you think that we’re actually being counterintuitive through this process by taking away some of that more affordable stock and replacing it with brand new high cost product yeah I I think again it’s uh it would have an impact on that old stock I I I think that the key the key aspect of the point you’re trying to make and the point I’m making is if you blanket rezone those old areas then all Lots you know all 6,000 squ foot Lots currently priced at that lower lower price are going to increase in value holess bis through the area if you do if you go the other way and do a local area plan and identify specifically where you’re going to put the town homes and where they’re most appropriate it will not have the same impact on those older homes that that again represent uh some of the the better prices within those neighborhoods again it’s it’s look you can achieve the goals without the negative impact through the processes you have in place uh and I again I can’t as a planner I can’t stress that enough and as someone who is an expert in Supply demand and has been doing it for the past 50 years I’ve been to this movie before this is not the way you want to go um okay I do have a question for Miss Carter Michelle is back on the phone just to heads up sorry Miss Carter okay thank you very for letting us know you’re back Miss Carter you on on the line I’m here yeah okay um you talked about increasing the number of units uh creating more affordability now we’ve heard that the inner city Lots tend to be a lot more expensive so input costs are higher which results in a higher priced uh end product when we’re looking at the inner city uh but we we are seeing much more competitive prices in other areas primarily in Greenfield so are we are you suggesting we should try and increase the affordability or make them less not increase reduce the amount of increase in the Inner City to provide more inner city units I’m trying to rationalize the affordability issue here I I think it’s really you need to increase the number of units everywhere in the city not just in the inner city but also along Transit corridors I think that diversifying where you have density is the key because you can’t just put all of your eggs in one basket does that does that answer your question well kind of I guess um I it sounds like you’re supportive of of increasing density in areas where it makes the most sense like close to primary Transit networks amenities those kind of things yeah anywhere that would be the first place for densification to go would be along you know major routes and along Transit corridors so that those people would have access to different services and things like that and Alternate modes of transportation okay yeah thank you I have no further questions thank you let’s go to councelor putman’s please thank you mayor for Mr thank you mayor for Mr shr please yes Richard go ahead thank you you mentioned a land trust as a possible mechanism to facilitate development yes what is the um how do you fairly distribute this land when the time comes I’m just wondering uh Richard uh Mr stante is much more is is much better versed in in the whole notion of land trust than I am if you could pass that question to him um you get a better answer can I do that through the chair enough now if you would like to ask questions of Mr stante you can do that at some point if you’re finished with coun with uh Mr sha cross I am finished with Mr sh cross thank you Mr sha cross thank you Mr Sant please Council Putman thank you for the question I so uh there was you could establish uh an independent body that would U coordinate the development and you could use uh a city uh owned body such as attainable homes which is currently uh in the business and I understand that the Mandate of attainable homes was originally that but has changed uh over the last short while so I can’t speak to uh their capability to do that currently but um an organization similar to that would be well equipped to do it thank you thank you chair let’s go to council Thell please uh thank you mayor this is for Mr sha cross um you one of the slides you had inflationary impact on land value uh I just want to understand how H how can you uh conclude that you give an example of clar since what what is being proposed here is unconstrained supply of land so how could you say that there could be inflationary effect on land in certain parts of the Cities well it’s what happens when you up Zone it’s the impact of upzoning land yeah there’s an immediate rise in prices for that for that land yeah but we are up zoning everywhere in the city so that’s what I’m trying to understand from like why would we see it in Karne just because of the supporting infrastructure that you feel that development will run to these sites first than other parts of the city no I let me what we’re saying is that if I have a 6,000 ft Bungalow and I can get a higher and better use then it will be worth more money at the end of the day okay okay so and if you if you go if you blanket reson so that now everybody everybody in Karne who’s got a 6,000 ft Bungalow right now worth 722 that value if if you want to get the you know after three sales uh three comparable sales any appraiser would tell you that the the the value of that lot is now $986,000 in when it’s reson to to rcg that’s just that’s just typical uh uh impact of up zoning so that’s a 36% increase everybody that’s got now an an rcg lot whether they develop it or not will have a higher land value okay and so if someone comes in and wants to buy it wants to develop a single or a a duplex they’re going to be more expensive than they than they would be if it was only zoned if it was still zoned R R1 or rc2 okay okay great no thank you I think I understood what you were trying to say my last question is there was a report uh that came out yesterday that said April home sales were up 7.3% from last year and mostly in the like you said um that uh lower end of the market and also the same report said the house is below 500,000 the inventory has gone down 29% whereas houses over 700,000 in inventory has gone up so what I heard earlier that’s the point you were making that it will have make housing more unaffordable and will have unintended consequence of this blanket resoning well it’s going to make housing in the existing areas more EXP expensive um it’s as I said if if you can bring on Supply where it makes sense in the lower end of the market you will stop that pressure within that as within that particular cohort okay great thank you so much for answering my questions that’s it for me thank you let’s go to councelor winess please thanks I’m not sure if this question is for Mr stante or Mr sha cross but um because we’re talking about the lift the land lift that blanket zoning creates um is there a concern that we will lose the equity lift that has been funding the built form of the row houses in the established area no again I’m not I’m not worried about the equity lift uh but if you again the blanket process will give you um will give you that lift across all Lots okay that were previously zoned uh our RC one R C2 they will all have that lift so look this is not this this is not tough mathematics uh just extrapolate just extrapolate that increase and that will tell you that you were increasing the value of land and therefore increasing the value of all homes yes all potential homes being built within that Community but my point is is that goes my part of the question is that lift goes to the current homeowner but under the current model that goes to the developer through coming through the resoning process which allows them to capitalize the built form so if we give that land lift to every current owner how will development industry build this when they have to pay that premium to buy that plot of land in the Inner City established area well that that’s part of the problem thank you if I’m a developer who if I’m a developer who wants to do say a duplex if I’m a duplex Builder and I go into that community it’s going to cost me I if you look at the example uh I it under under the rc2 zoning I can build two units with a land value of 361,000 after I res Zone at the rcg if I want to build those same two units I’m now I’m now at 493 total 132k extra per unit because that because the highest and best use dictates the price correct so but even looking at the values of homes today we’re still going to have to do Green Field development as the predominant Ease on the affordability of the Calgary Market would you not agree no you’ve got two options uh we I’ve already indicated there are numerous sites that you have in the in the uh uh in the existing around the city uh I looked at a number for the City around LRT stations and came up with programs uh detailed development programs for them a lot of those a large part of those programs were based on condominium development uh uh where you could uh get into a much lower price point um you have those at your disposal you could you could FastTrack those the development of those sites yep are you aware that counil that would be are you aware that Council voted down that option during the hosing task force um yeah I was aware that that went somewhere and that’s unfort okay well thank you for answering the questions okay thank you that’s it for questions for this panel so thank you all very much for joining us today we appreciate the time you’ve spent with us I’m going to move on to the next panel in just a moment but I do have a question I understand that there are a couple of people here from previous panels so let me just make sure I’ve got that right do we have Hong Wang from panel 160 Thank you do we have Jasper Woodard from panel 43 thank you both let me just figure out where I’m going to slot you in uh and panel 165 let me confirm and actually before I do that from panel 154 do we have EDG Ela dig mayor gondak hi my name is Bretton Smith I’m calling from panel 113 I was out of the country for a little while and I’m hoping to slot in somewhere if possible today okay it was Brendan Smith did you say that’s correct 113 was my panel okay I will figure out a spot for you do we have Edge L Ela dig okay so let’s look at panel 165 Chris Dow dowswell are you still here okay um if you’re in person if you could take a seat at uh at the front there that would be great uh do we have Beni Nadia Karana Yaki I’m here perfect do we have Michelle Christopherson Michelle Christopherson still here perfect and do we have Robert leis I’m here perfect Nicole Chan right then I’m going to add Hong Wang to this panel so you can come on up and grab a seat let’s get things started with Chris dowswell please just a question I did come back online apparently there were questions for me from the previous panel hi there is this Michelle Lis yes it is hi we’re we’re done with that panel so thanks so much for coming back on but there’s no questions at this time thank you okay Chris go ahead Madame mayor city councilors thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today my name is Chris dowswell I an Anglican priest serving at the Cathedral Church of the Redeemer downtown just a couple blocks from here I’m also a taxpaying homeowner in boness I’m here today representing myself like many residents of this great City I grew up in Saskatchewan I grew up on a farm where I learned the value of hard work in the ’90s I moved to Edmonton where I ran my own successful painting company and with the proceeds I bought my first home nowadays as mentioned I am a taxpaying homeowner in boness I no longer work in trades but what I do as a priest is that I spend a lot of time talking to people about their values and that is what we are doing here in these meetings we are talking about our values as individuals and our values as a city you have had many people come to the microphone during these hearings presuming to speak very broadly for the values of calgarians but to be honest with you many of them have not represented the values of calgarians like myself as I said earlier I’m a taxpaying homeowner in boness and one of the things that attracted me to Calgary and boness in particular was a dee rooted appreciation for personal freedom I need to say that calgarians or at least calgarians like me who value personal freedom are thankful that you are considering this zoning change that will give me greater freedom in how I develop my family’s property rcg won’t Force anyone to develop their property but it will allow those of us owners who want to develop to do so last year my wife and I added a basement Suite this change will allow us to put in a backyard Suite as well which will add to the affordable housing Supply in the city something about me that is also not unique is that I’m one of the many calgarians who would like to pay less taxes some of us calgarians are thankful that you are considering this zoning change because more home owning units in a community will increase the number of taxpayers this will increase the aggregate tax base to fund the infrastructure upgrades that our growing population needs now and will need in the future finally I am also one of the many calgarians who are uncomfortable with our homelessness problem many call it a houselessness problem if there is one thing that unites all of us calgarians this may be it I think we are all ashamed of houselessness in our own ways and we are all just responding differently to it some want to avoid the problem by not driving through downtown others push for high density housing and Social Services to be located far away from where they live so that they don’t have to be confronted with it other calgarians such as myself are glad that you are not avoiding this problem we are glad that you are having these meetings and that you are considering empowering Property Owners with the freedom to help solve the problem of houselessness as mentioned I am the pastor at the Cathedral Church of the Redeemer and in the short time that I’ve been at that Historic downtown church next to Olympic Plaza we have had homeless encampments we have had drug overdoses literally on our doorstep people who are just numbing their pain and honestly I don’t blame them it can be a hopeless existence especially when it feels as though the wider Community would simply prefer that they didn’t exist but they do exist as do the many many more lowincome people who are using up our affordable rental housing Supply while trying to save for a down payment rcg resoning will give low-income families a greater opportunity to get into the market it will create more affordable basement and backyard Suites for rent and it will free up existing affordable rental units for those struggling with houselessness please I urge you do not push this issue down the road any further pass this motion and give us taxpaying homeowners the freedom to be a part of the solution thank you thank you for your presentation let’s go to Beni Nadia Kar Yaki please um good morning mayor and council members my name is B Nadia Kara and I’m a resident of w 2 as a recent graduate from University of Calgary with a degree in urban studies I’m here today to address the crucial housing crisis affecting our cities communities and citizens the housing crisis is not just a challenge it is a precuing issue that demands our immediate attention it’s it’s clear that simply adding a few units here and there will not be enough however it’s crucial to acknowledge that taking a small gradual step is necessary to address this issue therefore I support resoning in initiatives as a solution to the housing crisis I also wish to underscore the importance of including under represented voices of many including students students are a significant part of our community and should be represented in the council discussions it’s important to consider our perspectives and needs when shaping the future of our city in the past year students among many other citizens have faced numerous adversities due to the lack of representation during this crisis this is where rezoning comes in it holds promise in addressing the issue of housing affordability by allowing for increased density however it’s crucial to note that this isn’t just about adding more housing rcg zoning for instance doesn’t restrict the number of units but imposes maximum density this creates opportunities for diverse housing options that meet the needs of our community by approving resoning we can ensure that students and other City community members have access to affordable housing opportunities as our City’s outskirts expand and try to accommodate population growth it won’t be ideal for demographics such as students Young families and new immigrant families due to the lack of NE necessary infrastructure such as Transit and other facilities more over the rapid development of these newor communities are causing damage to our environment including the destructions of wetland and other natural habitats therefore it’s crucial to implement rezoning initiatives in areas that are near Transit and other facilities this approach not only enhances accessibility to amenities for our citizens but also a positive impact to the environment aligning with our sustainability goals when we encourage the development near Transit hubs universities and Social Services we can create opportunities for dedicated student housing young families and new immigrant families which can significantly Elevate the pressure on rental market promoting more balanced housing landscape for everyone calgar calgarians deserve more choices and resoning initiatives can help meet this demand while promoting inclusivity and affordability it’s important to recognize that market housing alone cannot solve this housing crisis however it’s one measure among many that can collectively make a difference to close I urge council members to consider the necessity of res zoning and increasing the housing Supply to address the housing crisis thank you for your time thank you for your presentation let’s go to Michelle Christopherson please gond and City counselors uh my name is Michelle Christopherson my pronouns are she her and they them I’m a middleaged white Gen X autistic queer woman born in the 1960s nearing retirement I was born and raised in M kince on treaty 7 land and I’m a great- grandchild of European settlers I’ve lived in many different housing configurations in Quebec and Wards uh 149 and 13 in Calgary I’m currently living in Ward 11 and I’ve been here for the last 15 years I’ve taken Transit biked ran carpooled to work in the belt line for the past de decade and my in-laws live in altador so I’m aware of a lot of examples in Calgary I am in favor of resoning to make housing options more attainable and meet the needs of minority and marginalized groups all calgarians deserve safe of affordable Equitable and accessible housing we need to ask ourselves which voices are missing from this conversation not everyone has the privilege of the time energy knowledge and other resources to advocate for themselves in this space or ever dream of purchasing a home in Calgary I ask you to pay particular attention to prioritize affordable accessible housing and on meeting the specific needs and rights of minority and marginalized groups including black indigenous and other people of color they should get to choose to live anywhere in the city without racism and microaggression newcomers refugees International students two lgbtq plus families in non-traditional family structures trans people needing safe supportive spaces career seniors in a in Assisted Living shouldn’t have to go back in the closet due to homophobia and transphobia non-stereotypical families with single parents Blended families multiple Generations live living together adult children living at home or multiple roommates each needing a bedroom but sharing a kitchen and living room physically an intellectually disabled people with accessibility needs and adaptive spacer people receiving support for their mental health and substance use neurode Divergent people receiving support for their differences in their ways their brains work and other Equity deserving groups often overlapping and intersectional some work multiple jobs but are one paycheck away from being unhoused shelters sleeping in cars couch surfing hospitals and prisons aren’t Housing Solutions density can make it easier to offer more frequent and reliable city services like public transit but densification doesn’t always equal affordability as we already see in alador where older single family homes are replaced with single or multif family housing and where each unit costs as much or more of what it replaced we also need middle M uh Missing middle housing secondary and backyard Suites town houses and row houses subsidized housing non-market Housing Solutions landlord licensing tenant rights and rent control measures if you’re white like me you may not have ever had to consider the privilege you have I recommend that you Google the Canadian Wheel of privilege and power and watch Dr kimberl K Shaw’s Ted Talk on the urgency of intersectionality to learn more when when you’re surrounded by a lack of diversity you’re often less aware to aware of the needs of others and less likely to be open to change that may affect your privilege this can sound like fear of diversity or change or what if the neighbors are noisy or messy and I can’t park in front of my house we moved out of our last house because of inconsiderate neighbors a neighbor Parks his work truck in front of our current house we’re fine other neighbors have a messy yard we’re fine there’s radon in our basement it’s remediated we’re fine it can happen anywhere in the city including in single family neighborhoods we are settlers on treaty s land and as such there’s an obligation to be good treaty Partners I Echo and amplify the statements made by Jenny low of reconciliation Action Group reminding of us of our obligations as treaty partners and of Roman weeb of Alberta Aces and arrows on the needs of queer non-traditional family structures and the City of Calgary’s own gender Equity diversity and inclusion written submission in support of resoning and those trees we need preservation of trees on private property and city property and affordable Equitable accessible housing in summary I ask Council to explore and approve ways of supporting Housing Solutions for all calgarians in a timely manner I support the city’s home and housing strategy which includes the proposed Citywide rezoning to rcg RG or hgo thank you for your time and consideration and my sincere apologies for speaking out of turn earlier to you and the other Michelle Council penri team on the phone with a question about Quebec and rent control chaos thank you m Christopherson thank you very much for joining us uh apology accepted no worries there’s a lot of moving Parts um let’s go to Robert leis please good morning mayor and council members my name is Robert Le and I’m here representing myself I’ve been a Calgary resident for 17 years I live in a single detached home with my that my wife and I own in Ward N I have four children rating from ranging from preschool to teenager I’m here to talk about baby steps to busy playgrounds a busy playground is just what it sounds like it’s an active Community play area for Children and Families but not just at school recess or lunch hour all the time a busy playground gives new parents a place to meet other parents making relationships as a new parents be challenging and this is on top of the rest of the challenges that come with a new baby a busy playground is ready access for new parents to a peer group a busy playground is Community Support when it’s needed older kids need a busy playground too they need to have local peers to interact with at the risk of stating the obvious or suggesting councils should do their own research too much screens bad more physical activity good a busy playground is one that is not boring dad well let’s be honest they might still say that it’s boring but they’ll be wrong a busy playground is one that makes it easy for people moving to the community to find peers a source of worry for many families moving to a new place as they want their children to have friends however a busy playground is not just a couple of swings and a slide in a new subdivision there’s something almost sad about the idea of an individual child on a sprawling playground sitting on a s alone hell they’re probably on their phone a busy playground takes more a busy playground needs a network Effect one child cannot play tag it is similarly difficult to push oneself on a swing a new parent may find a wonderful parking place and a comfortable place to sit but without a network effect they won’t find other parents they won’t make that connection to their Community iy playground takes a little more so what can we do more families nearby make for busy playgrounds lower barriers for families and those considering starting a family makes for busy playgrounds these zoning changes are a baby step to an increase in density around our playgrounds the zoning changes are a baby step to easier access to our playgrounds for everyone the zoning changes are baby step to busy playgrounds and busy playgrounds make for a better Calgary I’m asking you to vote Yes in favor of the zoning changes to make another baby step to busy playgrounds and and a better Calgary thank you for your time thank you Mr Levi appreciate your time uh if you can just hang on in case there are questions after afterwards uh next speaker is Hong Wang thank you for coming out and if you’ll notice there’s a timer right next to you so please be start When You Wish good afternoon councilors Madame mayor my name is Hong Wang and I’m representing myself today I immigrated to Canada in 1993 from China I was a teacher in China for the first time years see my uh for the first time years my young family lived in Ontario and we moved five times we relocated to Calgary in 1998 I remember the first day we settled down in a two-bedroom apartment rental I threw myself into the bed and I heard rustling of the trees and I thought this is heaven this is home within weeks we put a down payment on a starter home in tasy which we lived for 7 years and then we moving into a bigger house where we still live in my first job in Canada was at a full court my first job in Calgary was a software programmer I now I’m a practicing realtor with my own brokerage I and I volunteer five different organizations I wish make four four points today do we really have a housing crisis um we have a population uh Sor sorry it’s only until October 2020 that we saw our year-over-year Benchmark price increased to $422,500 as of yesterday our total Benchmark price was $63,750 and our price is still at a fraction of the other major comparing in comparing with other major cities so in the meantime our city increased in population in the neighborhood of 100,000 people so I would dare to say we have a population explosion crisis where it no uh factor of our life is now impact my second point is I agree we do need more housing I as a realtor underground I I live through the the uh anger the anguish of buyers every day so let’s build more houses however blanket only does not increasing housing Supply I don’t understand why we’re not seeing that part clearing at us what it does is to increase the land Supply but do we need more land Supply the city announced that we have enough land supplies for the next 30 Years at present zoning capacity we have 440,000 uh units uh capacity to be built according to cmhc report our province has a short forall of 130,000 housing by 2030 so we have the capacity that fi that shortfall now with only 30% of a land Supply we have um resoning will immediately and automatically increase the value of our land property so my question is will our property tax will still will also be immediate and automatically increased no matter whether it’s not feasible uh or to redevelop or the owner ever have the intention to redevelop to uh redevelop um overwhelmingly amount of the support are students and uh in the strategy I’m going to be sure Implement implementation plan 1.8 say Clearly say that the city is investing $50 million in student housing uh specifically so um the product of the uh blanket Zone will now produce the housing uh type and prices that we need um I I wanted to point out that um increased potential loopholes that directly contradict the federal uh buyer band if there’s no mandate to uh have the title split so the property type will be uh Chang to the type that is not being banned and there is no mandate to come kind of minimize the property so uh over time there will be no reserve and guideline to maintain that property and they become anxiety and potentially giz in the neighborhood um I’m running all time so um property owner has BND of Rights one of the rights is to enjoyment and then the says with the owner can enjoy the property at peace without interference if the owner’s enjoyment is D Disturbed they have the leg legal ground to se thank you for your presentation Miss thank you very much we’re going to go to questions of this panel we’ll start with councelor Penner please thanks so much um I have a question for Mr doub as well first did I say did I say that right Dow as well Dows well okay uh you mentioned some of the persons who are in and around um your church over there and you talked about some of the challenges they face have you had an opportunity to have conversations with any of those individuals get to know where they’ve come from awesome do they all have homes at one point mhm yep and is their goal right now a roof over their head or something a big house on a big yard that they have to mow like where where are they at uh they are finding shelter anywhere they can um they are using our back alley between Carter place and the church as a public washroom because there’s uh none others that are offering them the dignity to do it in private um there was an encampment uh on the east side of the church facing padet Park uh just in January where uh there was a drug bust um broken up there’s been um people sleeping at our front door when I’ve arrived uh in the middle of winter so so they they need this amount of space that’s warm that will keep them from Death is what it comes down to and by providing increased Supply uh up the chain it allows the the population to move up into those spaces and opening up the more affordable housing at the bottom uh some of them can’t uh afford a a down or a uh deposit on a rental eon accomodation those who are trying to work are uh um barely able to make ends meet to to support themselves while living in shelters let alone get into the lower end of the rental market and so I appreciate that this is a very multifaceted problem and that the city has a very multifaceted approach this resoning just being one part of it great councelor Penner I hate to interrupt you for a minute yeah um we’re getting notification that the live stream has stalled uh Mr clerk could you give us the status on when it might be back up uh I I can’t tell you unfortunately mayor we’re just looking into this right now with our service providers to see what the status is um it may take some time to understand what’s happened and why it’s not running okay what are the implications well I think obviously there’s public interest in people who were trying to follow today’s proceeding um virtually online and in fact we have given some messaging to the public who are hoping to participate in the meeting that they can follow the meeting through the live stream so that’s a little bit of a challenge in terms of their ability to understand what panel is being addressed um at the public hearing is sort of limited now to c.ca aggenda uh where we do have that but uh it’s still um challenging for those who want to follow and observe okay so uh you and I should figure out how we can get that information up um and what channels we can use in the meantime I’m loed to not go to questions um so I’m also just mindful that that means anyone who if questions for this panel were asking them to wait an hour and 15 minutes to come back so maybe we need to check if they’re actually all available to come back too so that two-way courtesy well and let me do this um go ahead and finish your questions I don’t want to cut you off okay um I’ll be I’ll be super quick um of course now I’m trying to be like cycle back to where I want to say I appreciate the work you’re doing um do you do you believe these people the individuals that are out I mean you you deal with so many do you think that they internalize some of the shame and stigma that sometimes Society puts on them about not having a home for sure uh they gotten so used to being either disregarded or treating like Refuge refuges that uh um they’re initial response to anyone approaching them oftentimes not not a blanket but it is very common for the first response when engaging folks on the street is um harsh to put it lightly and that’s because it’s a survival mechanism um yeah they’ve been treated poorly uh they’re um yeah I’ll just leave it at that thanks thanks for bringing some Humanity to the conversation today um I have a couple questions for Mr lvis if he’s still on the line I’m here Mr lvis um I appreciate also the perspective that you brought I’m assuming you’re a parent I I have four children yes did you say unfortunately or fortunately there I have I have four children four children all right so I’m speaking a little too fast it’s all good it’s all good um one of the arguments we’ve heard is that children need backyards and that if we move towards densification it will decrease the quality of life for children and in in your experience as a parent is a backyard the only place where children can grow and develop not not at all I mean one of the things that when we picked a place to live was the med proximity to playgrounds and we had the additional good fortune that the Community Center built another playground that was literally across the street and that’s been this been a godsend that’s perfect for infants and then slightly further away there’s kind of a the 5 to 12 age range playground for my older children awesome and I I appreciate that and so if we’re able to improve infrastructure around where where density happens whether that be apartment building or row homes does that do we need to make sure we’re at least keeping the eye on the prize there too so that we’re creating these Community opportunities I I think absolutely like it’s one of the types of infrastructure that goes along with any kind of residential development that you you want pools you want playgrounds you want Transportation these are all things that go alongside any development and in the case of playgrounds taking advantage of ones that are already there and having more families using the same area creates that kind of positive feedback loop in uh at the thanks those places in in your neighborhood do you have mixed housing type uh yes there’s a couple new houses that came in um rather recently and there’s nothing particularly high end there’s no 20 story apartment condo things in the ne nearby okay but but still a mix of and but when you go to the playground with your kids do you ask the other parents what kind of house they live in uh it’s not usually something that comes up oh do your kids do your kids ask other kids what kind of house they live in um maybe I mean they might I I I’m not sure okay all good all good thanks and and is character created in those in that space do you create character by by way of your interactions I think that it’s one of yeah it’s a good sign of the community as a as a whole I I’d say I mean I don’t know exactly what you mean by character but it’s certainly you know if you mean character like Vibe then yeah I’d say so okay thanks so much I don’t have any other questions thanks let’s go to councelor shabbo please Mr Dowell and uh thank you for being here and uh for uh suggesting that that you could actually contribute to the affordable housing um U drop in the bucket Continuum no no no it’s and I think it’s great now you were talking about a basement suite and a backyard Suite which could arguably could be done at a reasonable cost and could potentially provide affordable housing of course that’s you being altruistic because that doesn’t mean that somebody builds it that it will be affordable the market could bear higher higher rents as I’m sure you’re aware so is there other opportunities for you like wouldn’t you want to maximize on your potential by going to eight units uh and bulldo my family home you’re talking about that I’m currently living in uh possibly um I guess the I a question I would have is what does it mean to be affordable there’s different definitions of affordability and if you’re allowing um homes to be built that are smaller square footage more on a lot than even if the lot price goes up somewhat if it’s divided between multiple units and individuals are able to to purchase or rent those homes it’s going to be at a more affordable level than if they had a single family home if there was no cost in demolition or or you know increased construction costs I that may be true uh input costs suggested that doesn’t necessarily generate affordable units as per anmarie uh from the Calgary real estate board now so sorry can I just clarify what you just said about affordability can you uh you’re you’re disagreeing that the smaller spaces uh divided between larger Lots uh creates uh in an aggregate it creates a larger value of property but the individual properties would uh be a smaller amount to purchase in the Northwest smaller units but necessarily a lower cost like in the Northwest the average or the median uh single family dwelling I believe is something in the 700s uh whereas the town home sales I think we somewhat in the 400s that’s just one example of how uh smaller units are going to be more affordable relatively speaking so if you’re looking at an aggregate an average I don’t dispute those numbers one second but all of the units we asked all the inner city developers that that have converted units from single to rcg if any of those units sold for less than the primary dwelling the originally purchased and none none could say that they were able to sell them for less and this is the developers that told us this so that’s uh valuing maybe one metric so if you also value uh density of housing which has kind of uh a lot of other uh subsidiary benefits then uh I think there’s still a a very very strong argument to be made for um the more flexible resoning anyways just based on your personal experience um there’s I I know a whole bunch of other people that would be willing to do that kind of thing and still be able to live in their home uh and provide a back aired Suites currently it’s either a basement Suite or backyard Suite not both do you think it would be reasonable for us consider amending the bylaw to create at least that opportunity on a on a go forward basis cuz as lots of people were concerned about the blanket zoning of rcg and I and I’m looking at potential options which might be including something like basement and backyard Suite as a as a maybe interim use or a transitional use is that something you think that would be a reasonable thing to consider I think anything that increases the density is going to work work towards the solution um I think we’re in such a crisis that it’s not enough though yeah no I don’t disagree there’s a whole bunch of other options we need to look at and many of which have been actually voiced here yeah anyways thank you for being here thank you all right that’s it for questions for this panel so thank you everybody for joining us today we appreciate the time you put into your presentations so we are going to break in just a few moments but let me just do a few announcements sincere apologies that the live stream was down uh the team got on it very quickly it has been restored um the only thing that you may have missed uh were questions to a couple of the panelists uh both councelor Penner and councelor shabbo asked some questions to Mr dowswell and that has been missed but uh I apologize for that so let’s talk about who’s coming back after the noon break it’ll be panel 166 that will be Lisa P Margaret kryon Brad young Patricia valet and Michelle Williams That’s panel 166 after that is 167 that’s Bill black Patrick King John willenborg sage green and Christopher Lesley interspersed with these folks I understand that we’ve got some people who were on previous panels do we have Ed edgal elig hi you’ll be on after lunch so after 1:15 I’ll try to slot you into a panel uncertain what the timing will be I understand that Jasper Woodard is here as well is that right my apologies um if if you want to call in or come in at a later time we’ll do our best to slot you in um Bretton Smith from 1:13 we will get you in after the break as well thank you okay is there anybody on the phone line that is from a previous panel who is wanting to speak today okay I’m not hearing anyone so we will come back at 1:15 and we will start with panel 166 thanks [Music] everyone e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e hi everyone welcome back to the public hearing Madame clerk roll call please thank you mayor on the rooll councelor dolly wall thank you councelor mlan councelor Manan I’m here councelor Penner here councelor pman here councelor sharp here councelor Spencer councelor Walcott I’m here councelor Wong councelor wiess councel car councel shabo pres councelor Chu here councelor dong here and mayor gond thank you I’m here I’m here councelor McLean’s here thank you yeah and we should note for the record that both councelor uh C and councelor Wong are an official Council business with Fort Calgary right now and they were this morning as well thank you mayor let’s go to panel 166 I’m just going to see who’s here do we have Lisa P do we have Margaret Kon yes I’m here thank you do we have Brad young how about Patricia valet or Val do we have Michelle Williams okay from panel 167 do we have Bill black great you can come grab a seat at the front sir do we have Patrick King do we have John widenborg do we have sage green do we have Christopher Lesley okay I’m going to go to people that have showed up today that were unable to make it earlier now that we’ve gone through 166 and 167 um edal elig she was here earlier okay do we have Jasper Woodard how about Brett and Smith Smith here on the line hi there thank you do we have Barb Meer hi Barb you can come on up right I’ll see if I can find one more person panel 168 do we have Gabriel Kavon please come on up perfect so this panel will be Margaret kryon Bill black then Breton Smith Barb Meyer and Gabriel kosovan So Margaret please start us off Mir gond counselors my name is Margaret Kon this is my seventh version take the city’s self-guided walk in Capitol Hill to see just a few of the many roow houses and town houses almost all with black shingles and no room for trees not planned for heat and drought and overall quite uninviting especially the double town houses which I learned on Tuesday night are called four plus fours these were first built as exceptions both written submissions and five minute speakers mention Capitol Hill as an example of what they don’t want to see in their Community Capitol Hill is still great we were seeing a gradual increase in Capitol Hill’s eclectic housing choices as homes aged mostly infills doubling density but also some roow houses on outside Corners all good but then I and many neighbors spoke at City Hall in 2019 when we successfully opposed the land Zone application to allow a Midlock and CG mon monstrosity at that time we had an active planning director at the Community Association the council listened the property was zoned to rcg at that hearing which was the expected change under the anticipated lap then the city changed the rules and expanded the definition of rcg now this Council approves every land zone change in Capitol Hill even those that have strong and reasonable resident objections we no longer have a Community Association planning director developers are everywhere and listening to David White from Civic works on Tuesday explains why we live in that unlucky 5% ideal community that meets the criteria for maximum rcg house forms just going for a walk causes anxiety if it’s a realtor sign saying we bu land you know the present home mature trees are toast there are multiple developer owned properties just waiting I met Terry Wong while taking a walk on Easter Sunday thank you for listening the city has approved 32 32 new residences on our block 24 on our street and is in the process of approving three h goes and an mcg within two blocks we still have Bungalows on the Block just how much is acceptable to the city Josh White this is not gentle densification my objection is self-preservation I am a senior with medical problems and will have vastly diminished quality of life with the noise and odors of construction and the overwhelming problems this level of density brings when we need a single level home we will have to leave the community developers outbid families displace renters tear down Bungalows and are only building multi-story buildings there are no housing choices for seniors it is sickening how many trees and habitats are being destroyed with eight Plus Homes why don’t you count secondary Suites and density calculations and 60% lot coverage there is no space for trees and Gardens the trees give protection and life quality and I want these trees replacement trees will be years growing up if they even survive most developers are not good neighbors they don’t even bother to shovel the sidewalks in Winter developers will respond to questions though they are usually not willing to make design changes more creative designs could allow increased density without sacrificing so many trees there has been minimal to no Community engagement for these projects I think the blanket resoning proposal has been more propaganda than information I have been taking the well attended Pips courses to learn about the city in development land zone changes are permanent there is no appeal and this is the root of my objection the Democratic process must be preserved the DP process feels like a black hole with no ability to have an impact or freed feedback DPS are not easy to read or interpret it would be useful to have a written summary of DP changes on the modified plans it is apparently up to Residents in in our community that is individuals not a well- educated Community Association committee to police and report development deviations so please leave DP plans visible on the dmap blanket resoning is a political not a practical solution to a housing problem and will cause irreparable harm to Citizens and communities residents as much as Builders should have certainty and choice residents should have the opportunity to speak to counsel many knowledgeable well-educated residents refute the city’s arguments and offer Alternatives please listen to them sandep Singh you are inspiring please please don’t approve this flawed policy thank you thank you for your presentation let’s go to Bill black please thank you mayor and Council for allowing us an opportunity to participate in this dialogue my name is Bill black I’m the president and CEO of the Calgary construction Association formed in 1944 so this is our 80th anniversary this year um our membership is largely from the nonresidential sector with some exceptions I also have the honor of representing the industry on the city’s building advisory and climate advisory committee committees as we did in September of last year the Calgary construction Association stands in support of the city of Calgary’s housing strategy and the introduction of Creative Solutions to assist with housing affordability and Expediting processes as an association we believe that if the City of Calgary is to realize its Municipal development plan goal of 50% growth in existing communities resoning is somewhat inevitable and as Calgary grows overall this will also lead to continuing Green Field development along with such growth there is a need for roads sidewalks utilities and then in time as densities evolve schools hospitals retail and other citybuilding um aspects we do not feel that this is a question of density versus sprawl when as a city we need to recognize that we need both and calgarians deserve choice and that growth needs to be balanced more however according to the city of Calgary’s own data 95% of rcg applications receive approval therefore and as our colle colleagues build Calgary alluded to last week we support methods to remove barriers around the overall application process however we also recognize the contention that the rezoning conversation has caused our communities and we also do not believe that all concerns can be written off as nism we have heard of such concerns about parking height setbacks as well as architectural relevance and the preservation of neighborhoods should the rezoning bylaw pass we call on Calgary city council to direct City Administration to establish clear standardized consistent guidelines of public engagement and input required for the various built forms enabled by rcg zoning in line with it Zone engage policy as we stated in September the rights of individuals to appeal projects on legitimate planning principles should be further bolstered in the development permit process and the onus is on this body city council to do so if it wishes as stated in September we trust the Professionals of the Planning and Development Department to work with the community do their due diligence and adequately and contextually apply the principles of planning Beyond resoning it self however the Calgary construction Association fundamentally believes that any new policies and procedures are somewhat moot without further action on the skilled labor Gap the federal government could continue to pour money into housing and we could blank it reone the entire country but at the end of the day the bandwidth of Industry will be a fundamental Factor despite the imaginings of some trade labor will not materialize without substantial effort our job is to inform the public and policy makers regarding the issues affecting our industry yes there remains a labor shortage in our city that exists outside of the regular boom bus cycle a shortage in workers has been experienced across Canada and in the US amongst others according to data analyzed by Alberta jobs economy and trade there were 7560 construction trades and management job vacancies in the Calgary economic region in Q3 2020 three and that has only nominally reduced by numbers we just got on Q4 that’s a one in four of job vacancies are in the construction sector skilled trades project managers estimators in the residential and Commercial industry retirement alone over the next decade and Beyond is expected in some circles to be for every five retirees of 30 40e veterans we will only likely see two intakes of new apprentices and that experience does not get replaced the current challenges could get worse before they get better and further action is required by all levels of government to ensure that we have the skilled labor Supply to meet the needs of our growing city some of these skilled laborers are going to need to find places to live so they can come to Calgary and build the homes and the communities that we will need to to live in I’d like to point out in closing that despite the headwinds of Labor and supply chain challenges in the last three years the residential industry has delivered record housing starts which is a testament to a resilient industry black you’re just at time okay thank thank you I was just done can we go to Bretton Smith please hi thank you and and good afternoon to all excuse me I’m grateful certainly for the opportunity to uh speak today oh and I’m on a headset is my audio okay yes it’s great okay good so hey my name is uh is Breton Smith and I’m a third generation born and bred calgarian I’m a 30-year resident of Ward 11 today I’m representing myself my immediate family which includes two adult children my parents both of them my sister and her family and her her family of four and also three of my immediate neighbors so I’ve got a few on the on sort of in behind me today so firstly I’m impressed with and thank all of you for your patience to weigh through what is really a difficult and historic process further I’m very impressed with my fellow Arians who have really summoned the courage to appear in front of the mayor and the council they demonstrated a real passion expertise and some incredible preparation and this is a Hallmark to the spirit of calgarians and kudos to all really on both sides of this issue so I’ve watched as much of the proceedings as possible and I’m really struck by the passion and the expertise of my fellow citizens among others just like Mr Black who who just spoke many of these folks have literally built this city I’m very impressed with our next Generation as well that strive to to live within it and everybody owns their own story and has a point of view that being said I’m strongly opposed to blanket up zoning this is actually the second presentation that I prepared and I I put the first one in the bin because it really didn’t offer anything supporting my position that you haven’t heard already really several times so today I’ll just simply offer some of my observations and conclusions from this process but I also want to ask a few questions of the city so maybe only a couple more minutes through these proceedings several things have really become quite clear to me firstly no one disagrees that affordable housing is an issue an evidence-based benchmarked and thorough analysis of the impact of imposing blanket resoning has not been completed thirdly blanket resoning will not on any meaningful timeline create an abundance of supply and solve the affordability issue in fact studies of historical proxies suggest possibly the opposite motives and objectives remain unclear blanket resoning will introduce merried issues for calgarians as I said I won’t reiterate them largely if not entirely it’s the developers who stand a benefit and it is not going to be something that will self-regulate it’s clear from the proceedings that the majority of calgarians are opposed to the imposition of blanket resoning and the council itself is obviously split on the issue with no significant majority as evidenced by the outcome of the pbde vote and also the pattern of questions and comments to the panelists city does have numerous and very valid suggestions from experts for Alternatives and it would seem a healthy opportunity and sorry excuse me a healthy inventory of opportunities for targeted near-term development thus I would assert that it’s been established through these panels that the blanket resoning offers limited benefit and brings real challenges for many calgarians I’m saddened by three things firstly and personally I’m profoundly saddened that we see this initiative becoming so highly divisive in our community it pits young people against the older generation a group of people who hope to gain with a group of people who are protecting against loss forgive the generalizations and I con seeed that there are some refreshing exceptions on both sides secondly I’m saddened by my observations of certain of council it’s plain to see who’s been engaged and then there are those who haven’t I appreciate those who’ have listened actively and appreciate the thoughtful questions and I’m personally offended by the app apparent intransigence of others thirdly I’m sad as I hope to witness really democracy in action but rather this feels to me like Brute Force politics this is the largest public Hearing in City’s history blanket upzoning initiative is highly material to all calgarians it’s not small potatoes mayor and council did not campaign on this basis and they weren’t elected to achieve this outcome plainly put you do not have license my challenges to Mayor and counselors what are we trying to do here do we really believe that we have privilege and can Ram through an ideological platform and that this Trump’s thoughtful analysis and Democratic decision-making are you so sure that you were right and that the apparent majority of calgarians are wrong that we’re not willing to have meaningful conversation with an outcome that balances all input if could they’re on that bench I called them I ask that you carefully consider all presentations Bron can you hang on for just one second we’re going to give you some time back on the clock hi if you’re on the line and you’re not Bretton Smith I need you to mute please thank you if you could wh back just a sentence or so that would be great Mr Smith thank you for the DOR appreciate that your your honor uh your mayor um so are are we so sure that um that council is right and that an apparent majority of calgarians are wrong that we’re not willing to have a meaningful conversation with an outcome that balances all input finally I ask that we carefully consider all presentations and acknowledge that this matter cannot be settled without a broader and more thoughtful process of stakeholder engagement considering beneficial outcomes all impacts and valid Alternatives respectfully back we’re just at time thank you for your presentation hang on the line on mute if there’s questions I’ll let you know let’s go to Barb Meyer please Madame mayor and counselors my name is Barb Meyer and I’m speaking for myself I’ve lived in various places and neighborhoods in w nine for about 15 years and I am currently in a townhouse I have no objection to well-planned densification having said that I am against blanket resoning as none of the counselors or Mayors have ran on this platform I find it very concerning that you want to silence the voices of calgarians including those who have volunteered for years to develop their local area plans and Area Redevelopment plans for bring the bringing their concerns about specific Redevelopment in their neighborhoods before Council as it is I can no longer even find the phone number for my counselor on his website it’s been said somewhere between 3 and 5% of Residential Building applications are rejected some people think think that’s a small number in 2023 according to the city website 1655 applications were accepted which means somewhere between 510 and 870 applications were rejected these are not small numbers when they scale up the whole point of having this process is to weed out the applications which are not appropriate taking away these procedures as we’re entering a construction boom sounds foolish and I expect there will be some unintended consequences the city needs to find other ways to streamline the Redevelopment process what is happening in Calgary with this housing crisis is also and more importantly an affordability crisis I think it’s misleading that blanket resoning has been framed as an affordability issue it is not blanket resoning will not address the underlying issues of affordability the city has said in the hearings that social housing is not within their purview then I would ask what can they do to increase the stock of affordable market value rentals what I’m seeing in this current boom is people losing their rentals as the property is sold to developers who are putting up 900k luxury Row Housing Which is far outside their budget I’m seeing people out bid while being attemp uh attempting to purchase modest town homes and I’ve been seeing for a while now developers buying property than tearing it down and leaving an empty lot rather than renting it out another concern of mine with the rcg zoning is the 60% easement having lived through the flood of 2013 I witnessed the Overland flooding in highly developed areas such as Mission the Belt Line and the downtown core the storm sewers were overwhelmed and the ongoing rain and other areas would have contributed to the pressures on the Storm sewer system as this gentrification moves out from the downtown core I am seeing non-luxury rcg units being built where 30% of the property becomes parking stalls leaving no to little usable Green Space the tiny basement Suites have three Windows if they’re lucky and one if they’re not and these are not exactly familyfriendly units although if the price is right we will probably see families live there anyways even the not wealthy deserve to live in a place with adequate sunlight in a city with 99 months of winter a year when people spoke here about these developments overshadowing their Gardens I think it’s important to mention that many are growing their own food and I suspect many newcomers would too if they have space maybe the young people think this is outdated but it doesn’t really take much to cut down on your expenses and what a better way to stick it to law BLS or whichever big grocery chain than to grow your own food and grow a row for the food bank too and I have yet to see an rcg development which is accessible for people with mobility issues including seniors and people in wheelchairs there isn’t going to be one blanket solution to this problem but I think Council needs to look at releasing some of the brown and green Field properties for well planned development and with a variety of housing options as well as focusing neighborhood development along Transit and LRT hubs I encourage the mayor and Council to reone on a neighborhood to Neighborhood basis with what’s appropriate for example rcg doesn’t work but maybe laneway and backyard Suites do it shouldn’t be an all or nothing vote no or put this to a pleite thank you for your time thank you for your presentation let’s go to Gabriel kosovan please hello mayor and Council my name is Gabriel kasavan and I have just graduated from from the University of Calgary and I’m starting my career as a teacher I am speaking to you today to voice my heartfelt support for the blanket resoning as a young person in the city looking to start renting and hoping to one day buy a house the state of the housing market in this city is frightening and frankly frustrating with incredibly low vacancy rates and houses going off the market sight unseen almost as suit as they’re put on the prospects for young people looking to begin lives for themselves within this city looks very Bleak I was born in this city I’ve lived here all my life and I believe Calgary is A world quest City but one that I feel very strongly needs to evolve and continue to become an even better place to live blanket rezoning while by no means a fix-all solution to housing and affordability in this city is nevertheless an important step in the right direction through encouraging density and easing the way for new developments housing Supply can be increased within the city as a whole helping to increase consumer choice and give young people a meaningful chance to enter the market through the overall increase of hous housing Supply middle housing in this city has long been missing and I am very happy to see this finally being addressed the fact of the matter is that the cost of a house as a proportion of average income has skyrocketed home ownership is not as certain as a thing or as easy as a thing as it might have been 20 years ago and I don’t say this to dismiss the Myriad experiences of those who have spoken before me the fact that they almost certainly worked hard for their own homes is beyond a shadow of a doubt but the fact is the ability to own a house should be an option of available to all regardless of when they decide to enter the market and I believe this initiative addresses that additionally increased density in the city will allow for more efficient use of Public Utilities and make our Transit Network more robust through increased ridership within the areas they serve continuing to expand outward to fulfill our housing needs is simply not a sustainable solution as it only further increases commutes putting more carbon dioxide in the air and places a further increased strain on public utilities that we now need to build out further the time we live in have changed and the building patterns of the past can simply not keep up with the needs of the city as it exists today the proposal will not fix housing overnight the city will of course need to pursue other policies in tandem with this one if effective workable changes to ensue for example increases in public transit funding alternative transportation Solutions like bike paths and support for small scale mixed use buildings and communities will certainly go a long way to provide meaningful alternatives to driving and help transform communities into places where a car might not be an absolute requirement and a address some of those concerns over parking but the fact of the matter is that the time has come to take a long hard look at the long term regardless of where these newly house newly built houses might fall in terms of overall affordability they will nonetheless increase Supply and density something that I believe is a net good it may require some sacrifice in the short term but I believe this is the right way forward for this city and its citizens in the long term this this city is a place I love and I want to continue to call it home but living here and enjoying a reasonable standard of living is something that has become more and more tenuous over the last few years and housing is not the only factor in that equation but it certainly is one I believe that the council’s proposal marks a step in the right direction towards addressing this thank you for your time thank you for your presentation let’s go to questions of this panel starting with councelor Spencer please thank you mayor my first question is for Mr Black thank you for being here bill um you talked about uh the need to have the public voice included in in development out the other side of this can you give me a sense of what like it obviously we have the discretionary that is already baked in um there has been some conversation about adding something to the DP stage to thoughtfully include that um if you were writing it um if you were setting it up what would it look like to you well I I think it it it needs to be consistent first of all and I know there have been concerns at some times things aren’t consistently applied I believe a a public engagement element of the DP um needs to be more robust so that voices aren’t silenced those that have neighborhoods that they wish to preserve but I also think that architectural relevance and controls over um the actual physical um aspects themselves the example we saw this morning was an example in my opinion any way of the DP process feeling that that was a to be built uh in the manner it was not necessarily just a land use issue and so I I do think that um there’s a responsibility of the DP process to to step up significantly perhaps over how it currently performs so that you do not get somebody building a a homade of shipping containers next door to something that’s architecturally completely different that process does have to be um very secure and how it operates so um I’m making an assumption here but would you would you’re Hy that that happens in conversation with the community and not necessarily written into policy around the architectural controls like one of the obviously trade-offs tensions here is we can’t lock a proponent in the community in an endless conversation how do we how do we meet that balance well I think engagement in you know proper conversation is important so that it’s not behind a wall yeah um and and that it is ongoing on an ongoing basis so there’s almost a a knowledge base that is is collected over time of of what does work what does fit so that that intelligence can be plugged back into the process and the conversations need to be meaningful so people see their ability to influence outcomes and it’s not just lip service that makes sense okay one of my fears of that obviously is That’s So subjective depending on the community the street um I mean when I think about a project in my ward um that went in that was not popular uh storage I know I was part of pushing for great architectural on the outside I asked them to use a sign that didn’t have their colors um when you think about getting to the best of the best of the outcomes who should have the final say like is that would you would your advice still be that Administration pulls all those inputs together and ultimately makes a ruling at the end um or would you see a different process that like weighs those trade-offs and like actually solidifies the feedback into some sort of a decision-making process well I know the development you’re referring to because I’m in the same neighborhood so and I don’t disagree uh in in in your concerns um I I do think that the development permit process and administration is ultimately accountable to make informed decisions on the basis of clearly defined um criteria okay that is transparent and likely would need to go into like the land use bylaw refresh conversation to some degree potentially okay um thank you very much I think that’s it for I do have a question for Mr Smith if Mr Smith is on the line I am still here thank you uh Mr Smith uh you talked you you outlined some of the heartaches that I have about the way this conversation is unfolding in our community in terms of uh just the the the political we find ourselves in um the way the wedge has been driven into the middle um we we’re in this place where we’ve had years of delays leading us to this point um where we we’ve kind of we have locked the change and styed the change in our community how would you like to see this conversation move forward so that we’re not inevitably kicking this ball down the road another 5 10 years of endless back and forth conversation um you seem to be very well informed it um I appreciated your submission I would really love to know your thoughts in terms of if we were to refresh this conversation um what would it look like for you thank you for the question counselor Spencer you know I’m I’m not sure that I have have any particularly strong remedies uh for this obviously we we we share some of the same perspective on uh on the issue itself and perhaps the timeliness of it I don’t have a prescription that I can offer unfortunately to council to uh to be able to ameliorate these things other than perhaps making sure that the homework is done and we have evaluated all potential opportunities within the confines of City properties and uh potentially those areas that are more suitable to development other than as Mr Black sort of pointed out some of the challenges that would be associated with those neighborhoods which have I’ll just say some more architect architectural uh context to them if if if that uh that answer makes sense yeah that that that does I mean my fear is that we will just loop back to this same position uh down the road um when when you when you think about the the details that need to be surfaced the kinds of data points that need to come into the four for kind of elevating the conversation increasing trust where does your head go in terms of what you’d like to be looking at um to give more trust about this process I guess I was really disappointed when um when the concept of a pleite which would obviously be the truest measure of determining whether we have I’ll say Collective and Community buyin for these initiatives when though when the pleite was rejected by a fairly close vote a 68 if I’m not mistaken that that was a disappointment to me and I would hope that uh I would say you know one of my points was I would love for this to be democracy and action it doesn’t feel that way it feels like in some ways the imposition of uh of politics or policies that are are near and dear to certain people on Council but not necessarily everybody okay well I really appreciated the spirit of which you put in your submission and and shared uh like I I do I do long for a more congenial civil conversation around these issues but I can see all the pressures that brought us here to this point seems like you do as well um thank thank you for for being here and for put taking the time to contribute to the conversation Mr Smith no further question for the opportunity thank you let’s go to councelor shabbo please let’s start with you Mr Smith um you gave us a a very good presentation and at the end of it and you were I believe making a concluding statement am I correct that’s correct councelor shabelle U would you mind starting from the beginning of that sentence and finishing it hopefully it’s not going to take more than 30 seconds no I won’t take 10 I was my my I I’ll read from my prepared notes and that’s respectfully please take this back reject the blanket up zoning initiative until Council has completed the work to earn the support of all citizens and constituents thank you uh thank you for your submission and your your input I’m I’ve heard similar concerns from many of the residents in in my area so uh appreciate what you uh what you brought here um no no further questions for me thank you and Mr for you but Mr Black thanks uh bill for being here so you made reference to the fact that 95% of all the approvals um or applications for rcg that come before us get approved I’m not sure if you’re aware but probably 99% of those applications are of the 95 that get approved are in areas that are supported either through a local area plan or an area structure plan so that kind of suggests that there’s at least a bunch of them that get approved even in areas that aren’t supported through planning wouldn’t what do you think of the concept of looking at doing laps and then phasing in some of this um density uh in areas that are supported through laps rather than just a stct paint everybody with the same brush well I think you know part part of the point that that uh that we’ve been making is that there needs to be balance in the process there needs to be change to to meet the changing needs um and perhaps you know the the land use is is not the the the only gate keeping that can be implemented um through other other models and other methodologies yeah I know you’ve obviously um are well connected in with the industry um have you heard some um input from some of uh folks in the building industry as to the potential for creating more units uh more affordably in a different method than this and possibly achieve better results well well one thing I’ve been made aware of that is more an example of the process standing in the way the current process standing in the way um it is generally accepted that stackable town homes are one of the most affordable formats in today’s market It’s very effective use of materials um shared party walls Etc very useful uh good use of footprint and Land Based on a relationship between land use and um floor area however because the town homes seem to be fraught with issues at DP and planning many of the developers are staying away from them because they can’t take the risk of delays and so as a result the town homes that are being built are going up in price because they’re on demand so that’s more an example of how the the DP process has potentially prevented affordable elements from being utilized and albeit that’s in in Greenfield but that’s just a factor of how the process needs to be more accountable and would you say that the same thing applies with single family residential as well because they seem to be in short supply as well I would I would say but my understanding is that um there’s there are less challenges associated with delays and our inconsistencies in the development and building permit process with single family from what we heard from miss anarie that seems to be where we have the greatest deficiency still is in single family residential any thoughts on how we can improve that well I mean one one of the things that I keep coming back to I I do not believe the cost of construction is going to go down it’s not it’s it’s only going to increase and I do believe smaller footprint is going to become a reality in order for affordability to be achievable and that’s a big culture shift I moved here from the UK in ‘ 91 and the cost of homes and the cost of living here was incredibly attractive with the the city I came from and I I do believe some of that Advantage is is being lost as many aspects of Lifestyle are now much more expensive and so I think single families single family homes can be achieved but it will very likely be at smaller Footprints than we might have been used to interesting um to that point you’re thinking like maybe small small Lots like two lots within what we currently see as one from you know and and separate titles I I’m not sure down to that level I I just I was more referring to the overall floor area um which is a obviously uh a factor of size and scale and the relationship between perimeter walls to floor area the more perimeter you have the more expensive you are per square foot so you have to if you go to other other parts of the world have experienced incredibly expensive real estate for many years most people are living in much smaller Footprints because of that reality yeah all right thank you for being here no further questions for me thank you let’s go to council sharp please thank you Mr Black I have some questions for you thanks for being here um I’m going to kind of pull on some threads that councelor Spencer said and I’m going to challenge you a bit on here on what some of the stuff you mentioned um so if we if this gets approved and every all Parcels get that are affected get um zoned to rcg or RG and there needs to be more involvement at the development permit stage on design from the community don’t you think you just kick in the can on the process of timeline issues down the Continuum then I think part of a more robust development paramit process isn’t that robustness comes at the expense of time do you think then members of council should be involved more so on that time on the development permit stage and I’ll give you an example what I’m trying to say is we get it circulated to us some of us look at them really quickly um our comments don’t hold any more weight than the community do you feel that members of council should be more involved and why I’m saying that is because at land use citizens come come speak to their members of councils do you think members of council should be more involved in the development permit stage I’m not sure if I’m ready to to talk to overall um organizational structure Etc but I do think being aware of how things proceed after the’ve left council’s input awareness at a at a minimum should be implemented okay do you think that low residential applications including development permits should be going to Calgary Planning Commission or do you think that should be a process removed in order to speed up the timeline not enough I don’t have enough knowledge of that process and how it how it currently would negatively affect and therefore able to understand how it would have any future positive impact okay um you mentioned that townhous stack tow houses are Frau with problems at development and building stage is it a process thing or is it a fire code thing what are issues coming out of the development or building that you are seeing or hearing from the industry and how can we if this doesn’t pass how can we actually mitigate those issues so we can move forward on that well um it’s my understanding that if uh DP is provided uh for an overall subdivision duplexes and single family residences can go straight to building permit process a town home development within that overall subdivision needs a brand new DP um and um and then there have been building permit issues the building advisory committee is actually working very diligently to identify these and try and remove these obstacles but um and I’m also speaking through direct experience my own daughter and her husband bought a town home signed on the dotted line it was already under construction and because of challenges that existed between that developer and the uh permitting Authority there they were at one point at risk of a four-month delay because there was an argument over placement of water meters so I I do the consistency is an issue because um one inspector actually disagreed with a previous inspector and decided to reopen things you experience that as a developer and you start staying away from town homes because you’re letting down customers who have maybe sold a home and are waiting to move in and now they’re four months delayed and your financing is being extended before you are able to to actually do the transaction which obviously erods profitability and you’re saying that those are the most I would say affordable profitable for or I said affordable for folks to to live in cu the way they’re being built they are one of the most affordable uh formats just because you know the garage um is affordably incorporated within the development you’ve got party walls so there’s shared walls Etc so it’s it’s a very effective cost based solution because of that so then if this weren’t to pass we still have an issue that we need to mitigate so what I’m saying is if even if this didn’t exist this this hearing we would still have a problem we have to solve that has nothing really to do with blanket resoning yeah there are and these These are been worked on with the building advisory there’s there’s actually um some really good work being done to listen and to act upon with a view to resolving some of these okay thank you for being here thank you that’s it thank you that is it for questions for this panel so thank you all very much for taking the time to join us we appreciated your presentations now I’m going to assemble the next panel by going to panel number 168 but I need to confirm that we’ve got a couple of people with us do we have edal elsadig hi you can come on up and grab a seat what about Jasper Woodard right is there anyone else who’s here right now now that missed an earlier chance to speak yes this is Patrick K from 167 hi hang on one second I heard Patrick is it Patrick King from 167 yes perfect we will make you number two on this panel and who else was on the line that just spoke I’m here Val from panel number 166 166 Patricia Val okay we’ll make you the third person and is there somebody else as well thank you yes hi who’s this it’s Chelsea Reed from panel 163 okay Chelsea we’ll make you the fourth person on this panel and I am going to see if we can find person number 5 from 168 do we have Kathy Schultz pelser do we have trayon zer do we have Jaclyn North Pagan how about Glenn Wang uh I’m on the phone hi perfect so you will be the fifth presenter on this panel so the order will be uh Ed Ela dig then we will go to Patrick King then Patricia Val then Chelsea Reed and then Glenn Wang so edgel if you could lead us off please please a good afternoon everyone I thank you mayor for your and counselor for your work and I give you high credit for to be a mayor of Calgary I appreciate it I see your work and I see how I how you move this city for better service for public sector for everyone to live in dignity and integrity for this country uh my name isal sadik I’m gradu I’m graduated from Romania for uh Medical University Dentist and I am original from Sudan and I live here almost 15 years in Calgary but originally from inario Toronto and thank you you let me to speak about myself and about the people I see them in the street too having a distress me problem is coming from the rental and and I will say yes for a supporting reining uh for housing is the bigger project and I believe for what I’m coming from I believe this is you built not to build City you built generation foundation and thank you for your service mayor really I appreciate it I see the city she move for the right truck for better future for generation is coming after us uh first I want only to ask you for I am supporting for your plan for your housing is Right planed but I want to support first for rent control that what I have is stress and dramaa and I live in mental distress by myself I see it by my own life and I want and I seen a lot of family too how the rental company should trade people not in dignity and integrity and I see them only to make provider money and every day them he will be bigger bigger money and will leave people for distress we don’t know where we’re going every year when you want to renew your lease you will be afraid to be homeless too because something is happening for you where we going and we’ll tell you we don’t renew for you the least what we can be having and I sit it myself that one first I need to make rent control to control those the rental company for because if you don’t if you don’t make in control for R company you’ll open door for discrimination and that one how will be happen and will it already is there but this city will be a wonderful City for everyone is coming and we will be growing bigger and bigger but the another thing I need to look for a city train project you must to be extended if you be if you go back and you will extend all those houses and high rises you need to have better transportation example like Toronto you can go at night 2:00 3:00 it’s still the citran is not citran but there is a b replacement but in this city after two 130 everything is done and that one and another thing the city will be growing and more willome because uh uh Calgary now the thir city in Canada as diversity City and warm City more will come for everyone I came from Toronto I make this city is my home and my country home I came from far away country and I know it’s the bigger land but there’s a lot of war and stuffff oil and gas and all this thing I came here I work for telecommunication uh company I work for oil and gas I work in the field south of at tabasa but some stuff we see it but I am so happy I came today here only I need rent control and and law to be the rental to be protect from the LA too I see a lot of stuff people who live in housing even still now is not supposed to be like that because this is city of oil and gas you must to enjoy future generation kids that money to be nobody homeless in the street if you see Dubai if you see those the Middle Eastern bigger country have oil no homeless in the street we’re not supposed to be any homeless in the street we supposed to live in the in Calgary the bigger city the most warmer people in the world I see them here and that one I want rent cont Ro to protect us and to protect another people is coming a lot of a lot of generation younger in the University if he graduated where can live he cannot affordable home we are Bor I am the one of them that one I talk by myself you’re just at time so thank you very much if you have a seat I’ll let you know if there’s questions for you thank you let’s go to Patrick King please hi there uh good afternoon mayor members of thank you very much for hearing me today I’m Patrick I’m a lifelong resident of Calgary I grew up in Edgmont a suburb in the Northwest and my parents detached home and over the years I’ve rented in Dy and brenwood and lower Mount Royal and the UFC and for many years in Crescent Heights but then with Calgary rents exploding I decided to look into home ownership and bought a home for the first time last year and I recognized that I’m pretty well off I’m relatively privileged compared to so many calgarians I’ve heard many alarming stories during these hearings stories of people just trying to survive just trying to find any kind of place to stay that’s safe and affordable but purching us purchasing a home right now is an unbelievably stressful experience with today’s prices I couldn’t afford to buy a detached home the way my parents could a quality home will be listed on a Wednesday and have five offers for it by Friday and I quickly real realized that to actually buy a home I would have to make an offer way over the asking price and everyone else is in the same boat pushing prices up just to stand a chance so in my particular case a higher bid than mine fell through for lack of financing and another higher bid than mine came in minutes after the owner had agreed to sell to me in other words I had to get deeply lucky just to get this home and a housing market that depends on luck is a system that has failed it’s no longer providing the good that it’s meant to provide to everybody and uh folks it’s this bad now it’s only going to get worse we only have to look at Toronto Vancouver to see our status quo future it’s a city where most of us can’t afford to live the where young people leave for greener pastures City that locks the Next Generation out of belonging to it and it’s a city that has failed to provide a basic resource to its residents so we want housing to do two jobs for us today we want it to be for its use as a home and we also want it to be a good investment but the truth is that housing cannot be both affordable for all and a really good investment at the same time in a market with affordable homes it has prices that don’t exceed inflation too much prices change by a few percent per year but in an affordable housing market your home keeps its value but it doesn’t grow like a stock investment does in a market that works for investment though we have homes that gain 10 or 15% per year like Vancouver and Toronto and now Calgary’s it stops being accessible for most of us the prices for homes and rents grow so much faster than income that absolutely everyone gets squeezed trying to pay for housing and this has huge costs for everyone we have ordinary working people and families that have to move all the time searching for a rental rate there doesn’t going to crush them we have uh a whole generation of Millennials and geners who are deferring starting their families maybe permanently for lack of space and we have people paying more in rent than I’m paying for my mortgage which seems completely exploitative to me so something’s got to give and Council I’m strongly in favor of going ahead with rcd based zoning housing can be accessible for people or can be investment and we should choose to keep it accessible you know I’ve been listening to other presentations as the C Cris has gone on and I’ve been thinking about what other folks have had to say we heard a lot of worry about the effect of rezoning on housing prices but I’m really not too worried the reality is that nothing is going to push housing prices down over the long term rcg makes housing more affordable by taking a lot and dividing it in two or three but the overall price for the lot tends to go up and that tends the lift prices in the neighborhood too more population also means more local shops and services which makes the property you own more attractive to so the prices for my home and yours are probably going to be just fine we’ve also heard a lot about these imagined nightmare scenarios where an R1 lot has four row houses built on it and then each row house has a b basement suite and each has a garage suite and each Suite has half a dozen people in it and suddenly we somehow have hundreds of people living where a single family home used to be and um I hope people can appreciate that this is fearmongering that in the real world people are going to make normal decisions um odds are your subdivision we’ll see a couple new basement Suites or garage Suites each year and that’s about it so Council I’m strongly in favor of going ahead with the rcd Bas zoning it will rcd will give homeowners more options for what to do with their land of their property if you own a home then you might be the one who decides to uh take advantage of the new zoning rules and re redevelop in five or 10 years time rcg will keep our property taxes under control too the city provides services to all new homes but gradual growth across the city is way cheaper than suburbs which have huge new outlays of Roads water sewer power Transit that all has to be maintained rcg Cuts red tape uh city council will be able to spend much less time dealing with continuous rcg lot by lot approvals and uh most importantly rcg will help keep housing affordable in the long term for people from all walks of life and prevent us from turning AA Vancouver atral on the affordability front uh thank you very much for taking the time to listen to me today thank you for your presentation let’s go to Patricia Val your worship members of city council good afternoon thank you for the opportunity to speak today as a calgarian who is also an inner city homeowner a single mother to a wonderful little girl a legal practitioner and a local SN small business owner I also volunteer run a nonprofit exclusively supporting kids teens and adults living below the poverty line I’m speaking for myself and I’m strongly opposed to City council’s blanket resoning it is undoubtedly a growing problem that many calgarians are without affordable housing however it is a myth that upzoning will create the affordable housing the City of Calgary so desperately needs as we have heard from various experts during the last week and a half land and construction costs will not go down real estate developers will save time and money but in a free market Society it is naive to believe that they will pass these savings on to renters developers are in business to maximize profit as an example two years ago five row Town five row houses with 10 units were built in south colar at the intersection of 28th Avenue Southwest and 35th Street Southwest each 473t basement Suite rented for $1600 per month $3.38 a square foot is not affordable housing is a prime example of developers exploiting renters I shuddered to think of what those miniature basement Suites cost today we need Sustainable Solutions all three levels of government must come together to build subsidized housing with Federal money universities need to build more student housing and if they’re actually serious about solving this growing problem Calgary’s largest land owner the City of Calgary must allocate some of its land to Building Homes at no land charge the City of Calgary also needs to force developers to develop land shortly after acquisition MCO developments has held several Acres of undeveloped land in the inkle wood Brewery rail lands district for two years with zero development progress and the former erns Manning High School next to Westbrook LRT station which MCO developments previously owned for a number of years and the City of Calgary recently took over ownership of also remains bar in land a significant number of affordable housing units could be built if the city prioritized developing such resources and mobilized itself to realize constructive solutions to the current affordable housing crisis respectfully the mayor and city council have skirted the Democratic process by failing to hold a pleite and instead trying to forc through a bylaw that will only benefit developers 80% of calgarians are opposed to up zoning to rcg yet this Council insists on forcing through a bylaw that will only serve to enrich developers and leave the majority of residential taxpayers feeling disillusioned by Civic Representatives on April 10th my city council held a virtual Town Hall where in the act 10ds the concerned residents of Ward 8 were muted both literally and figuratively during the entirety of the meeting none of the questions that I or my neighbors submitted in advance were answered instead councelor Walcott answered pre-fabricated questions that favored the counselor’s personal stance on opson during that meeting my neighbors and I felt that we had no voice no right no vote I’m proud to live in this Great Canadian city and while I’m grateful for the opportunity to share my voice today I am not proud of the blatant lack of true Democratic process on this issue there is no doubt our inner city neighborhoods will be most impacted by the Upson to rcg when my daughter was younger she was severely gross motor deled unable to stand or walk because of the parking challenges in our already densely populated inner city neighborhoods I routinely carried a heavy child down the street even in minus 30 on icy sidewalks ruining my own physical body to do so the change to rcg will allow developers to build 8 to 10 units on one parcel where are we supposed to park our vehicles in the future as a single mom of a busy seven-year-old with various Health appointments and after school activities I don’t have the luxury to live without a vehicle I’m forced to drive long distances where Transit could not take me will we be soon forced out of the inner city entirely I urge a mayor and Council to continue to improve our worldclass top rated City and create constructive solutions to our affordable housing crisis by using the significant number of land Parcels it owns to create the affordable housing this city desperately requires this council’s decisions will leave a lasting Legacy let this not be a legacy of blindly giving car blanched developers over densifying our neighborhoods to maximize profits at the expense of the quality of life life of taxpaying calgarians let some of you not be influenced by significant developer campaign contributions you may have received in past election campaigns and may receive in the next election cycle I implore you develop affordable housing housing on the significant number of City of Calgary owned land parcels and to let democracy reign supreme and hold a pite on this crucially pivotal issue or alternatively run on this platform in the next Civic election campaign in 2025 thank you thank you for your time thank you for your presentation let’s go to Chelsea Reid please thank you for hearing me let hi we can hear you except not now Chelsea we could hear you and then you disappeared oh can you hear me now we can hear you now thanks okay thank you for your patience I apologize thank you for hearing me like others I have many concerns about the Practical effects of blanket up zoning but given time constraints I would like to focus on why this proposal will not achieve its stated goals of affordability inclusivity and choice according to the city’s website resoning improves affordability this is simply not the case Dr storper an econom E omics Professor at UCLA and the London School of economics has studied blanket resoning extensively he States quote blanket up zoning is likely to miss its affordability Target blanket up zoning is a blunt instrument what it’s not going to do is solve the housing crisis for the middle classes and lower income people end quote similarly in upzoning Chicago MIT Professor freemark writes quote local level impacts of upzoning are higher prices but no additional hous in construction end quote in a 2023 article in the journal Urban studies Dr Stacy at all performed the first cross city data set analysis of the impact of density resoning on housing Supply the article concludes that relaxed zoning bylaws led to a small 8% increase in housing Supply 3 to 9 years post resoning but the increase was primarily in high-end units quote we find no statistically significant evidence that additional lower cost units became available or moderated in cost in the Years following zoning reform end quote these are just a few of many articles that conclude that blanket resoning does not increase housing Supply or affordability for low and middle inome earners Dr Storer says blanket up zoning quote serve to increase land values in Chicago but what upzoning did not do in Chicago and is not likely to do anywhere is create incentives for housing Construction in the areas where middle class and lower inome people most need it for the prices at which they need it blanket up zoning allows for Market speculation to dominate the market will naturally respond best in areas with the greatest returns end quote blanket up zoning does not create affordable housing and if anything it displaces lower and middle-income earners second The Proposal does not achieve the city’s stated goal of creating more diverse and inclusive neighborhoods I live in Varsity a well planned and mixed Community where only 45% of residences are single family detached considerably less than the city average of 55% we have attainable housing subsidized housing semi detached homes condos low and high-rise apartments and senior housing I have neighborhood friends from more than 10 different countries who live in everything from large houses on the golf course to basement Suites Varsity is above City average in the diversity of its population and housing options but it is included in the proposal by contrast less diverse neighborhoods like Upper Mountain Royal are excluded in Upper Mount Royal only 19% of people identify as a visible minority compared to 41% Citywide 66% of dwellings are single detached just 1% are semi- detached and 2% are Rouses if increased diversity and inclusion are truly part of the reason for blanket res zoning then by these metrics upper Mount Royal should be a focus the large lots and proximity to downtown make it ideal one might argue that houses in Mount Royal deserve special status because of their age but the data does not bear this out only 46% of dwellings in Upper Mount Royal were built before 1960 and 16% were actually built after 2001 it’s hard to see why the 54% of houses built after 1960 should be excluded from resoning and if they are why not protect houses in Varsity that were built in the 1960s they also reflect the unique architecture of a specific time if you genuinely believe Citywide resoning is good public policy then you must actually apply it Citywide to exempt a particular neighborhood is inequitable finally the city posits the blanket resoning increases choice I cannot comprehend how virtually eliminating an entire type of neighborhood achieves this if the city was to upzone only certain areas including mine and I wanted to live on a street of single family homes I could move to an unaffected area with blanket resoning my only choice would be to move outside the city thus increasing suburban sprawl and its Associated lights if this proposal is a choice let communities choose whether to reone or make resoning an election issue managing Calgary’s growth requires a measured approach that actually increases affordable housing and housing choices blanket resoning is not the answer thank you thank you for your presentation let’s go to Glenn Wang please uh thank you mayor and counselors for the opportunity to present uh my name is Glenn Wong I’m representing myself and speaking in favor of blanket rcg resoning uh I’m in favor for three reasons number one uh this change will be a gradual and in gentle increase in density uh some folks have expressed concern at the level of density that rcg would bring rcg allows a maximum of 75 units per hectare what does this number mean in Context let’s compare this to our R1 zoning the minimum area for an R1 parcel currently is 330 s m this means that the maximum when you pack everything as as possible you could fit 30 R1 Parcels in a hectare so you do that by doing 1 Hector divid 330 met you get 30 um and if let’s say each of these R1 Parcels has a secondary Suite that means a maximum number of 60 units can actually be fit into a Hector under R1 and in my opinion the gap between a Max of 60 under R1 and a Max of 75 under rcg is not very big um that’s why it represents a gentle change in density moreover because of the maximum density of 75 units per hectare it wouldn’t actually be possible for every single parcel in a neighborhood to be redeveloped into eight or 12 uh unit roow houses anyway it won’t even be possible for a majority of these Parcels to be redeveloped into roow houses because you can only go from two units a single family home with a secondary unit to a 8 to 12 unit roow house so many times before you hit the 75 uh unit per hectare limit uh so in our existing neighborhoods most of the existing single family homes will probably still stay like that um you know even under this regime um reason number two uh with rcg resoning removing the need uh to go through the land use amendment process for every single development individually it will cut down around six months of time meaning shorter times for housing to be built especially since 95% of land use Amendment requests end up uh being approved anyway more importantly even if zoning becomes rcg by default it does not mean future developments has no opportunity for Community input developers still need to go through a development permit process that must be circulated amongst the community for input and feedback uh based on the city’s own published Comm guide for the planning process the the the development permit process is when questions around design context parcel layout building MTH privacy and Landscaping all to be determined these seem to be the concerns that folks actually have around how up zoning and Redevelopment might affect their community and folks will still have the opportunity to provide their valuable input to these important considerations during the development permit process number three uh this proposal is just one action item in Calgary’s comprehensive 98 Point housing strategy however it is an important item because when coupled with our ongoing efforts to increase housing Supply uh by building new construction in Greenfield communities our ongoing projects to build dense housing along Transit corridors it uh by also allowing a gradual increase in Den over time in our existing neighborhoods it means existing neighborhoods can also bear their share of the responsibility to accommodate and welcome Calgary increasing population in short I am in support of blanket rcg resoning because the change represents a gentle and gradual increase in density in our existing neighborhoods it makes the development process faster while still retaining the opportunity for valuable Community input and it represents an important piece of C’s overall comprehensive housing strategy one that complements our Greenfield development and high density development initiative and provides more diverse housing options in the middle range of densities so individuals and families have more options in the neighborhoods and housing types bested for them thank you for your consideration thank you for your presentation I’m just going to see if there’s any questions for this panel I don’t see any questions in the queue for this panel so thank you all very much for joining us today we appreciate the time that you took to make presentations to us I’m going to uh try to assemble a new panel and as I do that let me ask is there anyone in person or on the phone that was here for a previous panel all right let me ask is Jasper Woodard with us how about sage green all right Sage if you come down and grab a seat I’ll just assemble the rest of the panel I’m going to look at panel 169 do we have Justin Paul omony do we have Julie mcfaden do we have Andrew SAS do we have Clay Knights how about Pamela Fortier yes thank you please stay on the line all right panel 170 is one of those empty panels so I’m going to skip over it as I explained yesterday the clerk’s team assembled panels as for against and uh neutral and uh if there’s nobody in those sections we’re moving past that panel so I’m on to panel 171 do we have rub do we have Reuben Ander Mullen do we have Chantel tan do we have Aaron Ramos do we have Jeremy beretto do we have Dylan Rama hi please come on down all right I’m into panel 172 do we have Jordan Murray we have Roger shinkaruk Shankar sorry do we have CJ fights Kathy Danielson what about Alvin cabaron okay then we’re going to go with this panel it will start with sage green it will then go to Pamela Fortier and then it’s Dylan Rama so Sage please start us off hello everyone my name is sage green I’m a resident of Ward 13 and I’m here today to show my support for blanket resoning housing is a human right everyone needs and should have access to a safe and comfortable place to call home but for many calgarians that is not the reality many are stuck living in abusive situations or or are sorry or are unable to gain the independence they Seek many are in places that are far too cramped to accommodate them are riddled with infestations in disrepair or are simply isolated in a community that provides nothing for them some are living out of their vehicles in overcrowded underserved shelters in tents that will be quickly removed or anywhere they can possibly find to stay warm and out of the elements I acknowledge that the implementation of this housing strategy will not immediately solve this issue in its entirety as there are many factors at play here however we cannot get to that point without first taking this step a step that will allow for greater densification and more affordable and diverse housing options a step to meet people where they’re at instead of expecting them to rise up to Impossible requirements to those who are afraid of your voices being silenced they will not be if you’ve spoken at this hearing your input isn’t being taken out this is the input there will still be a development permanent process and a chance to speak your mind it will simply be streamlined and more efficient to save everyone’s time and money and ensure that we get more units on the market faster not only will this decision make homes themselves more accessible but also the communities and the city as a whole when we use our space more effectively to build up rather than just out to build the much needed midal housing it allows for more communal amenities and walkable infrastructure to be included there will be more space and incentive for Parks naturalized areas Community Gardens and centers rec centers walking and biking paths schools shops restaurants cute little cafes and better access to public transportation to enjoy all of these and all of the wonderful things the city already has to offer some of these new developments will indeed be more expensive but those who can afford to will move there and open up their previous dwellings to someone else and so on and so forth up zoning and increasing the amounts the amount of units on the market does and will make homes more affordable what we truly cannot afford is to continue sprawling not only financially but also in regards to the fuel the time and the space it takes and the negative effects on our wellbeing for us to be isolated and dependent on cars to get around this city nor can we afford the constant destruction of the e EOS systems around us and the subsequent dwindling of Flora and Fauna native to this land currently there is 5% of original Fescue Prairie left grasslands are not only effective carbon sinks but also help to prevent drought a threat that is very real to us unfortunately the beautiful biodiverse culturally rich and significant expanse of grassland that used to spend 255,000 square kilm is now reduced to less than 13,000 for reference the city of Calgary’s metropolitan area is about 5,000 100 km I urge you to take a look at a map and process just how much we have lost this is not even considering the Parkland Eco region nor is it considering the surrounding ecotones and ecological niches many of which are quite small in comparison and are at a much greater risk I believe the health of I believe the health of our city its people and our environment rely on blanket resoning please vote in favor thank you thank you for your presentation let’s go to Pamela Fortier please hi Mar and city council can you hear me we can I’m a I’m a homeowner in Ward H and would like to speak against blanket resoning I’ve Rewritten this a couple of times over the last week as I have listened to calgarian speak I started again after hearing a young woman speak in Anger against what she sees as uncaring homeowners the other day we are being pitted against each other so how did we get here an article in the globe in mail in January of this year exposed that the federal government was warned in 2022 by their own advisor that large increases in Immigration could affect housing affordability they ignored their own advisors continuing with historic levels of immigration population grew by more than 430,000 in the third quarter of 23 alone now that the effects of these Reckless levels of immigration are being felt across the country and the federal government is down in the poles they are choosing to address a crisis this is a crisis of their own making blanket resoning is causing so much Division division between income groups and age groups The Have And The Have Not it threatens to sever the relationship between the city and its long long time Stak holders the homeowners the government’s immigration policy created the problem and now their solution has created more problems I don’t believe it will solve affordability we don’t need more division in our world we need to come together vote no to the heavy-handed approach of blanket resoning and return to community collaboration and engagement let’s create Solutions together that unite us not divide us thank you thank you very much for your presentation let’s go to Dylan Rama please good okay uh thank you Council and mayor gondek for allowing me to speak and for your uh General Public Service in facilitating this public hearing um my name is Dylan Rama I’m a current Master’s candidate at the school of public policy at the UFC and I’m in favor of rezoning forgive the digression but I would like to give a brief shout out to alni counselor Jasmine me uh thank you for showing me and my classmates that what we learn in the program can make a difference in people’s lives now I’m a born and raised calgarian because apparently that matters uh currently residing in boness and not long ago I was a homeowner of a duplex in ranchlands the only reason my partner and I were able to afford to purchase this modest starter home was because of help from our parents due to to an impending mortgage renewal interest rate hikes and my choice to go back to school we made the difficult decision to sell our home for reference we bought at 320 and sold at 380 four years later this has double the rate of inflation more than double the rate of inflation uh in price growth and I believe that’s indicative of a problem now I’m not here representing the school of public policy only myself but it’s my understanding that the SP was founded largely on the belief that a lack of economic literacy in the Canadian public service was negatively affecting government governance in our country existing zoning regulations represent an example of a well-intentioned regulation that has distorted the free market in other words red tape they’ve artificially restricted the supply of Housing and contributed to driving up prices and therefore the current housing crisis now don’t misunderstand me rezoning will not single-handedly solve the housing crisis and many well-informed speakers have used this fact to argue that it won’t have an effect on affordability I find this line of reasoning to be flawed at best and deliberately misleading and obstructionist at worst let’s talk about housing prices for just a moment they’re growing rapidly before prices can come down we must first slow the rate at which they are rising so just because a measure does not decrease prices does not mean that it isn’t having an effect on them there is no single policy that can solve a crisis of this magnitude this means that we do not have the luxury of ignoring an effective tool in our City’s tool kit simply because it doesn’t fix everything by itself rezoning will lead to a higher number of units and help put downward pressure on housing prices we cannot afford to wait for the perfect solution that has no trade-offs because it does not exist perhaps if this change had been considered sooner we could have afforded to keep our starter home while I went back to school now I’ve heard about the need to protect property rights and I actually don’t disagree with that at all to do so vote Yes rather than restricting Property Owners rezoning will provide them with more choice your property rights do not extend to control over what others do with their property or over what the character of your community looks like forever if you’re not persuaded by economic theory and remained opposed then I can only assume that you are swayed by the vocal opposition from some constituents which appear to outnumber those in favor those that are opposed believe they would lose something immediately were this to pass those that have something to gain would only do so in the future and by my view are far less likely to be able to take the time out of their day to engage in this process folks who are preoccupied with putting food on the table and making the next rent payment generally don’t have the luxury of paying attention to the intricacies of land use bylaws lastly let’s talk about change as much as I’d like to go back and reminisce in the empty lot I used to play in beside my childhood home it’s a gas station now the community needed one there was a market for it and so it got built I eventually adapted it and appreciated that I could buy candy there when I got older my point is that Calgary and the world are growing and changing and none of us are entitled to grow old in the exact same world we grew up in I understand the urge to resist change part of me wanted to when it came time to sell my home but change being inevitable is one of a few objective truths of the world so let’s not waste our energy and resources fighting it but on adapting to it Council in conclusion I’m urging you to vote Yes on rezoning a yes vote reduces red tape increases the efficiency of the housing market enhances property rights and puts downward pressure on housing prices a yes vote shows that you understand that the methods of the past are not sufficient to secure a prosperous future for our city finally a yes vote shows that you have the strength of character to make a difficult but necessary Choice all orders of government in Canada have demonstrated an abdication of leadership and responsibility by allowing the housing crisis to develop and worsen I urge this Council to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem please vote yes thank you thank you for your presentation and we do have someone in the audience from panel 159 it’s Kim jock ruach is that correct you can come on up and present now on this panel because we only had three people you can come on up and present sir okay thank you uh sorry I’ve been running around all day for years and um thank you to to toer for giving me this opportunity I have some issues that um that have question about Justice or they turn it to be Injustice and I have a case with uh with the kar police officers that’s that their investigation sir sir I’m going to ask you a question are you here to speak about the public hearing on the bylaw change being proposed uh I’m here to speak about my behalf and I can also share about what I feel about maybe when I was changing from using drug to the portable places so I think what would be a good idea so that you’re not disclosing any personal information that you shouldn’t be let’s make sure that if you’re here to talk about the zoning change that we’re looking at the change to the land use District to be rcg if you would like to speak to that we’d be happy to hear from you if you’ve got other items that you want to speak to I can certainly find someone to to come and speak with you and and we’ll get you in touch with someone someone else but you need to stick to the land use item today okay can you help me to find someone absolutely yes we can and I also have a question who is supposed to be directing for the 12 dat to be appointed in a court I of color you know what we’re going to get someone to come and chat with you okay okay thank you sir all right I am going to look for questions for this panel let’s go to councelor Penner please I have a question for Mr Rama please in your pres I I respect that like in in five minutes it’s it’s hard to get everything you talked a little bit about the abdication of responsibilities at all at all orders of government that have led to this crisis and we’ve heard a lot about what has contributed to this crisis whether it is immigration whether it’s a lack of like continuous investment into social housing have you done any work or Research into read that about sort of like what have been the multitude of contribution of factors leading leading to what’s before us today yeah I haven’t done like a specific like research project or anything on those reasons but like in my program I’ve done pretty extensive reading and there’s like various examples uh like you listed some of them immigration I think um like restrictive zoning is one of them uh there used to be a uh like a social housing Corporation for the federal government that doesn’t exist anymore and there might be good reason for that but uh that’s like a lack of social housing uh non-market housing that’s another reason I think a lack of the missing middle due to zoning lack of choice but uh I wouldn’t claim to be an expert on on all of it when when you look at things from a public policy lens and you’re looking at essentially systems failure which is kind of what we have here is it ever a result of a single thing or is it often multiple things that are happening kind of in conjunction tandem sometimes known and sometimes unknown that can lead to a crisis State yeah I I think that’s a like very valuable point because I don’t think you reach a crisis uh with just a single cause um I I definitely would agree that it takes multiple causes and multiple failures over and as a result it takes multiple things to then try to at least reverse to some degree yeah okay yeah absolutely this is not uh like I I said earlier like this is not going to be a silver bullet but we we don’t have the luxury of uh because we’re already an analogy I used earlier with a friend is like if you have a house fire you don’t worry about the water damage when you’re putting it out you put the fire out first and then deal with the consequences of that later um you don’t try to figure out the best way to put out the fire uh and take more time to do that you just put it out first so I think while I don’t see uh as significant of negative downsides with this policy that’s how I like to think of it yeah and I guess maybe like in your estimate because I think we’ve heard there’s potential consequences on either on either side of the decision um and so I think am I hearing you correctly we just need to think about that and choose our consequences wisely yeah definitely and like any I don’t know that’s one of the first things they they uh they taught us in our program is that any public policy decision will have trade-offs you you very rarely get a free lunch or so they say that just just like helps everybody and hurts nobody um and I guess it’s just about what kind of city and what kind of Canadians we want to be if we’re a little bit more concerned about uh parking in shade or if we’re concerned about people being able to afford a basic need and to me that choice is very obvious uh but yeah Others May disagree thanks for coming today thank you thank you I don’t see any other questions for this panel so thanks very much for taking the time to share your presentations with us today we appreciate it I’m going to try to assemble another panel but before I do that we have called everybody up to panel 172 and pan panel 173 is one of those blank panels so is there anybody here in the audience that was on a panel either 172 or before but you’re here to speak to us now is there anybody on hi on the phone who’s this yes this is Shantel paman for panel 171 171 okay great uh I’m Ruben vanderin uh 171 as well thank you anybody else okay I’m going to go to 174 and see who we can assemble do we have theia wingert do we have Mike Atkinson how about Nathan Ross hi please come on up do we have Kate Stenson how about Brook simik present thank you and I’m on panel 175 now do we have Aaron iar what about eia Hart do we have Imad taadas how about saes shanmugam how about JH Camaro manows okay then we’re going to go with a panel of four we will start with Shantel tan then we’ll go to Ruben Vander Mullan then we’ll go to Nathan Ross and then Brook simock so Chantel please start us off hello mayor GC and members of council my name is Chantel tan and I’m a professional geologist and a resident of Ward 8 today I am speaking in support of Citywide resoning for housing first I would like to thank all of council for the incredible amount of time and commitment you have put into this critical public hearing over the last several days having said that I find it extremely unfortunate that some of you seem more committed to reelection than what is best for our city long term many of the people who need housing do not have work life situations that allow them to speak in a forum such as this this opportunity is primarily available to well-off homeowners with flexible jobs if you feel you are hearing the loudest voices in opposition that is likely because those who need this the most are being significantly underrepresented I’ve been fortunate to live in several communities in Calgary that already contain a wide mix of zoning and therefore housing options I’ve lived in a condo in Beltline a row house in Parkdale a single family home in Tuscany and now a duplex in Carney I’ve seen firsthand how a diversity of housing types can exist side by side within a community our current semidetached home has a bungalow on one side and another semi detached on another across and down the street there are a mix of semi detached singles and even Town Homes spooky I know our community has seen a massive amount of spot Zoning for rc2 rcg and hgo and it continues to be one of the most sought-after communities in the city with all this change property values have continued to rise drastically not drop as you already know with increased density comes an increased population base this leads to an increased tax base for the city the opportunity for better community amenities and an increased customer base for small local businesses this increased population base makes existing Transportation options more effective and opens the door for additional public transit opportunities while I do understand that Calgary is vehicle dependent City added density in all communities will help us grow towards becoming less car Centric our vehicle dependence will never go away entirely just like oil and gas however by building a more compact City it will in turn help ease our Reliance on cars as the primary mode of transportation I have been very disappointed in the entitlement and lack of empathy and misinformation being spread by many single family homeowners during this public hearing this is certainly not representative of the inclusive and diverse City Calgary is striving to be cities change that’s what they do most if not all of Calgary’s communities were at one-time Farmland homeowners who say my community has been this way for a long time don’t seem to realize that why should we choose today as the point in time we stop changing and growing had we picked a different point to stop changing the homes and buildings we have today wouldn’t exist cities are not static entities they are living breathing organisms and the only constant is change to expect anything different is completely unrealistic additional density and housing forms serve to add to the diversity of communities and I believe this is not a bad thing many opponents to this proposal seem fixated on not allowing others into the community and that is shameful despite what many opponents to this proposal have said I believe this will actually improve Community character a community’s character is made up of the people who live in it not just the shape of its buildings besides that how does a community of all the same houses and all the same people equal character that just sounds exclusionary and protectionist to me more housing and more housing options will also help to provide a larger variety of price points throughout the housing market as you have heard students and young professionals are already struggling to afford housing in our city how will we continue to attract Talent including an increased trade base if there aren’t enough homes and including Homes at varying price points to support new calgarians I understand that change can be scary and I believe the fear of change is primarily driving opposition to this resoning proposal there are some key facts that Council should keep in mind when making their decision on how to vote on this item first rcg Zone allows for single family semi- detached and town homes to be built the housing types will be built where they are appropriate and meet market demand second change will not happen everywhere if your neighbors don’t sell your homes nothing will change even if your neighbor does sell their home if it isn’t bought by a builder or if there isn’t appropriate demand again nothing will change and last the change being proposed is very modest all the allowable uses are residential and the building sizes across the Spectrum are very similar so to conclude please have the best long-term interest of the city at heart when you vote on this item we need significantly more housing at more price points in the city and your actions will have a direct impact helping the housing be delivered thank you thank you for your presentation let’s go to Ruben Vander Mullan please hi could you confirm that my presentation is up please just give us one minute we are good to go okay thank you hello Council my name is Ruben vanderin I live in Sunnyside in Ward 7 Sunnyside has a mix of housing types including many missing middle housing Styles it also has wonderful Parks plenty of trees Transit access and low crime its median household income is 30% lower than the rest of the city providing housing for people of diverse economic backgrounds enables a community that somewhat unaware could easily mistake for an affluent area I can walk or bike for most of my trips yes even in the winter and two of the four parking spaces behind the four unit building my wife and I live in sit perpetually empty next Slide the inflexibility of Calgary zoning prevents Property Owners from doing what is best for the city creating buildings and improving existing ones to meet calgarians needs there are a lot of voices in favor of a small scale approach to intensification that allows higher density where it is needed giving Property Owners the right to decide what housing cell is right for them is the smallest scale approach to increment mental change possible the best areas of the city are places that were built for incremental change there was no lap or master plan with strict zoning that brought about Kensington or Englewood they are a product of a development pattern that would be impossible to replicate under the city’s current zoning structure cities are ecosystems and allowing change only as part of a master plan makes them unable to change to meet the dynamic needs of the people living in them where we can build what we can build and how much parking we need are simple decisions calgarians can make for themselves without government intervention next slide Jane Jacobs said that areas of great diversity at worst are merely interesting and at best can be delightful homogeneous housing brings about a homogeneous Community demographic we are a diversity but demographics are largely isolated a lack of integration between racial and socioeconomic groups allows societal problems service inequity ignorance and a lack of empathy to Fester this is not a bug single use zoning was created for this purpose controlling where density occurs serves to ensure the perpetuation of segregation I hope that as a city we can realize our mistakes and finally move forward next slide now here’s the part for the fiscal watchdogs on Council here’s a home built in 2016 please ignore the 10 unit apartment with the smaller footprint and shorter height next to it this home is worth $1.74 million it’s on a 6,000 ft loss that is zoned MCG in Sunnyside next slide here’s a home built in 2011 this home is worth 40% less it’s also on a 6,000 ft lot but it’s zoned R1 in the esteemed Lake community of Auburn Bay it receives access to all the same city services and amenities as the other house but for a much cheap ER price next slide not only is the tax bill smaller but the cost per household of administering services to a distributed population is much higher the efficiency in concentrating services and amenities is kind of why cities exist next slide now here’s where that becomes a bigger problem the tax productivity per area Sunnyside is in a green area near downtown and Auburn Bay is one of the yellowy red blobs near the bottom of the map next slide here’s a graphic showing how land value is restricted when its use is limited from Donald sh R1 zoning results in a market where the inefficient land use to detached houses do not have to compete with more efficient land uses artificially limiting their land value and property tax billt single family homes are the most expensive form of housing to service and limiting their property tax liabilities only in the best interest of those that can afford single family homes at the expense of those who can’t afford one or choose to live in a more efficient housing form parking minimum similarly limit the use of land having parking having space to park which choosing to park on the street is caused by such an excessive parking that its value is almost completely worthless despite the massive potential value of much of this land and know $30 a year is not the fair market value of a parking space next Slide the cost of housing plus Transportation can make an otherwise affordable unit on the periphery unaffordable to many families a holistic view of housing affordability needs to consider this not just directly following the cmhc definition most people do not receive an annual car allowance of $9,400 next slide driving is by far the most expensive Transportation option costing the most personally and the most Society but many of the costs are externalized or subsidized parking minimums that $1,500 per person for parking is included in the cost of your annual rent groceries and property taxes raising the cost of housing and food while lowering the cost of car ownership pollution and Road tax and Road cost excuse me are externalized as well those who contribute more to these problems often pay less property tax next slide electric cars don’t fix these fundamental problems heat pump similarly won’t change the fact that a 3,000 foot building Exposed on all sides loses a lot of heat allowing more people to live closer to the places they need to access and permitting housing cells that waste far less energy is an easy decision to make Chris City in a climate emergency the status quo of waste consumption cannot be sustained we need efficient cities that are built upon human scale development next slide Calgary has been on a path of Suburban for all Transportation inequity and socioeconomic segregation for many decades correcting our trajectory will not be easy faster often popular base rcg zoning is a tiny step in the right direction it is incredibly important that this is done for Calgary and four calgarians please vote yes thank you for your presentation let’s go to Nathan Ross please good afternoon mayor gondek and all counselors my name is Nathan and I want to speak in favor of rcg zoning you’ve already heard from a lot of people in favor of this who are lot smarter than I am both in the last half hour and your own City and Min so I don’t want to go over the very compelling data and Logic for why you should pass this instead I’d like to take this time to make a plea to give everyone a shot that I was fortunate enough to have because I love this city very much and I want to believing it is a city that rewards hard work and dedication I’m a born and raised calgarian and in my head I’m just an average calgarian I graduated from a Calgary Public High School I got my first degree at mru I’m a rough next season ticket holders fan and I’m one of those weird taries who sleep out on princess Island Park during folkfest I was raised in a big single family home which I could never dream of owning today but just that’s fine because I live with my wife in a lovely MCG home in w 8 that we were able to afford as a homeowner I know that I am no longer the average calgarian we got lucky when we decided to purchase our first home in that it was April 2020 and the reality had set in for a lot of people that covid-19 was here to stay there was a lot of people who realized very quickly that their living space wasn’t for them and there was a bizarrely high supply of available homes since people wanted out badly when we finally landed on the home that we now live in as our Top Choice we were able to under bid by roughly 70k with a list of conditions to ensure this home was fully safe and proper to move into that doesn’t happen these days anymore in Calgary our affordable apartment that we had previously lived in was then rented out to some students because more housing Supply will benefit all types of housing however since then the housing supply has dwindled severely and we are in the midst of an extreme affordability crisis I want to live in a city where everyone has the chance to move out of renting into owning if they should choose to and I hope that Council elected to work in the best interest of the city would make choices to support all calgarians not just those who are uncomfortably content with what they have and don’t feel that should be an option for everyone there has been a of talk here about when I’m older I’m going to change my mind and that could be true I may even as has been suggested by a counselor get a turtle but we’ll see what happens however there was no reality four years ago where I could go from renting to purchasing a single family home that would work for me and my wife my wonderful MCG home which my wife and I simply refer to as home and not the neo-marxist blight that ruined our neighborhood’s character allows me to exist in the city today and not some future that I couldn’t guarantee it is frustrating to listen to these talks and hear narrow-minded or outright false statements to try and scare the vote in a certain direction on my street a few years ago there were two single family homes that were torn down and developer old Street wanted to build on the land is now zoned as hgo and they proposed the first build the neighbors around me got upset and made it known to council and the appropriate development uh processes this was issue loc 2023 0015 and it was brought forward to the city in May of last year after it had been zoned as hgo it was agreed upon the development as proposed did not make sense for the land and Old Street was forced to wait for 6 months gather Community feedback on on how to redevelop it and then reapply with a new uh proposal today old street is building their reimagined property and while the construction is a nuisance I am excited at the future of more neighbors knowing that this was a community process that still continues on to say that there are no more public hearings would be inherently false and there is a way to move forward for all calgarians even extending neighbors a luxury to comment on their neighbors property which is specifically a luxury and not a right there are knee-jerk reactions to change and then there is making smart informed decisions to best guide Calgary as it continues to evolve over time and this vote is one of those choices since graduating University for what I hope to be the last time I have worked at the Calgary dropin Center sled Island and now work with the students at the University of Calgary Student Union because I purposely work in jobs that help improve or shape the Calgary that I want to live in which is why I felt compelled to speak up today if my wife and I were going to have children one day and move into a big family home I I feel confident that they would be prouder of us for not slamming the door behind us and ensuring that their generation would not have a fair shot we want to build community I highly doubt if they are able to afford a home that they’ll lament the character of their neighborhood because who knows what it’s going to be that’s an exciting thing that is constantly evolving I hope that you listen to The Experts and also remember that average calgarians like me are really hoping to continue to build on the excellent work that was voted on last September thank you for your time and also thank you to the clerks and laborers working tireless to ensure that everyone has had a chance to speak on this issue uh in particular the stenographers who never get thanked and have to keep up with very fast speakers like me thank you very much thank you for your presentation let’s go to Brook simlu please hi good morning Council uh I want to begin by thanking you all for your patience of the last week and a half I know it isn’t easy to hear the fake arguments over and over again so really your perseverance is very appreciated I’m speaking today in support of the proposed resoning for housing uh you hired experts to provide the solutions we need to increase housing availability and stability um and you see this advice is reflected in The resoning Proposal a failure to approve it would be a huge waste of City resources and quite frankly would be really foolish the experts told you what needed to happen and while I respect the Democratic process all I’ve heard from those in opposition is pared misinformation from Community associations and Half Baked excuses as to why you should amend this appro proposal to death I love the solutions that those in opposition are recommending would result in the exact same housing problems that are impacting Toronto and Vancouver for the sake of our children we cannot afford to further inflate the housing market in Calgary we need more density in existing areas and we need it yesterday I have a child and I speak today with his interest in mind this proposed resoning is not something that is going to immediately impact us to the degree those in opposition are trying to make out instead it will slowly increase housing availability over the next few decades so that when my child and future grandchildren are looking to leave uh to leave home and start a family they aren’t forced to leave the city they grew up in this proposal isn’t about us it’s about our children and those trying to block the inflamation of this expert advice are quite literally stealing our kids ability to afford a home when younger Generations talk about how the older Generations have stolen their Futures this is what they’re talking about Society tells them the only way to be successful is to get a well-paying job buy a house get married and have kids and we present the success in a way that sounds attainable so long as they pull themselves up by their bootstraps and have a great work ethic but what people don’t grasp is that this ideal is no longer reality housing prices continue to rise wages continue to stagnate and students end up stuck with crippling debt and degrees not worth the paper they’re printed on in today’s employment Market those who cannot afford homes aren’t late lazy or not working hard enough in fact it is quite the opposite with most having to work multiple jobs and go hungry just to afford rent they are gaslit into believing their failures when really the doors that were once open to their parents and grandparents have been slammed in their faces greed through bad policy has led to the inflation of the housing market at the expense of our children’s future housing security and still there are those who fight to destroy current efforts to rebuild the security they are in Essence giving their children and grandchildren the middle finger as you’ve probably already guessed I’m outraged I’m outraged at the audacity of those in opposition to try and block something that does the bare minimum to address housing inequality I’ve heard them win and moan about how this zoning will cause their house to lose imaginary future value i w wonder what it is that makes these homeowners believe that council is responsible for protecting their personal investments in the words they so often spew at their children how en they seem to think if they invest in real estate that they shouldn’t have to take on the risks associated with it what other Investments or stock portfolios do they want the city to manage for them they claim developers are greedy and just in it for the money but by their winding over the last week it’s evident they are also in it for the same thing money it is depressing they demand Council seriously consider such laughable arguments as justification to kill our kids housing security through pointless amendments approving this upzoning and implementing the rest of the housing strategy in its entirety is a chance for the city to reverse the inequality of the last four decades and secure the ability of our children to afford homes in which to start their own families make no mistake denying this up zoning will make you a thief and if our children one day ask why they are unable to afford a home I’ll be certain to point to your tainted Legacy the experts have made their recommendations so do the smart thing and improve this up zoning thank you for your time thank you for your presentation I’m going to see if there are any questions for this panel and I don’t see any so thank you very much for joining us today we appreciate your presentations with that Council I’m going to assemble what the panel will look like after our break so just bear with me um after we come back from break at about 3:45 I’ll be looking to panel 177 so that will be Corbin oriti Rob J Jaden Tran Clyde Johnson following that is panel 178 which will be Owen Kavanaugh Katherine bled Charlene pricket Wayne Gamble and Amy pahor so that’s who we will call after the break and as always I will see if there’s anybody from previous panels who’s here now so we will see you at 3:45 e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e Hello everybody welcome back to public hearing Madame clerk a roll call please thank you mayor on the role councelor mlan I’m here councelor mean here councelor Penner here councelor pman here councelor sharp here councelor Spencer here councelor Walcott here councelor Wong I’m here councelor Wess councelor car I’m here Council shabo Council Chu councilor dong I’m here Council doall and mayor gond I’m here thank you mayor all right so I was going to start assembling people from uh panels 177 and 178 I also have some updates on people that are here so I want to confirm from panel 175 do we have Aaron iar thank you sir from panel 157 Melody Mossing thank you and from panel 166 Lisa P perfect is there anybody else sitting in the audience who was on a previous panel which one were you on and what’s your name okay um hi your worship hi hi my name is Thea I was on panel 174 and I think I was missed on and my name’s Julie mcfaden and I was on 162 okay hang on a second Julie mcfaden right yes okay give me one second to just confirm that I got you on 162 hang on a second here sure no problem so Julie I don’t have you on 162 are you sure that’s the right number I’m quite positive I’ve been waiting for my turn and I’m I believe it’s 162 I was just at an appointment and I just pulled over you know what um we found you it’s 169 we’ve got you oh good okay sorry thank you that was my memory recall no worries hang on the line from 174 who said they’re from 174 hi it’s Thea wingert perfect okay is there anybody else from a previous panel who’s on the phone line yes your worship uh my name is Jeremy I was on panel 171 my apologies I was on a medical appointment no problem anyone else okay so everyone that missed their panel I’m going to get you in I’m going to intersperse you in with the ones that I’m calling so um just bear with me panel 177 do we have Corbin orti do we have Rob Jang do we have Jaden Tran yes thank you do we have Clyde Johnson hello sir you can come on up and grab a seat do we have from panel 178 do we have Owen Kavanaugh do we have Catherine blood Charlene pricket I am here thank you do we have Wayne gambell hi sir you can grab a seat at the front here do we have Amy pahor Okay so we’ve got four people from 177 and 178 so I’m going to add Aaron iar from 175 onto this pan panel and here’s the order that we will go in it’ll be Jaden Tran Clyde Johnson then Charlene pricket then Wayne Gamble and then Aaron a car so Jaden Tran please take us away all right thank you um hello everyone my name is Jaden Tran I live in Ward one in my parents house and I currently a fourthe student studying mathematics and operations management at the University of Calgary and I am in favor of blanket resoning I was fortunate enough I was fortunate enough to grow up privileged and Wealthy however this is not the case with a lot of my peers it pains me to know just how unfair it is for me to be able to live such a life and for my friends to suffer so terribly in a city that was supposed to be so great I love Calgary I’ve grown up in Calgary and I’ve always encouraged my friends from all around the world to move to the city with the promise of affordability great opportunities but more importantly a future it pains me that my peers are not able to find aortal housing it pains pains me that some of my peers come from an abusive household and yet are unable to move out because of exorbitant red cost it pains me to know that there are queer people who live in horrible conditions at home and are facing imminent homelessness because of our dire housing crisis and most of all it pains me to know that I may not have my own future independent of my parents and that in mind the future of the city seems quite Bleak I used to lived in Southeast Asia for a short period of my time a short period of time in my life and contrary to Cal my neighborhood a very well planned one of that encourage vertical building denser neighborhoods uh walkability and more importantly fostered a community by contrast my current neighborhood is filled with copy and paste houses and the closest supermarket is a 10-minute drive and it also fosters no sense of community now I can’t believe I have to say this but I do not mind having roow houses and town houses in my neighborhood as a matter of fact I would be more at ease knowing that there are places my friends and family can afford but also potential places I could also afford to live in the future I want to make it clear that this policy is to serve not only the young current young calgarians low-income calgarians and immigrant calgarians but also potentially your children and your grandchildren know also our grandchildren and our grandchildren as well so while you might think that this is at the detriment of your property value which is not the case at all since land is scarce um as more and more people move into the city we will need more and more housing in order for our city to flourish and while I understand that this may not be a silver bullet Calgary is in a dire situation this time with an incredibly low vacancy rate of about 2% m resoning is the first step to addressing the issues of supply and getting one step closer to housing affordability it’s the policy many calgarians want and is policy many calgarians need calgarians cannot afford any more in action I urge Council to vote in favor of this issue rather than kicking the can down the road please for the sake of me my peers and our city thank you thank you for your presentation let’s go to Clyde Johnson please already I we hearing aid so if I’m talking too loud let me know you’re just fine and we will speak up if we have questions well my name is Clyde Johnson and I’ve been a senior for 20 years that’s the same as AA right I’ve been I’ve been sober for 20 years um I worked 50 years inspecting buildings I’ve inspected this building uh I’ve known all the Mayors I know everybody from Don Getty all the way to Donald Trump but don’t tell anybody uh I’ve been around the world I’ve seen Construction in every country I’ve inspected it in almost every country I’ve inspected over 75,000 properties now that’s not an exaggeration I did 1.5 5 a day for 50 years not and I took two weeks holiday every year too when I retired uh it was very hard because uh I had no more income and because I’m a senior I just had my pensions okay but here’s the thing that I’m going to tell you right now is that I own four properties they support me but they don’t support me they support the mortgages okay my rent is exactly what the mortgage the taxes utilities everything that goes into that house is what they pay and I’ve been doing that now for almost 14 years because I own properties in Calgary Peru uh I had some in New York but not anymore uh what I’m going to tell you that is the renters that I I interviewed during covid I had students I had my own Sons my children Liv in all the properties too when they were going to school they had to sign a lease and the lease is my lawyer put it up for me it’s called rent to own lease they have to take responsibility for the insurance everything that goes on in the house they have to pay all the utilities so basically the rent that they have actually pays the mortgage and everything and it’s worked out great I have two native people living in one of my properties right now during Co I was vac for 2 years so I renovated them all I even renovated my house in Peru the thing is when you have 6,000 people trying to get into your unit you have to be very picky I only had three showings of all my properties during covid and uh I chose a native two natives that were so clean that they take care of everything they’ve been there two years now this and the reason they do that is because I’m a good landlord and I’ve been a landlord like 14 years and I’ve seen bad landlords and I’ve seen even worse landlords okay a landlord in Calgary housing is basically to make money okay and I guess that’s the same thing I’ve built houses I’ve built I’m a contractor too and I’ve built condominiums my brother-in-law is a developer and I respect all his properties when he builds them my key thing in any property is safety okay for the last since 2018 I’ve been doing accessible housing all my properties have two hand railings two exits they have big Windows everything is for seniors basically because that’s what I I do it for now is that people need to be safe and this is why I am okay with you rezoning okay all my friends that have houses on Crescent Heights Mount Royal they one of them just sold this house in elbow drive just because he he renovated a condo and he wanted to move in there but the houses that I see for over 50 years from $30 million houses to $500 houses in the Philippines that you can get the house in lot for five the best thing for a house is maintenance and if you maintain them they’ll last and I got all the statistics for you on that the insurance company says a house will last 80 years after 80 years basically it’s not big enough for all the new equipment one of my houses I renovated I couldn’t even put a new fridge in because the old little ice box didn’t fit I had to redo the whole kitchen just to get a refrigerator in it trailers only last 4 years and I’ve done a lot of trailers what the city did to the trailer park on 16th Avenue was wrong they kicked all the people out and seven people committed suicide there because they had no other place to go they owned it for 30 years and now it’s getting into this life expectancy and they have to get out and they got they got mad and they did that thank you for your presentation sir you’re just at time what you’re just at time you’re 5 minutes is up okay I’m okay I had 20 pages of notes the last thing I want to tell you is that’s it sir you’re at time your time is up my time is up yes so thank you oh good job yeah if you grab a seat I’ll let you know if there’s questions for you okay oh okay okay thank you let’s go to Charlene pricket please I am a resident of Mount Royal and have been since 1976 I married into Canada having fallen in love with a young Canadian in uh Great Britain and we came back and took up residence in the Belt Line in an apartment we lived in the belt line which is and is now and has as far as I have known it a very dense area of Southwest Calgary we live there but we walked and we recreated up the hill in the more spacious Mountain Royal and we hiked in the Rockies we only used our apartment in the Belt Line back in the 1900s an urban planner named Olstead designed a community format that came to be known as a garden suburb and Mount Royal in Southwest Calgary is one of the best examples of this Urban Design in North America Mount Royal as many of you will know is characterized by winding street not a grid sided with grass boulevards that are planted with now mature trees the homes are well set back from the street and in that setback Zone more trees are planted so Mount Royal enjoys a huge inventory of trees planted Long Ago by Forward Thinking folks and that now provides a magnificent tree canopy so this format takes on a park Lo environment it provides enjoyment not only for me and my fellow residents who live here but from surrounding denser Urban environments those folks bike and walk uh and um stroll walk dogs through Mount Royal we as human beings seek sunshine and space and trees so I think it’s worth asking the question if you cram more people into a certain space if you increase density do you increase life enjoyment do you increase longevity do you increase happiness when Co hit we were well aware that the most dense cities around the world fared the worst because this is an iconic Community I I think we should think and talk about where more density is appropriate to be located it seems sess it it seems disrespect respectful to destroy some of Calgary’s oldest Heritage communities but rather shouldn’t we confer with the community and use Smart planning to locate density where it’s best suited I suggest to you Council that blanket zoning is not just for plan planning it’s no planning when it’s just a um a freefor all who can decide where best to invest a large amount of your life’s income most of us will see a large percentage of what we earn in our lives put into our home it might not be the same home throughout our lifetime but our home is is the biggest repository of what we’ve earned in our lifetimes when we can’t depend on our space being the same sort of space that we invested in it it it it destroys the economy of Our Lives I think it is foolish to make such a a rash decision I think a considered um a considered discussion over time with communities is harder for the planning department it’s more tedious it’s more time consuming but I think it’s the better choice I encourage you to rethink and amend this current blanket up zoning I appreciate your attention thank you so much for your presentation let’s go to gamble please mayor and councel mayor and Council thank you for your time I come to council as a homeowner in rc1 community and a developer in the city for over 30 years I along with Partners a great team suppliers And Trades have built executive homes in rc1 areas duplexes and rc2 areas suplexes and zone areas not asking for increased density medical condos PCN chaperel medical building as an owner leasing back to AHS the list goes on in short I come with experience from the developer perspective and a homeowner currently I have land I have an offer on land conditional to build plus minus 345 Apartments I ask the city for nothing I am I ask the city for on the development I’m contemplating let me go back again I ask the city for nothing on the development I am contemplating however would like to discuss floor area ratio far to increase far increases vertical density I understand as a developer you can go in reone and City Hall is cooperative for the most part however the city increasing vertical density without the developer spending time and money would reduce the overall cost of projects Cal Municipal land Corp cmlc should be extended more land if you want affordable housing sell the land and hear me on this at a0 per buildable per square foot I have dealt with cmlc they’re $40 a s foot buildable $30 a s foot buildable $28 a s foot buildable pending where the development is this will allow the city to create a tax base that makes the developers want to build the only variable between affordable housing and Market rentals is the land further the cost of material and labor labor for the most part is at current inflation levels and in certain categories above inflation the price of drywall up 8% and glass 6% this year as an example if I understand the conversation it is affordability to some degree and increasing Supply there is a federal initiative of $223 million at stake what is the plan reduce the cost of the land in the city’s control have a contractor have a contract with developers with reduced city taxes develop the land and ultimately increase the end project versus vacant land paying no taxes in short have a contract with a developer I know the numbers to build and make projects feasible land is a major input cost of the overall development downtown Calgary overbuilt commercial however no residential this is a bigger issue if we require have the zoning that allows such I believe the city is currently working on this thank you City Hall our 10 to our 10 eight plexes on 50ft lots and all rc1 areas going to change the issue at hand we know it will not and they will be expensive rentals they have to be the price of land in rc1 communities dictates the end price of the rental as mentioned by an earlier panel the proposed zoning will only escalate land prices and developments will become more expensive increasing rents further many rc1 areas have restrictive covenants on title that prevent developments the city is looking at the rc1 owners have successful judgments in a Provincial Court upholding RC on titled to prevent the blanket zoning so the city approves the development under the propos guidelines the community capes the development to Provincial Court and based on the existing RC RC’s on title that will prevent such we all spend money and time the city to approve the community to raise funds and defend the developer to realize the city approval is not the end game so wasteful many have brought up mature trees infrastructure schools busing kids out of inner city communities because of in infrastructure lacked there are now lotteries for inner city schools breaking friendships for years and sending kids to another school where they have no association to Friendship the mental stress of our kids should be addressed when increasing density and infrastructure lacking to handle such these issues are real and current without adding the new zoning I repeat Schools Kids Community being uprooted because planning and foresight around infrastructure lacked in closing well almost in closing the plaque sure your time is up so damn okay thank you thank you mayor thanks for joining us I’m going to go to the next person on this panel and that is Aaron iar please good afternoon mayor counselors my name is Aaron ecar I present myself thank you for taking the time to listen to me I’m against the blanket reson as it is I moved to Canada 42 years ago I’m an immigrant my husband was born in Alberta when I moved to Canada 42 years ago my parents two sisters one of her husbands and myself living in the two-bedroom apartment in Winnipeg about 9 months later my parents were able to afford a condemned house that that was the only thing we could afford for the next while we fix the house and leave there for 5 years then in 2014 I moved to Calgary the reason I’m I’m giving these example is because the housing and Rental concerns and issues has been here in Canada and in Calgary for a long time in 2004 I moved to Calgary I rent an apartment for $700 the following year the rent went up to 7 sorry 750 halfway through that year all of us got in our five buildings got notices of termination of rent because all the cond all the apartments were going to be built into Condominiums but a month later the lands came back to us saying that the condominium uh process fell through and they offer us rent for $1,250 $500 more than it was before this is 2006 18 years ago I moved into a basement into a in one friend’s place and after he met his wife I moved again to another apartment at a higher cost once again about a year after that I with my husband my husband for today he also was leaving in a an apartment with a roommate after a few months we moved together into yet an more expensive apartment as we were not able to afford a house at that time we were in our late 40s the cost of renting house and housing has been a concern for a long time by living together in this apartment for a while we were able to save some money and very excitingly we were able to buy our first home in 2013 it took us a year to find the house we now call home and yes we paid more than we were hoping to spend it is the first home for both of us this home and single detached home in War I is our Nest Egg as a land developer informed this Council in a previous panels if a builder buys a house next to our house and builds 4 to 12 units which the banket resoning will allow it will decrease the value of our home between 10 and 20% I’m not opposed to density in the city I’m opposed to the blanket resoning which is not going to fix the most important concerns of affordability housing and housing demands in Calgary many presenters have brought up the concerns of infrastructure water shortage electricity schools capacities hospitals doctor shortage that the lease goes on and on and bl blanket resoning does not address these if I look at some of the reasons why we’re at this situation foreign money that competes against our citizens without needing even to live here Canada has issued 10 million 10year multi-entry visas all these visas don’t allow to work here but they do allow you to rent or buy a place in 2023 we had over a million ion International students Canada welcomed 465,000 new permanent residents in 2023 and by 2025 we’re expecting half a million Canada issue 1.2 million temporary work permits in the first 9 months of 2023 177,000 5year super visas which are on top of the other visas were issued these numbers add up but the needs of all these individuals don’t if everyone in this example needs housing Medical Services electricity showers the following example is not a fact it’s just something that I made up if you build 2,000 homes you’re going to need 4,000 if you need 4,000 you’re going to need 8,000 and so on as the number of people that are moving into our city continues to grow with no limits our city will not be able to sustain numbers and we are going to say and sorry about this it is if it’s yellow let it mellow when we go to do number one in our bathrooms sorry you can take only one bath a month or you know we have to eat dinner candl light please go back to the drawing board and address all these real issues that are before us including the house shortage one of the things that I have learned from this process is how resourceful creative and smart calgarians are go to this resource that is here for you to learn from if steps are not taken to address the real concerns I’m not sure anybody knows what the real consequences will be don’t put the card in front of the horse very much for your presentation all right let’s go to questions of this panel let’s start with councelor Spencer please thank you mayor my question is for Mr gamble hello sir um you outlined some some concerns I know are widely held in the community certainly my neck of the woods uh we have many uh schools that are um it’s a it’s a loty system and we have to send kids to other places when you think about the city facing these growth challenges um one of the concerns I have is we are conflating um the aims of this with just the the broader growth challenges have you have you connected this zoning to specifically exacerbating um the growth challenges we are faced uh I wanted to give you a chance to close it looked like you were potentially on your way to making a point um wanted to offer that to you and love it if you could also connect to that that uh that question thank you for your question in the community of alador I’m sure council’s aware but the infrastructure does not handle the families that live there and their kids their kids must be busted out of the community in other communities to go to Western High School it is now a lottery to get in where it used to be that you lived in a certain Zone and you were allowed to go to that school in certain communities Western High School if you do not win the lottery you will be bust up to Rosedale or your parents will have to take your whatever is going to happen just it just seems wrong like a child that can walk to school now has to get on a bus and go to a school that they have no affiliation with no friendships with and we we all talk mental health and stresses and everything else I it it it seems crazy it seems dysfunctional I I don’t know if that answered your question no I think I mean if if I’m following your train of thought are you essentially suggesting that I mean what we’re what we’re doing here to attempt to address the supply you’re wanting the city to look at what the lived experience is in each of these neighborhoods and go and try and direct growth to the places that can better handle it is that the dots I’m connecting is that what you’re essentially saying thank you for helping me yes that’s what I’m saying and going back to F and vertical um vertical restrictions or non-restricted before me that this is Calgary we’re we’re we can do this um I see no problems in getting there it’s just the great imagination of council and many to get there we can do it yeah um received I I I do believe we’re we’re attempting on a whole variety of fronts um and one of the the pieces I mean that makes me feel some some some sense of comfort with this is that ultimately this this is here and here to stay and that the market is also in a pretty effective tool in terms of directing growth to potentially where it should you know the families that do the research on the community that they’re buying into and Snoop the community Pages ahead of it um does that does that help at all or are you still uh you know when you think about the market factors to to potentially help us navigate some of the pain points um you would still you’re you would still prefer the City versus the market to to navigate that I think the market should navigate many fundamentals and government involvement municipal IAL Federal will perhaps frustrate and if I could you look at rental rates in Ontario or British Columbia they’re 440 a square foot I’m sure city council is aware Calgary is $3 a square foot what does British Columbia Ontario have they have government regulations to evict somebody a non-paying tenant in British Columbia or Ontario or cubec and other provinces it’s 12 to 14 months in Alberta it’s one 3 months if you asked me hey go build an apartment building in BC the answer would be no the their their issues lie with government intervention they don’t lie with uh a free economy how is our rental rate less with no restrictions than other jurisdictions it’s the creative working uh with City Hall with members of the development Community um to get there we don’t need more government restrictions and and this council is is wonderful at that I I so in answer to your question and maybe I’m a little long-winded on the answer let developers do what we’re going to do let us build I I mentioned I’ve got land under contract it is literally under contract with a deposit we’re doing our due diligence I ask nothing of city council zero okay that’s super helpful okay thank you appreciate it all right I don’t see any other questions for this panel so thank you very much for joining us today we appreciate you taking the time as well as your presentations um I’m going to read out who the next panel is and then I’m going to alert the people afterwards um about their names so Melody Mossing are you still with us all right please go grab a seat uh Lisa pool you can grab a seat at the front Kate Stenson are you still here I’ll come to you if you just have a seat for a second Kate Stenson do we have you yeah okay great uh Julie mcfaden I’m here perfect do we have Thea wigert yep I’m here perfect and Jeremy beretto yes I’m here great so I made that a panelist of six cuz these are all folks from panels that we missed hang on one second and I’ll get to everybody that’s in the audience that was on a previous panel just alerting everyone on panels 180 181 and 184 that I’ll be calling you shortly there is no panel uh 182 or 183 as I mentioned those were held for people that were speaking uh in certain categories but no one filled those categories so the folks that I will be calling on after this panel just a heads up for you it’ll be 180 Juan Gomez from 18 181 it’ll be sandre Lavoy Bob schal Sarah papait Tom spencley Brendan Hoy and from panel 184 it’ll be Brendan David Wesley brindle trying fam Frank Anderson and Robert zabowski you don’t need to respond right now but just hang on you’ll be up soon now who’s in the audience that was on a previous panel hi what’s your name 172 all right 172 and I’m sorry I missed your name CJ CJ okay and hi in the front 75 heart okay anybody else on a pre yeah go ahead yeah Scot 159 15 9 all right is there anybody on the phone line that’s from a panel earlier than one what do we do yes ma’am I’m I’m I was on 91 panel 91 and what’s your last name uh Fox okay and sir what’s your name my name is Owen I believe I was on 178 178 Owen okay I will look for all of you and assemble something for you hi who’s this hi sorry this is Julie and I’m on 169 but I think we’ve captured that already probably Julie you’re number four on the panel that’s about to go great thank you very much you’re very welcome is there anyone else on the phone that’s on a previous panel who’s here with us now uh Brad young okay and what panel were you 166 okay great hang tight and I’ll find a spot for all of you hi who’s this hi Rob dang 177 sorry say that again the number 177 177 and the last name is Jen right yes okay perfect anyone else all right so let’s get started with this panel Melody Mossing please kick us off hello I have uh a slide I’m not ready for it oh that’s okay you can put it up now if you want I’d like to start by saying how much appreciation I have for those who came before me and built this city over these last many days I heard again and again from men and women who dedicated their lives creating our communities so thank you my interest in Home Building started in the 80s when I was building forts with my pals in our yards and tucked away throughout my small Hometown the house I grew up in had no insulation or HVAC in the Upper Floor where my room was so in the winter i’ sometimes take my next day clothes under the covers with me so I could get dressed where it was warm I only say this to let you know that I didn’t come to the city with money thankfully when I moved here MCC and Sate had a program that paid me to go to trade school I took pre-employment carpentry and I got to work in the trades we need more support for our future trades more grant money for students more financial support for those just getting started and incentives to stay in the trades for those of us already established and good parking for our work trucks it’s not like I can take my tools on the transit regardless of what some people are encouraging uh slide one okay it’s there by the late ’90s I was self-employed and working mostly in new builds mostly on the outskirts of the city I’ve done many different jobs in construction the vast majority being finished carpentry but also Framing and Renovations Etc but working with alternative materials like chemp creete and restoring old houses are my passions I’ve also been a regular volunteer my whole life much of that time being dedicated to food and housing I’ve been a single mom of three for the last 10 years my 18-year-old just moved out right after finishing grade 12 last year he’s been a full-time framer since then literally building his nest egg my youngest is on the autism spectrum and will likely need my support well into adulthood my elderly disabled mom moved in with us a few years ago when she needed new heart parts and a new knee and to be closer to her grandkids me and her multiple doctors thank goodness we are in a bungalow with a big enough yard that I could build her a ramp personally for my family adding a basement suite and backyard Suite would be ideal for long-term multigenerational living making it easier for me to keep my family together this helps us but it also helps keep more people out of the overwhelmed rental situation my little guy does very well in a quiet slow paced neighborhood surrounded by people he’s known his whole life and some nature right in his own yard I realize this small town feel of my community is not the right fit for everyone it’s great for those who need quiet in the daytime like shift working doctors and First Responders and people with severe PTSD who can’t handle crowds and noise and that’s okay we’re big enough to create community to fit everyone it’s important that we focus on adding more homes in areas that not only want it but can support it and our city has so much vacant land that could be used my little guy School sent notice that the student population is going to increase significantly and students needing a fourth year to complete grade 12 will have limited spots to do so I believe a lottery for us is not far away one amazing thing that I’ve witnessed over these many days of hearing uh hearings is other people’s desire to share ideas slide two please I see that we need to make changes in how we build I’m regularly watching the next Farm will be plowing over from the windows of my job sites which are low density on the outskirts why aren’t we making better use of newly acquired land that’s incredibly sad for this farm toown girl to witness it hurts my heart to be a part of that it also hurts to show up to infill sites with established neighbors who built the community are being shadowed out so I’m slowly transitioning out of this work to focus on something that fits me better and I’m glad to see hundreds people showing up here also wanting to explore A Better Way informed community-based resoning yes blanket resoning no way last week I was listening to the hearings while working on job site and I wanted to drop my tool belt at what I heard because I own a single family home and I don’t believe that my community is suited to allow 12 units on a lot or 10 or eight and that I must be privileged and uncompassionate person who can’t stand change and doesn’t want poor people in their Community this is wrong on many levels I’ve wrecked my body over the last quarter Century with boots on the ground actually participating in real life homes actual physical houses real people live Inus 25 to over plus 30 temps and I still show up I’ll tell you the ouses on site are equally terrible at both those temperature extremes regardless of the differences in how we want to live I will come to help you build your multif family complex downtown even though it’s not the right fit for me then I’ll leave at the end of the day that I work hard for and I’ll take my rest there so I can help someone build their best suited home tomorrow to those youngsters who believe they’ll never own a house and to Aspire to is somehow oppressive to others please please know those are lies prepare yourself the best you can save money learn some skills to help you build or fix up your own home one day markets change unexpected opportunities can pop up at any time make yourself ready for them do not give your voice up for what happens to your community which will happen with non-c commmunity based res zoning also use your voice while you still have it to demand the federal government step up to increase Dawn Market housing and take the time to read the harsh warnings put forward by citizens of cities who’ve already gone through this thank you thank you very much for your presentation let’s go to Lisa P please and I have a slide deck to oh there we go thank you mayor gond and city council my name is Lisa P and I’m the president of the elbow Park residents Association Next slide please for the record we pulled our residents and 88% of resp respondents were opposed to blanket resoning 7% were in favor and the remainder needed more information I’ve been following the public hearing as much as I can and have heard many excellent speakers my main takeaway is that calgarians are sending the message loud and clear that they want to have a say in the Redevelopment of their community and this city people of all ages from all corners of the city renters owners and aspirational owners have taken the time to share their perspective no matter where one stands on the issue the volume of people coming out to speak is a powerful indicator of how much people love this city and their communities this is fantastic and needs to be acknowledged from the perspective of many citizens it’s not clear what problem the city is trying to solve with blanket rezoning there are too many unanswered questions next slide please if we believe a healthy housing system has Supply and a choice across the entire Continuum what are the targets for single detached for example in 2021 Ward 8 only had 18% single detached homes and chances are good that’s much lower because there’s been a lot of Redevelopment in the last few years uh next slide please compare this to W 12 at 60% and W 5 at 63% single detached homes next slide please why do we need to blanket reone the entire city when we have 440,000 units of available capacity next slide please and we have sufficient land within our current boundaries for the next 35 to 49 years why is co-op housing not part of the strategy why are short-term rentals given a free pass is there a middle ground where we can meet the current housing demand without disrupting established communities to what extent was this option explored what does success look like how will we measure it next slide please where’s the impact assessment of developments with two sets of Ro of Rouses if the federal funds are not contingent on the approval of blanket resoning why is this being rushed through so quickly these questions and more need to be answered before moving forward with the proposed policy change from the citizen perspective what has been proposed is not gentle density or a modest change on the contrary blanketry zoning is a dramatic and irreversible change that will radically alter the way Calgary grows and develops to get citizens support for a change of this magnitude the assumptions have to be Rock Solid the evidence has to be credible and the intended outcomes transparent the proposal for blanket rezoning fails the sniff test how and where we allow density is not just an important part of the equation but rather it should be the starting point for ensuring that infill development is contextual sensitive and respectful of the neighborhood in which it is built that has not been the case for many of the examples we have witnessed density can benefit the city and communities if it is smart thoughtful and well-designed rcg land use is suitable in some but not all locations as we have heard density without regard for Community context can have a significant negative impact on the adjacent neighbors allowing the market to make mistakes and fail on the backs of existing communities is not an ex acceptable strategy the city needs to move at the speed of trust and by rushing this process you have lost the trust of calgarians I was part of the group of community Representatives that met with mayor gond thank you for making the time for that the meeting was an excellent step towards building trust we felt heard and hope that our request for you to vote against blanket resoning will be honored when the time comes to vote on this matter we don’t want see a flurry of Band-Aid amendments trying to address the severe flaws in this proposed planning policy we urge you to press pause and work with citizens to take the time to get it right calgarians have a long history of rolling up their sleeves and working together when needed we are problem solvers and have a strong Spirit of volunteerism let’s harness the energy of all the speakers in this long public hearing and work together to find solutions to the challenges facing this city next slide please and I have a short list of suggestions that are by no means exhaustive uh number one bring back a city census number two we want Community residents to have an active and respected role in the development discussions decisions that impact our communities add a requirement to involve thank you you’re just at time so thank you for your presentation let’s go to Kate Stenson please good afternoon mayor and counselors I’m here today representing myself as a citizen who’s concerned about the future of our city I live in w 7 in a community that has already been rezoned and I am in support of the blanket resoning for three reasons first we are in a housing crisis and need to add housing supply of different types and across income levels blanket resoning represents one step toward achieving this second we are in a climate crisis we cannot continue adding housing in the form of new suburbs in must be added within established neighborhoods to reduce the infrastructure and environmental implications of sprawl and third while my assumption is that this will ramp up development in established neighborhoods and is intended to do so with 95% of this type of land use already being approved there is an efficiency of public resources to be gained by approving blanket resoning while I am supportive of rezoning it is somewhat conditional I think that it’s critical to acknowledge that this is only one small part of addressing the complex challenges of Housing and climate change implemented in isolation I might agree with some who oppose rezoning but if implemented as part of a thoughtful and coordinated approach I think this could be a Tipping Point in making Calgary a place for people across income levels to thrive after a week and a half of hearing from people with all kinds of viewpoints I’m sure that you are all deeply aware of how important it is to get this right increased density in established neighborhoods should be preceded by infastructure improvements uh but if not then the time is now uh and particularly investments in Rapid Transit it should always come with amenities and sufficient belts and bands must be in place to ensure that Calgary’s tree canopy is maintained Quality Homes are built which fit within the character of the neighborhoods where they are built and to to ensure that they will provide housing for people rather than serving only as investments in addition and most importantly investments in affordable housing must increase while the items I have just spoken to are not directly a part of the rezoning bylaw I am asking for a commitment from each counselor who supports blanket resoning to ensure that this is not a standalone action for blanket resoning to have a positive impact on Calgary’s future it must be implemented alongside complimentary actions including other recommendations put forward by the housing and affordability taskforce I am not a policy expert but I suspect that there are many policy mechanisms which could be implemented to ensure the desired outcomes for blanket resoning are achieved we are in a challenging time with concurrent crises and there isn’t any Silver Bullet solution blanket resoning has attracted a huge amount of attention in recent weeks and months but in some ways I think this may be one of the simpler decisions ahead of council and that this cannot be an either or decision it must be both and it will be the choices you make at the many decision points which follow that will determine if Calgary is going to be a leader in housing and in climate thank you again for the opportunity to speak and for the commitment that you’ve all demonstrated since last Monday to hearing from so many people on this issue thank you very much for your presentation let’s go to Julie mcfaden please hi good afternoon thank you so much for your your time and the time you’ve been spending this last week and a half I live in Courtney wil cot’s writing and I’ve lived in Calgary for almost my whole life an iconic song came to mind by the memorable Canadian artist Bruce curn titled if a tree falls the line that seems so relevant is the one if a tree falls in a forest does anybody he in my area I hear chainsaws cutting down mature trees in maralo for wider sidewalks whose current width had served calgarians for many decades Lots being clear-cut for larger developments to support densification projects without a concern for pres preserving the mature tree canopy which currently has the largest mature tree canopy in Calgary this seems to contravene your decar declaration that we have a climate emergency in our city the recent article in the Calgary Sun published April April 1st of this year detailed New Zealand’s cancellation of their blanket zoning initiative after 2 years due to skyrocketing housing prices and insufficient housing stock after allowing construction of semidetached homes town homes and small apartment blocks on land previously zoned for single family homes in Toronto their infrastructure is strained and overpowered by rainwater as a result of the overbuilding on lots that no longer add to the Natural drainage Alberta continues month after month to have the largest residential construction rate taking place in its history I feel so proud of that in the interview on April 7th of this year between Rosemary Barton and Minister J Minister Jason Nixon they discussed the federal money intended to stimulate construction of rental housing initiatives which our city has reportedly agreed to receive Minister Nixon highlighted that the federal housing money which stipulations prior prioritize the federal green energy agenda will notably increase building costs and slow down the rate of building which will result in less albertans being able to move into affordable homes building homes under the stipulations of the federal government demands will reportedly slow down our construction and increase the costs with which result in less albertas albertans being able to move into affordable homes the Alberta Government is currently providing $75 million for agencies to help with this initiative this is a 40% increase from last year’s budget as a council you’ve declared that we must act to ensure housing affordability but the blanket zoning changes to redesignate residential areas in Calgary that currently allow single or semi- detached homes to also allow roow houses and town houses will not achieve this affordability the developers will benefit immensely by increasing profits and the landscape of our city would be irreparably changed one of the appealing as aspects of our city is the variety of choice and location I have strong concerns that relate to the overcrowding of public schools that are already at maximum capacity and lotteries for students that live inbounds and can walk to school in their area are being busted to schools across the city how does this support strong communities and the climate change initiative your council is focused on I have a daughter who can walk to a designated Junior High School and High School who may not be selected by the lottery system the CBE is planning on implementing because of lack of capacity in her Inner City High School this is not a provincial responsibility but a responsibility of our city council and the school board to ensure that public schools are accessible this issue Paramount to safety reducing emissions and maintaining communities there are areas of our city that are currently designated for density that are great examples of how this can work well why is this impacting change being forced upon calgarians in all areas and not consider a pleite to encourage more voters to come out and have their say this initiative benefits developers maybe more so than calgarians in certain areas in need of affordable housing let’s direct growth to the areas that can handle dist dentification and as a Calgary Community work together as we’ve always done and identify solutions that best handle this this is all of our city and the response to the blanket zoning initiative should cause pause to consider options that are well thought out to address the affordable housing crisis not hurriedly pushed through on the present timeline as a city council it is your job as an elective official to represent and sincerely consider all of your constituents opinions and situations consider informed Community Building take note of other areas that have implemented with unsuccessful results and not rush through this agenda which will irreparably change the landscape of our city forever I’m not asking you to Kick the Can down the road but to consider the implications of blanket resoning and truly consider solutions that address the affordable housing crisis thank you very much for your time thank you for your presentation let’s go to Thea wigard please yes hello um your worship and counselors so so many things have already been said about this topic and you’ve been so patient in hearing it all I want to thank you in advance for your time and consideration and focus on one area of interest to me family and my like-minded friends and neighbors and that is diversity so allow me to explain regarding the rcg detractors claims that green areas are under attack with rcg zoning I wonder how many of these people are considering their monoculture resource sucking Lawns to be socalled green spaces I also wonder how they can be okay with destroying our amazingly biodiverse carbon sinking native grasslands to expand the city’s footprint rather than building within the city’s existing boundaries in short there is think green about Green Field construction and green grass masquerading as so-called green spaces grass is essentially North America’s largest cultivated crop and its maintenance causes more greenhouse gas emissions than it absorbs and no despite what others have tried to argue a man-made Pond filled with City treated City chap water in the middle of a new subdivision doesn’t stop bio diversity loss when Nature needs to flourish is contiguous tracks of undisturbed natural habitats not tiny islands of habitat in the middle of a suburb as the climate Hub speaker already said if people in Calgary want to plant more trees let’s all get together and plant some trees I’m ready second there is nothing that prevents a small subdivided lot to host lots of biodiversity my single family home on a subdivided lot in Mount Pleasant hosts at least 53 different perennial plants and that doesn’t include the annuals vegetables and herbs that I grow yearly many of which also and at times somewhat begrudgingly provide food to animals and pollinators we are currently in what scientists are calling a human cause Mass distinction event that Rivals the one that killed off the dinosaurs in light of this many jurisdictions have started imposing biodiversity Clauses on Developers for example developers in the UK must replace 10% of biodiversity loss caused by their actions so there is a net gain Los Angeles offers cash for grass to replace water gulping grass of drought tolerant native plants the city of Toronto offers homeowners who plant and maintain large trees on their yards property tax thereby represent recognizing the ecosystem Services the trees provide more locally okok has biodiversity grants that homeowners can apply for to convert their loans to a native plant landscape in this backdrop of both a housing crisis and climate emergency wouldn’t it be wonderful for our city to increase both the diversity of housing that’s available to its citizens and the diversity of Flor and FAA within its borders so if there is room to amend the bylaw the zoning bylaw to include Provisions for increasing biodiversity I ask that the council please consider it lastly in my neighborhood there are old houses new houses single family homes on large Lots single family homes on small subdivided lots and multif family developments the diversity of the housing in this once declining area has made it an increasingly popular neighborhood to live in with new businesses moving in all the time rcg is a chance to increase both housing housing biodiversity and both sorry rcg is a chance to increase both housing and biodiversity which I believe is a great thing for present and future generations of Calgary thank you again for your time thank you for your presentation let’s go to Jeremy beretto please uh thank you worship and members of council and I apologize for miss my panel I was receiving a needle at a doctor’s office which is probably how you feel listening to me on panel 178 but I will get to my three points that I’d like to speak about with Council uh regarding the proposal before you for having Citywide um rcg I am in support of the proposal for and I like to talk about three things number one the problem number two the solution and number three the future the problem’s clear from the hundreds of speakers you’ve had we lack housing in the city and uh to solve this problem we obviously need to build more housing and the answer the question is how and I want to come at this from the perspective of someone who works at a business in downtown Calgary that’s growing taking floors and floors of office space in uh the buildings that we need occupy and I want you to think about uh the young people that uh we want to attract and the other you know of all ages of talent that we want to bring to our city our unique value proposition in the market to attract Talent is affordability our Economic Development agency slogan is uh love Tech love life to um attract knowledge workers and I’d like to think about what is our message to people that are living in their parents’ basement or an overpriced apartment what is our solution to them to solve this problem my second point is the solution it’s clear that the solution to a lack of housing is to build more housing and every political party from left to right agrees that building housing is the solution and I think some of the speakers before have commented that maybe um uh having duplexes that may cost $500 or $600,000 won’t alone fix the problem or Reason zoning the city won’t alone fix the problem members of council this is what I would call a silver bullet fallacy we don’t have the luxury of finding a single solution that will solve the crisis we’re in both in terms of Housing and accommodating workers to grow our economy we need every single tool in the toolbox and let me illustrate with an example I grew up in an ex in a R1 community in South Calgary and I currently live in the equivalent of an rcg Community if we take an existing home that has empty nesters and make it a duplex that could create a a home for a young family and the senior couple that young family may be moved out of a condo that then a young professional could move into that young professional may have moved out of a rental apartment that students could move into and those students may have moved out of their parents basement which then could be uh redeveloped as a duplex it’s a virtuous cycle where everyone in this cycle benefits and this is not a theoretical example this is my lived experience in my rcg neighborhood uh which is in councelor Wong’s uh area and I’m very hopeful that councelor Wong validates the great neighbors that he has in his um Ward by voting for this proposal I’m can the the opponents that I’ve heard before um have basically fallen into a few buckets in terms of the solutions they proposed either first they propos no solution or second they propos a solution like transit or development or affordable housing or other measures that usually don’t affect their neighborhoods and I think an equable solution must be available Citywide my final point is the future and I want Council to think with me it’s 2029 at that point you would have a couple of the council members we just pick random names uh councelor Spencer Council dwali maybe you’re in the last year of your second term councelor Poopman you’re in the last year of one of your many terms as an elder States person of council and imagine were the city that figured it out we didn’t follow the lead uh we didn’t follow cities that made mistakes like Vancouver and Toronto and waited too long to solve this problem to the point where young professionals that I work with cannot afford to live in their own City even if they make six figures we did it we used every tool in the toolbox gentle density affordable housing streamlining the unnecessary regulatory burden to build apartments and condos and we created a city that thrived that thrived DED economically that had relatively affordable housing for uh people that wanted to live it and I think this Council has done so in the past we have led we’ve LED and cring the alch system that is the the Envy of North America we LED on delivering Olympics that was under budget and no other Olympics after that point has achieved that and this Council can lead now we can be the city that solve this problem and we can have cities from around the world coming here in 5 years and 10 years to learn how we did it or and I encourage this Council to vote Yes to this proposal lead and do not fail thank you thank you very much for your presentation let’s go to questions of this panel starting with councelor shabo please thank you my first question is for Miss trying to find her name Melody Mossing Ming uh thank you for being here and for uh sharing your experiences and ideas with us um can’t be easy especially know coming in front of this intimidating nervous yeah anyways I uh I resemble a lot of the remarks that you made reference to as former Carpenter myself so um anyways um you did indicate something that I thought was interesting um that you were talking about a basement suite and a backyard Suite as something that would be of interest to you uh possibly before I thought that they’d be one or the other but if there was changes in zoning or something it could be possible to have both um so one or both would be great yeah no it’s it’s an interesting question I’ve actually asked others that same question because currently it’s one or the other and not both oh okay but most of the most of my neighbors have garages I’m one of the only people in my direct neighborhood that doesn’t have a garage which is weird cuz I need a place for my my stuff so if I was going to put up a garage anyways it would make sense that I would just continue the build and go a little bit higher um and since my basement’s like only half developed anyways it’s something that I’d be doing for the future as well but if I could do both that would be even more beneficial yeah and would you consider that to be contextually sensitive to the rest of the neighborhood if that were allowed not just on your property but neighboring properties as well um I think so because um the other like the other garages they’re you know they’re um really decent sizes and there’s I don’t have an alley actually so like my driveway would have to continue along my house which it pretty much all already does so I’d be putting a garage in the same place where the neighbors have all of their garages and I have a walking path in the back there’s no alley um and there’s space and there’s trees in between myself and the neighbors that are behind me as well too so if I didn’t go crazy and take up the whole backyard I just want like a basic onear garage with a small Suite on top yeah um as you indicated you said that your community may not be the best place to do this kind of thing but do you think that there’s some places within your community that could support an rcg type uh land use yeah definitely yeah and I know that we do have like we have um Co-op a co-op at the end of my block there is cooperative housing there we do have lowcost housing in other places around and we do have um like we I’m I’m in minapur so I’m pretty close to some sea train and stuff so there is some areas and like part of the older parts of minapur that are really close to the transit that could be used I don’t think every lot I don’t think that is a good idea but I think that if it’s well planned then being able to bring in more Suites where it makes sense would be a really good idea yeah so mapor that’s in Calgary right now I’m kidding it is now yeah thank you anyways thanks for being here and no further questions for you although I do have some questions for Miss P Miss P you put up a slide towards the end of your presentation and I took a picture of it just because I wanted to see what was all on there and I I saw something on there that I don’t recall anyone ever mentioning before so you talk about um uh collaborative engagement and and on your slide you make reference to NPCs specifically um can you elaborate a little bit on what your thoughts are around that neighborhood program coordinators sure uh uh we have a neighborhood partnership coordinator in NPC um who is like an outstanding addition to you know the our Our Community Association and her name is Sarah Papo Del her a little uh shout out and and she really is amazing and she helps us understand and and navigate the city and if you know we’re recently we had we’re trying to find a key to a gate to get into an area and so she’s the person who can help us do that um uh but the scope of the NPCs does not extend to planning and development and um so I thought that using this model to assign a development liaison to each Community could uh be really helpful dmap I think is well- intended but it is really clunky and it you know it’s it’s inadequate um when uh councelor walcot first came into office um one of his assistants Alicia uh sent out um for a couple months she sent out a list of all the development applications in the community and that was actually really really helpful um but I I mean I think it was a lot of work for her and so she she didn’t really continue with that but just someone Bridging the Gap and so the NPCs are fantastic and they tell us um about a lot of things happening at the city but especially right now there is so much coming down the pipes of Planning and Development like you know just a few months away the Calgary plan is coming up um and it just seems that there’s like constantly something happening where people don’t really understand and so to to have someone alerting Community associations to just help people be aware get prepared understand what the implications are I think might help mitigate some of the like just bridge the gap between City and communities that’s an interesting idea it’s something I’ve actually approached previously from an enforcement side of things and the the advice that I was given at the time and also still currently is that the the land use bylaw is a little too complex for all folks to understand so I’m just trying to understand if you talking about using the npcr as a facilitator or looking at having a dedicated resource to walk folks through development perance um I was thinking more like the way the NPC is currently used like she doesn’t not everyone in the community has access to her like if a question comes like we have basically one point of contact with her for the most part and so I see it being the same same thing so there’s some people who are better versed um Community residents in what the line use bylaw might entail but not everyone wants to know everything but uh just so that there is that um you know knowledge in each Community I I think would would be really helpful um we have in the past asked to have a dedicated file manager and I understand that used to be the way it worked and what we were told it would be too much work for a file manager to have like one Community but then when you think of the flip side of that it’s the community volunteers that are scaring around dealing with a bunch of different people being you know a lot of development applications are no longer sent through the communities um if they are um uh permitted the communities don’t aren’t alerted and so that’s why when we have to be scouring dmap and it’s you there’s not like there’s a list where you can go and see you can’t see like what dates something’s been put on you have to be someone has to be and we have someone doing it but it’s it’s inefficient and it’s um you know scattershot um eliminate CPC only as it relates to this type of use um sorry eliminate oh yeah the Calgary Planning Commission um my understanding is that Calgary Planning Commission has approved 100% of the rcg applications that go through so eliminate CPC just in regards to the process yeah I’m not saying entirely because I’m sure there’s bigger developments where they have a lot of input but for this one if we’re trying to reduce red tape and speed up the process um they’re not really adding any value okay thanks uh use Optimum population levels not sure I understand that um well instead of talk hi there who’s on the line hi there hi there’s someone on the line your kids are adorable but if you could mute that’d be fantastic that’s good you got it okay um what I was talking about there is there’s a lot of chat about Peak population and what does that really mean uh like I know in my community uh there were families with 8 or 12 people living in a three-bedroom house with one bathroom I mean times are different but um people aren’t going to live that way anymore and so if that is the metric that we’re holding up as the gold standard it’s it’s like I’d rather um understand what is the optimum population um I’ll also use the example of maral loop maral loop has vastly exceeded their Peak population and so if that is the measuring stick why is mod Loop even um receiving any more development it just feels like that it that is trotted out as a a stick sometimes and it doesn’t really actually seem to mean anything right but I think what’s been identified through all of the discussions here is that it’s created other challenges I.E other deficiencies in infrastructure I one I’ve heard numerous times is schools and lotteries um but do you think it would be Val valuble to maybe not limit the population but look at how we can increase amenities in those communities to meet that need again it’s the well I think it depends upon what your definition of amenities is it also depends on what kind of Lifestyle people are looking for um and so I think there’s a lot of variables and you know I remember a couple of years ago I think it was during the guide book conversations um one of the city uh planners talked about saying schools are um the what we should be using to talk about a community’s health and I think at that time it was referring to a community that was having a declining population and it was used to justify increasing density um but it’s like okay well that has to apply you said it then it should apply now and if our schools are bursting at the seams and let’s not forget public schools are not the only option there are a whole pile of you know um Charter Schools private schools all kinds of alternative schools that people attend and so um you know one of the um assumptions being made in the established communities is that neighborhoods go through a decline after a couple of years like people age out and then that the whole Community like I think I’ve heard it said that young families can’t afford to buy into develop communities and I can tell you that is absolutely false um sometimes I wonder how young families can afford to buy the communities but in my block I literally have five babies within a 10 house radius of me and so that’s why I also suggested we need to do a new census because I think our census data is really out of out of date and that if we don’t know who we have living in our community that you know we’re like how do you know what amenities to offer right I think that particular issue may be dealt with in the proposed amendment by our provincial government but great okay um no further questions for me thank you okay thank you thank you let’s let’s go to councelor Wong please thank you um Miss P since you’re standing you made one comment at the very beginning about options one option was co-op housing doing more co-op housing and like everything else people will some people will like co-op housing in their communities other people would not like co-op housing community are you suggesting we put co-op housing in everywhere across the city well I’m not suggest that you don’t um I think co-op housing is actually an excellent option um that allows people I mean there’s different uh models but if there’s like a where the type of co-op housing are people allowed to buy in um and you know it’s low-income housing and and um or lower income um what what I think whether it is a multiplex or um co-op housing or any form of housing lowincome housing it needs to fit into the community and I think that’s one of the things that’s been missing from this conversation that there are in some older communities tiny Bungalows that are very affordable that um they are yes they’re a single detached home but not every single detached home is a luxury Mansion um and so with the co-op housing I think there’s ways to do it sensitively you look at a community like um Garrison woods and how there is a delineation between the multiplex housing the Row Housing the single detached housing there’s green belts there’s trees there’s it’s done beautifully it’s done respectfully so no one housing form is imposing on another and so if there’s co-op housing and it’s done with enough Green Space around it I think that that would fit in that could fit into any Community just like you don’t want to force these things on areas where they don’t really belong okay I I guess what I’m getting as garison and and some of the Greenfield communities are master plan type communities established communities um w h for example is is a community where we could probably take you know co-op housing um I’m sure there’s others in you know other words as well and and so if you don’t mind me interrupting what what I would suggest for co-op housing is some of the co-op housing that I’ve seen um has multiple units but you could also have a co-op housing model where it’s the same kind of financial model but maybe it is a single detached home in a community of single detached homes and so it doesn’t look any different and so but it but it and it Blends in and but it that offers people that opportunity okay okay um the one question I had there when you councelor shabo referred to Optimum population levels there’s a number of different things that we often look at is not just the housing density per square foot but also population but we also take a look at other sorts of measures that can achieve an ideal uh how to say ideal sort of um optimized Community is probably the best way to put it so in other words we’ve got certain infrastructure in place now it may have capacity we can add more to the equation is that what you’re getting at there not just optimize population levels but optimize other types of uh characteristics in the community uh well I I definitely think that should to be considered but in this one I was particularly taking exception with the use of peak population to um use as an argument because I I I really don’t think that’s relevant okay okay thank you thanks Miss Denson okay hi hi thank you for being here um you made reference to supporting blanket zoning in conjunction with others now I presume you’re referring to uh you know affordable blow Market housing transition housing whole bunch of others but within the context of blanket zoning or rcg itself were you also suggesting other considerations in the rcg type of option you mentioned some conditions yeah yeah so I would have to say that my my understanding of land use bylaws is relatively limited um and so what I think I think the most important point that I want to convey is that you know the housing and affordability task force puts that put forward a set of recommendations and my understanding is that those recommendations are to be implemented uh together and that they weren’t meant to be cherry-picked and so if blanket resoning is being cherry-picked from that and that’s sort of you know the only step that’s being taken I think that a lot of the concerns that have been voiced over the last week and a half will come to truition uh but I think that blanket resoning is an essential step in establishing housing types um and you know or housing across types and across the Continuum of affordability they might not be capital A affordable you know in and of themselves but they will add to to that uh spectrum of housing affordability okay what I was going to get I think I heard you say you support rcg blanket zoning but there were conditions that’s what I was trying to get at those conditions I heard one was infrastructure right so are there other conditions that you’re looking at within that plank cons zoning I see yeah so I I guess um what I what I’m trying to say is that I don’t know if if sort of my conditions would fit within the blanket resoning bylaw itself because my uh my understanding of the bylaw kind of stops there uh so where wherever it is that they’re if they’re implemented as part of the bylaw or as sort of complimentary bylaws and policies going forward um the ones that I I spoke to were as you mentioned infrastructure improvements um investments in affordable housing maintaining the tree canopy um and uh and and having some sort of whatever sort of the policy mechan mechanism is to ensure that housing will the housing that’s built will actually House people who live in Calgary uh and not you know become short-term rentals or just sort of investment holding properties okay okay um the other question I’ve got being you I believe you’re here representing the Community Association as well is that fair no I’m here representing myself okay fair enough then I won’t go there okay appreciate it thanks councelor Wong thank you let’s go to councilor sharp please thank you so much um I’m just going to pull on a thread um with Council Wong saying so you you spoke towards supporting rezoning not really understanding the land use bylaw and that’s totally okay but infrastructure so if infrastructure is key to supporting housing would you be willing to pay more on water usage if Redevelopment was happening in your community absolutely okay and do you think that would impact affordability for those places that people are moving into so when everyone comes up here and says I support if like it’s a yes yes but I have to ask that question cuz everything comes with a Next Step so everything on that list was in the affordability task force this has to come here because it’s a bylaw but there is a always a next step so for someone that says a yes but you’d be saying that you’d be okay with paying for more water usage but do you think that’ll impact the affordability of folks that need these places uh so I think I think what’s actually a lot more costly and again I mean don’t I don’t have the statistics to back this uh but I would suspect that what is more costly is having an increasing in number increasing number of people in the city who are unhoused or on the verge of being unhoused um and so I think that making uh taking a step in the direction of increasing housing Supply um yes you know if a a fourplex with uh you know with basement Suites and and garage Suites go in next door to me which is what I suspect will happen with her without this cuz as I said I live I live in a community that’s already zoned for this um you know could that increase the cost of living for me yes will that increase the cost the relative cost of living across the Spectrum uh yes it might but it but because it’s adding that housing across the Spectrum and I think uh it was uh Mr Berto that spoke to this more eloquently than and I might uh in his example of people moving across that Spectrum so if housing types are added if more people are housed that should decrease the cost of operating the city uh you know it decreases costs at all levels of government if everyone is housed um and so you know by way of that I think I think it all comes out for the better for people in the city uh and that you know increases perhaps to property tax taxes or to water bills and things like that are kind of become in the wash do you think that and it’s great that I know folks that are coming and and using all our experience and all the data they’re showing do you think the city should actually be providing that information before a decision is being made here um you know I I’ve listened to a lot of people speak and I think that the uh the level of Engagement has been a a concern it’s been a theme amongst a number of people uh for me personally I was okay with sort of the inform level of Engagement um as councilor Wong was asking I I do work for Community Association so I may have more knowledge um it’s limited my day-to-day role is not in in planning um but I still may have more knowledge than you know the majority of calgarians and I support it uh and I trust you know I know some of the people who are on the housing and affordability task task force I trust the process that you know I trust the people that were selected to be there I trust the process that they undertook and coming up with their recommendations and so I trust the recommendations so for me again sort of receiving a leaflet in my mailbox saying you know this is the plan that was okay I was okay with inform but I think for a number of people it sounds like they wanted to be engaged at a deeper level earlier on okay I hope that answers your question it does I I think what it is is that you yeah you come you come with a little bit more knowledge than maybe the average person but understanding the the cost everything comes at a cost so I think we need to balance that out and the information um thank you very much for being here appreciate it um Miss po I just have you got me thinking about um engagement and what counselor Walcott’s office did were you aware that Planning Development have like a newsletter that people can sign up for uh yes I believe I receive it do you think that would be beneficial if Planning and Development maybe put some sort of a link to what’s coming and then you could take that information and send it through the community um I think there could be some value in that but what’s missing is the dialogue okay and that’s what I really value about the the um the N or Sarah or NPC is like she attends our meetings she understands us we understand her we’ve developed a relationship we trust each other and so it is like we like she is value added for our community so there’s no question information communication is important but I think it is actually someone who it’s like a two-way communication tool that that we need okay perfect I just was wondering what your opinion was at but that’s it thank you thank you let’s go to council Thell please thank you mayor uh Miss po I saw the it said 870 people um approximately um I think our survey was it was 57 people um but I think what you’re maybe thinking about is I think I said 88% uh responded in favor okay I looked at uh your community and there’s about about 3,500 people so that this means 25% people responded to it so what are other 75% people saying about what is being proposed councelor doly wall um of Interest the uh survey conducted by the city being used to uh show how many people in the city are in favor of blanket resoning I believe actually has fewer respondents than this survey does okay okay my next question is just for my knowledge what is your definition of density that’s a really good question I guess I’ve never really thought about the actual definition of density in what what context to you are you asking that I just want to understand because there’s people sitting maybe in this chamber who say I don’t comprehend what density is I mean I think density would just because my ward is the most dense W right my w has 3.6 people living per unit and some people just sit here and they think I don’t know what density is so I W understand from you what your definition of density is I I think it would be the um you can look at it either through a a lens of population or you can look at at it through a lens of housing units I just want to understand yeah and so what’s also interesting comparing your ward say to W8 W8 has a lot of I think uh single units and this is where sometimes I think the housing um people per housing is a bit skewed because if you’re not comparing apples with apples um and that’s why I also think it would be useful for us to have an updated census because um like I say there’s lots of kids and and the neighborhood and I don’t know if they’re always reflected because what I understand from your answer is for you and I could be wrong it’s a number of units for me it’s the number of people that’s why I’m saying we are already densified we’re very densified but you are saying and I could be wrong like I said it’s a number of units I think it is the um the proximity of the units it’s the number of units um as they relate to the land okay so I yeah so I think I think it’s a combination of people and units yeah and I like what you said we need census City census but you also said based on the Sens census we would know who is living in our community for me the census is more important how many people are living in the community why do you want to say that who is living in the community why is that important I was I think I was looking at that the perspective of for say for school projections and things like that so we actually know the ages of who lives in the community and we have an idea of what their needs might be obviously if you have more kids you need soccer programs you need Parks you need schools um and I don’t think that the numbers that we’re using reflect the current um demographic that we are observing okay great my last question is number five you said eliminate the CPC why um well it was and it’s not entirely like I think the CPC has an important role to play it was my comment was about the idea of removing red tape um and that if I was the point I was trying to make is citizens are not red tape citizen input is not red tape and the public hearing is a really important step that must be retained and decision making should not be given to business entities who are driven by profit Mo motive and self-interest developers are not focused on community input uh Community context or the well-being of existing or future residents so they should not be making decisions about where what and how Redevelopment occurs and if the CPC is approving 100% of these applications there’s no point in going through that process like they don’t add any value so I’d rather lose the CPC and retain the public input okay great no um thank you so much thank you for all the answers thank you mayor thank you I see no further questions for this panel so thank you all for joining us today we really appreciated your presentations I’m now going to see who’s available from 180 181 and 184 and then I’m going to Pepper in the folks that are here from other panels I haven’t forgotten about you so do we have from 180 Juan Gomez okay so from panel 181 do we have Sandra Lavoy hi you can come on up and have a seat do we have Bob SCH do we have Sarah papait how about Tom spencley hi I’m here hi thank you do we have Brennan hoe hi please come on up and have a seat okay and then we will also have from panel 91 Susan Fox Susan are you on the line I can’t remember if Susan Fox was on the line or in person hi Susan are you on the line okay what about Gregory Scott finny I please come on up and have a seat and Brad Young yes I’m here okay so this is the order that will go in it’ll be sandre Lavoy Tom spencley Brandon Hoy then Gregory Scott finny and then Brad young uh for the other folks that was Susan Fox um CJ FATZ uh Ed Adia Hart Rob Jang and Owen Kavanaugh you’ll be first up after the dinner break so anybody who’s on the line right now could you please mute yourself and when I call you you can go off of mute okay so let’s start off with sorry what time do the dinner break end dinner well it depends on when it starts more than likely it’ll be either 7 or 7:15 I will let you know once this panel goes okay thank you okay you’re welcome okay so let’s go with sandre Lavoy please mayor gandek and counselors good afternoon my name is sandre lawa in the last 40 years I’ve lived all over Calgary in different types of homes based on my needs and finances at certain life stages I’m here to defend the home and City I love despite being tired of constantly needing to fight for my rights due to encroaching neomarxism in Canada for the record I am not against increased home building but I am opposed to blanket resoning which destroys the fabric of community doesn’t deliver the stated promises and gives free reign to developers and globalists and I’m disappointed I’m disappointed that homeowners like me are Accused by previous presenters of being selfish out of touch phobes and no one on Council has called out the use of Majora of labels such as nimas I am not saying not in my backyard I am saying not in Calgary’s backyard for everyone’s sake it’s not selfish to want to preserve trees and green spaces to protect the rights of young and old to have a voice and a choice to live in safe affordable accessible neighborhoods with character order and certainty to have privacy parking infrastructure good mental health not everyone wants to or can live a pedestrian lifestyle or wants to be a landlord or live in a transient neighborhood blanket resoning is nonsensical hodg Podge divisive chaos and it shoves Humanity on top of humanity Calgary is a beautiful city as a direct result of Decades of orderly development I’m disappointed in this Council for Bowing to unconstitutional government overreach federally and NGO manufactured Mayhem globally they create a crisis tell us to jump and you ask how high you work for us the taxpayers and your job is not social engineering the moral response to a bribe is you don’t take it I’m disappointed in councelors who keep voting in lockstep against the wishes of the majority and who believe the public is misinformed and not intelligent enough to vote in a pleite these hearings prove that there are thousands of informed Innovative calgarians who have presented excellent data and solutions and are willing to work with councel I’m disappointed in counselors who are modern-day lukewarm Leo Deans not knowing which way to vote it’s not that difficult to choose between freedom and tyranny don’t be be fooled that you can pass this de densification with tweaks and amendments no amount of lipstick is going to make this chicken beautiful I’m disappointed that many on this Council want to sell out Calgary to an international Marxist agenda blanket resoning is a poorly veiled attempt to enforce globalist smart cities maybe you should just be transparent and go straight to a ple site on 15-minute cities we see how the votes are cast I do appreciate those few counselors who are in independent critical thinkers and represent their constituents well in the end you must completely reject blanket resoning and the federal bribe fix internal processes and work with calgarians to create density and affordability where it makes sense if a pleite is revived calgarians must be provided with unbiased information in plain language no spin voting no will prove your allegiance to your constituents rather than third parties and rebuild trust with calgarians who are now fully awake if you vote Yes I guess you have 228 million reasons however any reward rewards you hope to gain by voting yes are temporary like every other human being you can’t take it with you you can only take your soul and leave behind the Legacy you are faced with making a choice for Calgary’s future we all face judgment for our life choices so your vote matters more than you realize in Mark 8:36 Jesus said for what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul I have some faith in this Council but I have lots of faith in God who can turn the evil you mean against us into good as you cast your vote I urge you to consider if it is rooted in light or in darkness we all serve a master which Master are you serving I pray God grants you wisdom discernment and humility thank you thank you very much for your Pres presentation let’s go to Tom spenley please hello my name is Tom spenley and uh been a long time many a few of you on counil councel already know who I am and know what I stand for I’m not pleased about this I’m in opposition to it but I’m also not adverse to having everybody get have their say on how they want to decide how the city is going to go I’m not sure I could make a better presentation than the one the lady just before me did it was well done and I agree 100% the legacy of what you’ll do will be living with the ref for the city for the rest of it for the rest of time because in my opinion we should take this to a picate and I don’t want eight members of council taking the direction they have while the other five seems to been chying or choosing light of the best way to proceed but I I think we need to go to a pite and if we don’t it’s just going to be you’ll never ever put a lid on this of this issue it’s always going to flare up one way or another 71% of the people who Evan uh Spencer uh sent a memo to agree with what we’re saying that this need to be Revisited I’m not sure with lady a couple of calls or uh points of view L came up 88% in her writing but as we know that that the 71% was done uh in a proper pleite or a proper not a pleite but a proper quot this 88% thing I find hard to believe but that’s that’s why we need to go to the P site so I can wax on all day long about where there tree cover there’s too much concrete too much density too much this too much that but you’ve heard it you heard it all for the last week and a half you don’t need me to repeat what we already know what you need to do is govern yourself accordingly because if you don’t then unfortunately I can see a lot of you will be replaced in the next Council that’s all I can add and I appreciate your time thank you thank you for your presentation let’s go to Brenan Howie please hey good evening uh city council I’d just like to start off with a land acknowledgement here treaty 7 territory take a moment of silence for that haven’t heard that enough uh during these talks I’d also like to acknowledge uh treaty 46 8 and 10 um I come from Saskatoon Saskatchewan my name is Brennon Hoy like I said I’m a mechanical engineer by trade um I have a certificate in Technology Innovation from the University of s got one my mother was the director of lab services for the Sha she’s just retired in 20120 I worked on a project that made emergency use ventilators for the province of Saskatchewan I’m speaking today on behalf of Millennials Generation Y why are we doing this um I vote nay to blanket rezoning why Generation Y um a blanket is a Band-Aid solution how long have you guys been sitting on this data 10 years 10 years 10 seconds you build properties on SES specific data you don’t build prop properties based on blankets so my grandfather Murray couch he is a war veteran a helicopter pilot World War II I grew up in Montgomery Saskatoon saskatchwan veteran Community it’s very ingrained to me how a structure is important and uh it’s fundamentals to society just speaking from the heart you know like I I couldn’t prepare for this meeting obviously I’m on huge capital projects right now based out of the calary office um lots of them confidential um yeah just looking forward to Toronto losing against Boston tonight um density equals mass over volume that’s a metric if you have any questions I’m here thank you thank you for your presentation let’s go to Gregory Scott finny please good evening everyone um born and raised here in Calgary was born on August 21st 1981 I want to start by taking the time to thank the mayor and the city for granting me the opportunity to to share my input on this critical public policy decision thank you your worship and thank you all city councilors I’m here to Proclaim my support for rezoning for housing for the following reasons it will provide a greater supply of affordable housing for economically disadvantaged calgarians and middleclass calgarians in a time of critical need and an evidence-based analysis substantiates this claim when I read the pamphlet sent to my residents uh to come and address City Council on this issue it stated the following and I quote a secondary suite and backyard Suite could be built on the same property with no parking requirements for backyard Suites end of quote as someone who’s previously addressed Calgary City Council in favor of secondary Suite legalization out of concern for a lack of affordable housing in the past the proposed rezoning would increase that Supply in a time of very high demand secondly an evidence-based analysis examining other municipalities in Sweden Finland New Zealand and the United States of America corroborate the proposed course of action being pursued at this time as the 2021 article from the vat Institute of economic research titled Citywide effects of new housing Supply evidence for moving the chains States on page three and I quote new housing built in expensive areas of the city does indeed primarily house the better off however the moving chains triggered by these new units reach middle and low-income neighborhoods quickly within a year or two our register data also allows us to show that low-income individuals are part of the moving chains this is direct r Feld preference evidence that low-income individuals in the city area also benefit from new expense of housing even when the new units are allocated to individuals higher up in the income distribution end of quote further corroboration for this claim stems from an April 1st 2024 news article out of New Zealand titled Auckland unitary plan improving housing affordability research shows which states that and I quote auckland’s strategy to handle growth for upzoning is improving housing affordability new research says the study from the University of Auckland indicates that about 22,000 new homes consented between 2016 and 2021 can be directly attributed to the city’s unitary plan end of quote I also want want to say that I think that blanket rezoning could help minimize urban sprawl at a time when protecting biodiversity is critical for all all citizens of the global Community as someone who believes that the development and application of public policy should serve the greatest good for the greatest number of people based on what the best available evidence and data indicates I support going forward with the blanket rezoning I certainly recognize that any public policy objective has its drawbacks trying to do the right thing trying to accomplish an objective isn’t going to be perfect in its implementation there will be some issues there will be some struggles but in thinking about this and in performing a hypothetical cost benefit analysis I think that the benefits of blanket rezoning for the city are greater than the costs and on those grounds I once again am here to Proclaim my support for rezoning for housing moving forward uh in conclusion I just want to say thank you again to uh city council and thank you again your worship for granting me the opportunity to speak I feel very privileged to live in one of the nicest countries and one of the most peaceful and prosperous countries on planet Earth we certainly have our issues it’s not perfect here but we are very fortunate to live in this country thank you very much thank you for your presentation let’s go to Brad young please hi um my name is Brad young I live in Sundance I’m extremely concerned about what the blanket resoning would do to our community our community is designated as an R1 family housing I’d like to highlight the concerning information I learned at the midson school town hall and the details the counselor and Calgary planning department confirmed first I’d like to mention my first home experience and how I managed when I moved to Calgary I rented for almost 10 years first Apartments then tow houses my furniture was all used my end tables were milk crates and cardboard boxes covered with BL blankets my TV stand was cinder blocks on boards I had a very well paying engineering job but I still rented for years later with my wife it seems nowadays everybody feels they have to have everything brand new and to be able to buy a home immediately I really wanted to own a home but it took 10 years of savings after I saved a 25% down payment I bought an R1 single family home I did not want to buy or live near a condo townhouse duplex or anything resembling a multif family home I could have went to a community zone for these types of homes which were much cheaper I didn’t want to deal with the traffic issues parking issues privacy issues lack of green space and sadly the crime and attitude those living in multif family areas that I lived in I lived in and saw these issues however I didn’t want to live in these conditions again when I went to the midson school town hall a few weeks ago several of the people lived in areas that have multif family housing they have seen issues with parking increased traffic increased crime and those not taking care of their property they also notice many of the people worked for companies that supplied them with company trucks this added to the parking problems we don’t want that in our community at the Midtown Hall the planning department said they there are currently a few new communities that are focusing on building multif family units I drove through Sean the other day and was quite amazed at how many M multif family houses there were being built but it was planned that way the Calgary planning department then stated that an additional three communities were planned however city council stopped all the work on the three new commu communities why the planning department said they were told to focus on resoning all of Calgary Instead at the same town hall and recently on the news it was stated that the federal government will give Calgary $220 million if they approve the blanket resoning of Calgary maybe federal bride any stop planning for the three new communities so it seems city council and the mayor have no concerns for th those of us living in the R1 single family communities and when three new communities may have been sufficient to meet the needs of multif family housing at the midson school town hall the planning department then said all of Calvary is planning to be resed except for Mount Royal apparently Mount Royal is very special and they can stay our one single family housing if M Royal is so special why can’t communities like Lake Sundance get the same approval homes in our community are in the 30y old range they may need upgrades and Renovations however they don’t need to be torn down as they are solid homes in older communities more City Center and in core houses can be 60 80 or 100 years old in those communities it could make sense to tear down or rebuild however listening to many panel speeches I’ve learned many people in those areas don’t want blanket resoning in their communities either for those older communities already already have that multif family zoning so this is happening now my community will have 60 80 or 100 gear homes but not anytime soon thank you very much thank you for your presentation let’s go to questions for this panel starting with councelor shabbo please uh for Miss Lavoy first of all I want to say uh great job great presentation you didn’t look nervous at all thanks um you still shaking you did a great job anyways um you I thought I heard you say that you don’t think and maybe I’m I mistook what you said if we tried to amend it do you think that’s something we should consider I that’s what I thought there’s so much wrong with it like the very premise the basis of it like you’re starting you’re putting lipstick on the chicken okay so you think we should just scrap it for now you think we should look at other options like maybe looking at local area plans looking at things more com yeah I think that two things one people are are conflating densification with blanket resoning they’re not the same thing you can densify without taking away the certainty and the rights of voice people’s voices for having certain types of building building forms in the neighborhood next door what ever down the road um you can densify without blanket taking away all that um and the other thing is um you just um if you if you start from scratch like the local area plans you’re you’re keeping you’re keeping the control here you’re keeping the control with with the people who care about Calgary the most it’s not it’s it’s decentralizing as opposed to putting it in the hands of people who don’t care about the neighborhood don’t care about the city and um have an agenda yeah obviously there’s a lot of things for us to take into consideration when we’re trying to move towards more greater sustainability from our City’s perspective and I’ve been blown away at the amount of information education in Ingenuity uh expertise of people who have come up to this Podium a lot more educated about planning than me um and I think you have a plethora of of talent here and I don’t see why you wouldn’t use it and and worked with calgarians who care right okay um if you mind my asking which quadrant of the city you live in Ward six Ward six okay all right thanks no further questions for me thank you for being here thank you thank you I don’t see any other questions for this panel so thank you all very much for being with us we appreciate your presentations today um I’m going to find out if we’ve still got a few people on the line with us do we have CJ Fitz right there you know what we’re going to hear from you before weing so come on up have a seat do we have Susan Fox all right what about idia Hart you’re here why don’t you come on up to we’ll hear from you before we break okay so we’re going to have these two presenters before we break um Rob Jang are you still on the line and Owen Kavanaugh are you still with us okay let’s go to these two speakers and when we return we’ll look for those folks and we will also go into panel 184 so for now let’s hear from CJ Fitz please I go by CJ I was born in Calgary I live in lak view w 11 the residents of Calgary live in a wonderful City we and our past city planners are responsible for that as a result more people want to live here than our infrastructure can handle at 80 years of age I got into politics due to governmental mismanagement and overspending the high debt being created cannot be burdened on future Generations the housing crisis we are facing was forc fostered by government printing money overspending creating inflation allowing massive amounts of immigrants refugees overseas students and guest workers without giving effective consideration as to whether the country’s infrastructure could address their needs Agenda 21 and agenda 2030 are driving in a lot of other organizations like the unley and others who pretend to be helping the World by creating the idea that all wealthy Nations need to sacrifice so others can improve the opposite is true the more we do the more we produce the more we can help others Municipal plans drafted by partners for climate protection are brought forward by unelected City staff and emphasize un director consultation is needed with people whose regions tried this as it has been a disaster for them no level of government has the authority to implement foreign mandates policies treaties or any agreements that violate the Canadian constitution chter of rights and freedoms Bill of Rights or coronation oath you could be held personally responsible official plans based on sustainable development restrict private property rights and severances Target Mobility Drive future popul population growth of to selected settlement areas and reduce tax revenue and services to smaller M municipalities results seen are that towns have turned into Villages hamlets and ghost towns once in families for Generations rural homes have been sold off to foreign investors the land is left unoccupied and cities are overwhelmed with Health Care homelessness housing and mental health crisises Madame mayor as you are part of the United Nations Covenant of Mayors the world economic forum and in agreement with Trudeau whose agenda are you serving is your Allegiance elsewhere we need a mayor and counselors that have the citizens of Calgary and surrounding areas best interest in mind anyone whose commitment is elsewhere you need to step down I live on a street comprised mainly of duplexes we have a parking problem increasing the occupancy of properties will create grer Park parking and other problems causing a negative effect blanket resoning takes away Calgary home rights and does not deal with causes the therefore problems will continue so this blanket resoning should be scrapped and more appropriate Solutions taken in what world does the federal government know what zoning is best in our City none City Zoning is not a federal jurisdiction Federal coion forcing blanketry zoning is reprehensible there should be no strings attached to any federal financial allocation it is our money this council is spending our money disrespectfully you have committed 87 billion or over a 65,000 debt to every person in Calgary for a bogus climate emergency not the city’s jurisdiction I don’t have $65,000 plus to cover this be phisically responsible don’t spend what we don’t have by the way we don’t have a climate emergency as Canada cleans 10 times more CO2 than it produces making us already at much better than Net Zero CO2 is necessary for plant and food growth I am a low-income senior on a fixed income after this council’s approval tax hike my monthly tax payment increased $50 $59 a month or over 27% greater now I must do without something else to pay for that this blanket Ros resoning will also increase property values which will also worsen my situation and taxes instead of being physic physically responsible you are spending like drunken Sailors this has resulted in prices of housing transportation and food increasing beyond what many can afford if we spent like you we would be bankrupt yes thank you Miss Fitz you’re just at time thank you for your presentation vote no thank you let’s go to ID Hart please oh you have it up oh awesome thank you okay uh I am here representing the mamitas group we are a group of immigrant mothers of small children under the age of six we came to Canada from South America Eastern Europe and Asia Among Us Engineers teachers HR professionals accountants International students our ages range between late 20s and early 40s most of us still wanting to be referred as young moms some of our Members Own houses in Lake communities others have been renting for years myself I own a home in a community that is being resed and and a rental in a community that is already rcg zoned when the resoning subject came up this year we were told that this is one of the recommended strategy is to address housing affordability we did our research and we do not agree today I want to present factual evidence of how abson has been attempted in other cities and what it has achieved short answer no not all research demonstrates that up zoning increases affordability next slide please uh we have Oakland we have heard many people quote Oakland As the Star Story of upzoning a huge success and to certain extent it was however even the study that demonstrated its impact was quick to point out that not all Juris jurisdictions should expect the same outcome for example miniapolis they abolished the single family only zoning in 2020 in 2022 there were only 60 units built annually the City of Calgary wants to add a thousand a year in contrast in 2023 actually the Supreme Court declared the housing plan was in violation of environmental law and is no longer enforcable Washington Upson was implemented with exceptions for homeowners associations and interest communities Calgary instead has a blanket resoning California abson legislation was strongly rejected even and failed after even three attempts Atlanta in 2021 resoning proposal by former mayor and City Planning commissioner Tim Keen who was recently hired by the City of Calgary there’s actually a Bloomberg article that called it the housing proposal that is quietly tearing apart Atlant ATA the issuance of the plan in a non-transparent confusing fashion fed even more controversy some residents of Northern Atlanta even lobbied to form a new city if resoning was approved the city adjusted based on feedback they approved A reduced version promised more public input and the mayor and team left Chicago there’s a study by freemark that analyzed resoning effects from 2010 to 2018 the conclusion was there is no effect from zoning changes on housing Supply housing prices Rose in areas that were upzoned short-term local level impact of upzoning are higher property prices and taxes but no additional construction next slide please there was an article by Wendel Cox in 2021 that looked at 53 major US housing markets it determined that higher Urban densities are associated with worse housing affordability aboring in high demand economical areas will not have any effect because migration will still continue Supply will never keep up it was also mentioned that the densification of Vancouver has not improved housing affordability in fact rent and house prices are so unaffordable there that people from BC are migrating to Calgary next slide please in summary absor research is not conclusive actually there is a strong evidence against it absor created an overall modest increase in the amount of housing housing produced with the exception of Oakland increase of land value there are more property taxes which is a lot of times passed on as rent the common denominator though among all of the cities that I mentioned public controversy and conflict amongst groups of citizens so what do we have at the end the developers getting richer citizens will pay more for smaller residences the city will get more taxes and there might not be even a change to housing affordability next slide please so how do we uh what do we learn from the examples vote no to the current blanket reson plan scale back pilot resoning on the transit Corridor only don’t meet with each Community to tell them what you have decided to do instead ask them what they would like to do that is what democracy is all about and be honest with the expectations for an experiment students and renters are desperate they will take anything even in an experiment that has failed in other cities in conclusion no we are not turning our back on young people by rejecting blanket resoning no the solution to the housing problem is not basic econom omic supply and demand Eon one1 if that was the case all cities where resoning was implemented would have the data to back it its success what we actually saying is Upson upzoning is an experiment the data behind it is not conclusive by selling it to your citizens as a tool to end the housing crisis you are given them false hope this called solution this so-call solution has no guarantees to work and it will likely make things worse time thank you very much for your presentation I don’t see any question for the uh speakers on this panel so thank you both very much for joining us today we appreciate your presentations uh we’re going to take a break in just a minute but I’ll let you know who we will be seeking when we come back we’ll be looking for Susan Fox Rob Jang Owen Kavanaugh and on panel 184 we’ll be looking for Brendan David Wesley brindle Trang fam Frank Anderson and Robert zubkowski so we will be let me ask council do you need until 7:15 or can we come back at 7:00 okay we need till 7:15 we will be back here at 7:15 everyone thank you e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e hi everybody welcome back to public hearing Madam clerk could we do a roll call please thank you mayor on the role councelor wiess here councelor car councel Shau pres councel car here thank you councelor sho pres councelor Chu here councelor dong here councelor Dolly wall councelor mlan I’m here councel Manan I’m here councelor Penner I’m here councel pman here councelor sharp I’m here councelor Spencer here councelor Walcott I’m here councelor Wong I’m here and mayor gond I’m here thank you mayor all right okay so we are going to do this let’s figure out who we’ve got here from older panels from panel 91 do we have Susan Fox Okay from panel 177 do we have Rob Jang there thank you from 178 do we have Owen Kavanaugh perfect from 78 do we have Olga Knight yes we do from 18 Douglas Ferguson perfect from 181 Sarah papait perfect so that is five people we are going to turn you into a panel folks in just one minute I’m going to see who we’ve got from panel 184 do we have Brendan David yeah okay perfect uh do we have Wesley brindle I’m here perfect do we have Trang fam do we have Frank Anderson do we have Robert zabowski okay then let’s go to panel 187 do we have Janice low do we have Tammy Evans hi there’s someone else on the line i s you say that again there’s someone else on the line I missed your last name Bob it’s Bob schal from panel 181 Bob schal from 181 okay gotcha do we have of a Katarina Petrovic do we have Helen Yu how about Cassandra mahalic okay then here’s what we’re going to do for the first panel that we’re calling up we’re going to go with Rob Jang Owen Kavanaugh Olga Knight Douglas Ferguson and Sarah papait if you are in the audience you can take seats up at the front there near the presenter’s table uh we will go with those five folks first and then following them it will be Brendan David Wesley Brendle Tammy Evans and Bob SCH and we’ll see if we can find a fifth person at that point but for now let’s get Rob Jang to start us off please okay hello council members and mayor my name is Rob Zang I’m 29 years old and I own a single detached home with my fiance and W 6 we bought it in 2023 when we moved from Winnipeg Alberta called and we came I’m here to speak in favor of rezoning for the sake of housing affordability thank you all for taking the time to listen to us event I’m going to take the next few minutes to address my opposition if any of them are still listening at this hour I’m a professional engineer and a fiance as a registered nurse we both have a high combined income and RBC pre approved us for $550,000 go on realtor.ca and see what house you can buy for that price there’s nothing the only reason we can afford a health was due to a gener generous donation from the bulad the bank of mom and dad but what kind of society are we living in where two young professionals can’t even afford a house unless their parents are rich I sleep soundly every night because I know I own a house I live in and I’m good I wish I can share this feeling with everyone one and it saddens saddens me to know that I can’t have any of you tried to buy a house since the pandemic I doubt it let me paint your a picture it begins with the inflated asking price then comes the weekend where 20 people show up at the open house next the blind bidding the unconditional offers and dishonest Realtors the Heartbreak when you lose and then comes the indecision do I fight the bullet and go way over asking maybe it’ll cool down 2 years if interest rates drop then I can get a higher loan but what if that jacks up housing prices again what should I do who can I ask no one no one knows the answer but you don’t know how this feels because it’s a sellers market and you only read the headline housing unaffordability is like climate change no one solution can solve it but we can distill the core problem down to one sentence too much demand is chasing too little Supply if increasing Supply is the only tenable way to improve the situation then we have to try health prices will still rise but the velocity will decrease and instead of reaching affordability in 10 years maybe we can do it in seven it’s small constellation to those struggling but we got to take our winds where we can the criticism that new Ro houses are unaffordable compared to the existing house is distorted the new roow house you see are expensive because it take the developer a lot of time and energy just to get that one property reone for the new use of course they’re going to go big and increase their margin to make up for all the effort they put in we also cannot quote up Zone select neighborhoods where it’s appropriate unquote does your team have a consensus on what appropriate means if we try to do this we’re all coming back here to have another four weeks of public hearings as counterintuitive as it seems blanket res zoning is the most Fair way to implement this but here’s an olive branch there are some good points from opposition that can get behind parking is an issue our city is very car dependent but theoretically speaking living close Clos to work should lead to Shorter commutes which opens up options for cycling or walking and increased density makes public transit a more financially viable option for the city theoretically speaking car dependency should decrease and who can even afford a new car these days garbage is also a problem there are some gnarly pictures up there and I’ll be annoyed too if I saw that every week but I don’t think this is a problem that are beautiful and talented Council can’t solve and I’m sure they will commit their absolute attention in addressing these challenges but if your beef with the bylaw is that the character of your neighborhood is going to change I’m sorry but I think you should just get over it did change this country has been building suburbs and cacks for the last 70 years this country has reached its limit and I really don’t think your life’s going to change very much from this bylaw your financial future is secure but to those homeowners who support this change you have my heartfelt gratitude so councilors mayor Mr pans I would like your attention again we you see the opposition and it’s Fierce you may lose your seat over a yes vote because the stat truth is my generation is kind of apathetic to this kind of thing but I care and other people young people who you’ve heard care deeply about this issue housing unaffordability is an urgent crisis affecting young and vulnerable people therefore we need to have the same urgency in our response we are the economic future of the city but ask so I selfish you ask you do it for us thank you thank you for your presentation let’s go to Owen Kavanagh please hello everyone I’m 21 years old born and raised in Calgary during this hearing I’ve had the privilege to hear many thoughtful uh nuanced contentions from calgarians in opposition of this measure and I appreciate that very much some have cited confusing development guidelines lack of transparency very technical language beyond my vocabulary but at its heart I worry I hear a cynicism that troubles me things like Calgary is a city for cars Calgary is a city in which we Drive Calgary is spread out that’s just the way it is we were built after the automobile of course Calgary is a city with a Suburban character that that last one’s very interesting the character of Calgary there’s a lot of talk about this character about defending and preserving it but who is it really does this character own a home upon Mackenzie Lake or do they occupy a rental unit above 17th Avenue does this character share a block with their fellow homeowners or do they share a bathroom with their fellow students does this character worship at a church a gara a synagogue a mosque do they worship at all and out of the now over 150 languages spoken here in Calgary which does this character call their mother tongue the answer is that our character possesses but one coherent trait and it’s been here since the beginning since before the beginning it’s saw Brookfield Place overtake the bow to become our tallest skyscraper it saw the first operation of the sea trains it saw the street cars and the trolley buses running the maral loop built and dismantled in favor of automobile centricity it saw a great fire take out a large portion of downtown prompting calgarians to adapt by rewriting their character building out a Sandstone rather than Timber from the first Sawmill upon the bo River to the first million residents from the trials the triumphs the pain the betrayals all those who’ made made their lives and all our community members whove fallen and the wounds yet to heal this character presided over it all I believe that our motto of onward is more than a fancy platitude slapped onto our sea train cars before I leave I’d like to read an exerpt from this Livewire article stacking up the submissions for Calgary Citywide rezoning public hearing published April 21st 2024 it’s an analysis of the written public submissions up to that point from 5,515 calgarians uh 4,300 when you remove the uh serial submitters as the article puts it and I quote it’s critical to note the data cated cannot be relied upon to be a representative sample of calgarian opinions on the topic it’s merely a tally of those who felt compelled to submit in advance of the public hearing it’s also a collection of unique submissions not necessarily always citizens but includes organizations that may represent tens hundreds or thousands of calgarians who may or may not have made individual submissions to counsel and to my fellow calgarians I urge you in this hour of Crisis upon meeting our character upon looking it in the eye and shaking its hand and coming to recognize it as a familiar face heed caution for like the rivers that shaped this city you’re gazing upon a body that changes es and flows from the past to the present and what we see before us may merely be our own reflection staring back from its Waters thank you thank you for your presentation let’s go to Olga Knight please mayor counselors my name is alga Knight and I’m a senior and I’m a renter as my rent has greatly increased a lot I decided that I would look at buying a house where my costs would be less volatile I looked at several bungalows in different communities over the last two years that were all sold over list and within a few days of listing I finally found um two Bungalows that had lots of trees a lot of perennials lovely garden and uh one that needed a little bit of TLC I was excited both were listed under $575,000 how however both unfortunately both were were purchased over list well over list and both were bought by Builders the builders took no time to board the houses up and then proceed to tear them down and remove every single tree and perennial from the property on one lot the Builder put four tow houses all priced over 600,000 way more than the asking price for the Bungalow that I looked at on the other lot the Builder is putting up eight town homes absolutely no yards no green space and the cheapest unit in that development is $700,000 can you imagine where the 24 garbage Recycling and compost bins will be placed you say that Citywide resoning will make it cheaper however each of these town homes are more expensive than the bungle that was torn down you say that city-wide resoning will get more people into homes and give people more options for housing that is only true for people who have the money to pay and is completely dependent on the Builder’s Financial bottom line for profit not for the needs of the potential buyers and certainly not for the concern of the neighbors impacted by height and other issues of the development guess where those garbage Recycling and compost bins end up you say that it will decrease rents that’s not what I’m finding many town homes and condos are being bought to rent out one small unit that I looked at in the development called Crown Park was bought from by someone from Toronto and a management company was was uh was renting it out and it was being offered for $3500 a month how may I ask all of you would blanket resoning make it more affordable for someone like me and how does it help the very people that you profess that you’re trying to help I am one of hundreds of people who are pric instead of the market actually because of the resoning bungaloo are a target market or Target property for Builders as they can quickly maximize their returns so your blanket resoning is doing the opposite of what you intend those Bungalows are the very thing that firsttime home buyers and seniors like me can afford so you are placing Us in direct competition with Builders with Deep Pockets and we don’t stand a chance to own a home that is honestly what I’m finding and that’s what’s happening something for you to consider thank you thank you for your presentation let’s go to Douglas Ferguson please thank you my name is Douglas Ferguson and I really appreciate everybody coming here to hear this is talking because it’s it really glads my heart because I know that everybody here is following the regulations that people have made for this very purpose and it just it’s very good um also I know that you guys have a lot of concerns this is a big city and there’s a lot of things happening and there’s a lot of external pressures on you you know you have to bring in all these people and you’ve got to figure out how to get all these people in this area and I I just want to say you have a power to say no we don’t have to take in as many people as you want we’re not ready because it’s very important to take people in that you can actually help not to just Warehouse them into houses and and to make a high density you can say no to the powers outside like I know that true all says we have to have so many people you have power to say no I just want to make sure you guys know that you have power to say I want my city you you have to have a vision for your city and what is our vision I know that every one of you guys want to have to leave a legacy of Something Beautiful not something that’s a mess and I know that why else would you be here and I think it’s very important to to really consider the vision of what we have for the city what makes a city it really is community I was just over in uh the library you know cuz I came earlier and uh there’s a recess and I talked to a woman I hope I get her name like kameka anyway she had all these uh badges on her um on her on her outfit and I asked her and she was saying yeah it’s my family she works in the library there and she’s so proud of her family and that’s what really makes Community is family and having Community now if we have high density housing it’s just apartments and it’s not family and if you don’t have family what do you have you don’t have people are disconnected and people are not having a community and so I think it’s really important that we really consider not destroying the single the single uh house for a family in our communities because it’s what it makes our communities special and uh that’s one of the big things and I I know that if you guys just said no to all these people that are basically being dumped on Calgary and dumped in the province you know um there because if you just have people just coming in I I’ve looked in uh if you go to the warehouses areas there’s uh the biggest contractors there are for lease and for sale that’s what you see all the time and we really have to wait till we have some real jobs coming in not just jobs making infrastructure we need jobs besides that and we can say no I just want you to realize that you can say no also you know I think we really have to consider like sometimes I was talking where we have civil engineering but you know in in the council here and people that are well educated but I was just watching a show about Dubai and the tallest building in the world doesn’t have Plumbing they have to they have to sh have truck loads to ship out the and it was made by Engineers that knew how to make the tallest building in the world so I’m just saying make sure you know what you’re doing before you start pumping in a lot of people into communities because um I I you know like here here’s some great Engineers but they didn’t have a place to they didn’t have sewer systems and and they didn’t have and we just went through a problem with with Power Systems in the winter time and so that is another you like we we are we have to realize iiz what’s going on and not just think that we can just snap our fingers and everything will be good we have to be able to know that things take work and things take uh and I know that you guys do I know and there’s a lot of pressures on you but I I’m just saying I am concerned because I see people’s lives being destroyed or they broken families even 20 years ago Mr Ferguson yes you’re just at okay thank you for your thank you for the time let’s go to Sarah papait please you can just click through it slowly I’m not reading off of it so if that’s okay if you could let us know next slide when you would like us to advance that would be helpful okay thank you hello mayor and Council my name is Sarah Potch and I am a constituent and taxpayer in one I am an impacted body of your trial for rcg zoning next slide I currently live on Bo Crescent in Northwest in the house I purchased in 2006 shortly after my marriage I’m raising my two children in this home and I have lovingly renovated this home I’m an avid Gardener and my husband and I bought this house in some respects for the house number of bedrooms number of bathrooms but the real reason we bought this house was that it had a large south facing lot on a beautiful street with mature trees a lovely place close to downtown where we could raise a family walk our dogs and be part of a community knowing that we were buying next to a corner lot we researched that what the zoning was so we would be prepared for what would eventually be built there next slide over the years we have been good friends with our neighbors that lived in the cute little house next door with the tenants in the basement having multiple neighbors was not a problem and the idea that a cute fourplex would one day be built there didn’t bother us in the least at that time you could build on I believe 45% of the lot and there were many others in our neighborhood that are both taste tasteful and functional next slide please we thought maybe they would build executive duplexes as they were a fad for a while they ended up too expensive to be honest we were very excited about the prospects of the Rejuvenation and beautification of our beloved boness we used to walk down our streets and imagine all the lovely changes that would take place in our close-knit friendly Community as young families started moving in bonus has transformed quite a bit in the last 17 years and not always for the best over 17 years we’ve had quite a few neighbors next door next slide please who owned it some who owned it some who rented we were good friends with most of them our last neighbor a single mom of two tells me she needs to move as she is being Ren evicted our daughters used to play together and we were sad to see her leave the house was being torn down I called the owner who had been my neighbor for years prior to renting the house out and asked what was the scoop on the house she told me she was building four town houses that she went that route as it was an automatic approval and it so would be so much faster she didn’t want any nosy neighbors budding in making the process take longer so she asked for zero exceptions and she was thrilled to tell me how much I was going to love it next slide please to say the process of having the monstrosity built as our neighborhood has dubbed it has been a nightmare the excavators have damaged our property dropped a tree in my V my yard a very large one they’ve raised the noise volume to intolerable levels the parking mess as the builders all Park in front of my home and the dust I am aware that these are all temporary challenges but over the last year as that the monstrosity has been built this has made me think where are all these people going to live where are they going to park they each only have one very small garage it is a 3 and 1/2 story next slide please it is a 3 and 1/2 story tall building that Towers over every house on the Block it has huge windows and huge doors it’s flat topped roof that pours water into the very tiny gap between our properties all that water so far is aimed at my house their bedroom bathroom kitchen and dining Windows all look over my house and into my yard their four air conditioners are located right above my patio they have no yards and their back door is raised above the fence line I cannot legally build a fence high enough to even have the illusion of privacy I can hear the workmen all day from inside the unit and every time they open or close the door when next slide please when the builders were working on the second story last summer one of the workers would watch me planting and harvesting in the yard and he shouted down to me your garden is beautiful these people are going to be so lucky to have such a great view I know I can’t live like this I didn’t sign on to this level of invasiveness I’ve also lost all my morning light on half my yard but more importantly in my home next slide please in the winter it’s even worse I get seasonal depression and the lack of light for almost 6 months of the year is hard to Bear when my house was built the didn’t put Windows on the side of your house facing other people’s homes so my windows are in the front and the back and now that the monstrosity blocks my light until 2 p.m. I’m struggling my garden is now half in shade and has become very difficult to grow what I used to this may seem silly and inan to some but to me it’s the very reason I bought this house next slide please now I have to sell my house I have put $200,000 in Rena into this house and from talking to my realtor these new tow houses which are starting at $750,000 are worth more than my two-story single detached home with a yard and an oversized garage no one wants to live next to that next slide please my house that I’ve so lovingly tended will probably be bought by a developer and then Cheryl my lovely neighbor on the other side will have to go through this too if you approve the blanket resoning I will not be buying in Calgary for my next home I will not go through this again thank you thank you for your presentation You’re Just in Time thank you thank you we’re going to go to questions of this panel we’ll start with councelor Spencer please thank you mayor uh first question is for Mr Kavanaugh uh first of all Mr Kavanaugh just want to say I have a deep appreciation for the word smithing and the attention to detail you gave your submission so thank you for that um when if you had um a crusty um your parents let’s just say I don’t know where where they would fit on this um and you’re going to speak to the heart of the reason for our city to need to evolve and change can you give um using using your deep well of words how would you speak to them about a situation like the one we just heard um from Miss papait I think that uh individual concerns about individual uh developments are valid uh however I believe that the cost of not moving forward sort of as I mentioned in my uh in my presentation I believe that that is going to you know just Rec havic on on many more than just you know uh individuals affected uh by these developments um I don’t believe that there’s an easy way around it however I don’t believe that anybody has an easy alternative right we either look at people affected by these things and we tell them the difficult reality right like this is we’re a city now we can’t meaningful address meaningfully address the housing crisis we can’t meaningfully address any of these things without some discomfort moving forward and I think what we need is we need courage from Council and we need you know to to own this reality right because it’s very easy to sit here and be like oh we can all we can all preserve you know our idyllic Suburban Lifestyles right but at the end of the day I mean have to move forward and I think that we ought to address that rather than run from that fact thank you Mr Rob no further questions from you um Miss Miss papovich if I may have you so um we’ve we’ve seen your uh your situation earlier in this um and it and it does I think it’s burnt an indelible mark on more than just myself around around this Horseshoe in terms of the worst case possible scenario so so for first of all sorry that you’re in the situation that you’re in um when when you think about the process um that was available to you to speak to uh your neighbor to have an opportunity to speak to how it could impact you um for somebody that’s inevitably going to be in your shoes cuz whether or not we pass this zoning this continues to happen in our city how do we improve this process to make sure that we H our future um situations like this I had zero say she went by the book it’s three and a half stories tall it’s 60% of the lot I had zero say I was not allowed to say hey could you move the windows they have balconies on the front and the back and then a third story in between so they have downspouts on both sides there’s a huge balcony with four air conditioners right above my yard though and the down spots are like this wide and they’re going of come down straight at my Foundation we do not have enough space and I have I’m I have an old house 1946 I have a cinder block Foundation I don’t have like fancy weeping tile and rubber cement that’s all going to come into my basement it’s going to damage my home at this point I’m looking at it my contractor who did all my Rena he said don’t put another Penny into your house it’s not worth it’s land value only now could you see a situation where you were given a conversation to actually look at the drawings to see that would have been amazing okay she told me she said I went by the book so nobody could say a word and it was approved before I even knew it was happening yeah and then once it was approved like even now is there a way to get the downspouts to point I don’t know that way and not at me probably not um the whole I am not one who believes that I own my neighbor’s land okay I knew they were going to develop that property at some point to and it was R six at the time when we had R six zoning and I knew that it was likely to become a fourplex or multi- uh density property I was okay with that I had no problem with it I personally think if you want to boss around your neighbor bu their house this is in no point of me trying to say that we should have complete control over the people around us we do live in a city we live in a community and I really like my neighbor yeah and I’m glad she’s making her money and her developers making her money the problem is is I’ve lost all my money that I’ve put into my house and it is so invasive I mean I have become really good friends with the builders cuz I’m a gardener and I was out all summer and we chatted cuz they’re that close all year All Summer Long the problem is when I walk outside I can’t ignore it I can’t I am I am saddened every time I walk out it is so big it is so close people don’t live there now I’m sure they’re all going to be lovely and I’m sure they’re going to be great families and that’ll be great but I’m starting a thousand seedlings I’m a gardener that’s what I bought it for yeah and that choice so when people say our SE the up zoning gives everybody Choice you’re right it gives the homeowner the choice to to build and I can’t say that I don’t think people deserve the choice the problem is is this is so affecting to me to my family I don’t want to live there anymore and I’ve been there forever there’s my kids in that house I’ve lost my first dogs in that house and for a lot of people that these are things that are silly but it’s my life I love my neighbors I’m part of school council Ed Society volunteer I love my community another house came up for sale in Bonas my neighbor said go go look at that house go by that house I don’t want to leave I don’t want you to leave boness on both sides was a small older Bungalow and I said I can’t I can’t do it again and so the problem is is when you have blanket zoning that allows for such extremes that’s the problem the backyard suite’s not a problem the base suite’s not a problem I lived next to a basement they were all lovely people there was no extra crime they were all wonderful but it’s so big I’m a two-story house there’s one down the street and that lady’s a bungalow she will never see the light of day again some people don’t like to garden and they couldn’t care less my mom goes well think Courtyard Courtyard you live in a courtyard now and it’s like but I didn’t buy a place in France with a the courtyard I bought a place with a big yard and I’ve planted 15 trees and they cut down 15 trees they the 60% if you go to one of the slides it shows the actual like tax assessment lot with those properties on it and it’s at 60% my husband’s an engineer he measured I said it can’t be 60% he goes no honey like I measured it it is by the time they put stairwell like stairs walkways front and back there is nothing alive on that lot it is 100% cement I personally believe that we should all have a little green and everybody should stick their hands in the dirt and go walk on the grass a little bit and yes boness has beautiful green spaces and people can say I can live in a cement jungle because I can walk down the street and go to Bonas Park and you’re right it’s true but I spend every moment of my day trying to make my little piece as beautiful and as green and is welcoming to all my neighbors I’ve got the kid who wants to go take his first girlfriend out for a date comes and picks flowers in my yard you know it’s it’s so extreme and and the fact that it could happen to anybody right anytime anywhere and and the person who’s next to them who is put money into their house they’ve lovingly picked out their granite and they’ve redone their bathrooms and then their realtor says well your house is old so even though it’s fixed up it’s not worth anything anymore nobody wants that because that’s staring into your yard that is heartbreaking yeah and so if I don’t want to go through it again do I have to leave my city I’m moved here in 2001 married a born and bred calgarian I have imported my parents I have imported my brother I’ve imported my best friend so now I don’t only have to leave my city I have to leave my family like my brother’s a block away I don’t want to leave boness I don’t want to buy another house plant out my trees plant my grow In My Bushes and my raspberry bushes and my strawberries and have it happen again and again I understand people who don’t Garden thinks it’s silly my my wife Gardens so you’re you’re talking to to somebody yeah continue but for me it’s that’s where my heart and soul lies and so the fact that someone can take it away and they just go you’re going to love it and you get no say in it and it’s going up and every day I’d go outside with tears falling down my cheeks and again I don’t think you should control the people next door but I think the guidelines shouldn’t destroy you they shouldn’t say you need to go live not in this city because this can happen to you anywhere and thank thank you for sharing that I I I mean you’ve lived to death and then no doubt you’ve just lived it again in front of council and calgarians I I want you to know that your story has impact and it I think it really does in reinforce that what we’re talking about through this is people’s lives um livelihoods livability yeah but I feel bad for the people who can’t afford houses too but those are all starting at 750,000 they’re not helping this kid get a house okay they’re not helping him F find a place not to say that densifying doesn’t help but in bits and P pieces spits and starts they get nabbed up they get nabbed up we never get enough Supply we never get enough where prices go down we need a massive economic crash in half of calary to move out and go find jobs elsewhere and house prices will come down or we need to mass flood building we can’t bits and Bobs they just get eaten up like candy and then they’re gone and the house prices go up and and and like that lady who can’t buy a house herself because the builders are buying them all that’s heartbreaking yeah all she wants to do is have a perennial garden and garden and have a cute little house Miss papait we’ve we from a month-to-month basis Council um I think your situation is certainly very extreme in terms of we don’t often see four units with all windows facing in the back your situation is unique um and that breaks my heart even further that that you are essentially living with the worst case as as in terms of what has happened in the city and has been able to been offered up you are living with some of the worst case scenar I think you’ll see more people ending up with the worst case if they don’t have to even if no one ever gets to ask any questions yeah if it’s all automatically approved once somebody someone’s going to one day they’re going to wake up and that’s and there’s nothing to be done now so one of the things um I want to highlight is we we we are very interested in making sure we get the conversation right that there is opportunity for the people that are going to be impacted next door to have a real conversation about what that would look like um to to be able to speak to it before it’s happening and they feel completely outside of control but obviously that doesn’t do anything for you in your situation so again I I’m sorry but I do hope that it does help anybody who’s facing this in the future um this is a lot of people talk about the crisis but these are PE everybody’s life savings that they have put into it right I could have taken my 200 investment and bought another house somewhere else rather if I’d have known right that this was going in next door and my house was a tear down I wouldn’t have wasted wasted my time I wouldn’t have wasted my money I’d have more money in the bank and I could go buy something else but now it was just it was for nothing I I have a sense there’s a few more people that are going to ask you questions so thank you for being here and sharing that uh painful experience thank you councelor sharp please uh Miss Papo apologies I had to step away um before I could see you before I left but thank you for coming um I know this has been really hard for you and um and I know we’ve talked a little bit about this situation before and I’m I’m thankful you’re here to share your story and the other reason I’m thankful you’re here is because you’re sharing your story in front of 15 members of council at a public hearing and it’s important for them to hear what you’ve been going through um but I have a question for you counselor W um Spencer actually asked a couple but I’d like to know from you um what you think the infrastructure changes or costs will be to you if you develop your house tear it down or someone else comes what do you think the impact of infrastructure is going to be because of that house next door to you well within two blocks of my house there’s already approved 42 new units um all with very low parking I am I even actually got a a survey from the City of Calgary asking me how much more I was willing to pay to have the same level of water service that I have today and that due to drought and the amount of people moving to Calgary would I be willing to if it’s yellow let it mellow would I be willing to shower less would I be willing to water my garden less and I said no to all of those and how much more am I willing to pay to upgrade the INF water infrastructure for the amount of new developments and the answer is zero I’m not willing to pay a penny more you’re going to get tax dollars from 42 new units get them to pay for the water infrastructure you’re going to have Builders and developers that are building all these units get them to put $10,000 per building aside to fix the water situation I have been paying my taxes and I pay for my water and I also don’t live in a third world country and I’m flushing the toilet like that is just happening I have two children I already have a problem with that as it is but the infrastructure the like so boness was beautified and it went from four lanes down to two uh a few years ago and now we’re bringing all these people into boness which I welcome I welcome the density boness is a very friendly place they’re going to love it there but what used to take my husband 25 minutes to get downtown to work now takes 45 minutes just because it’s one lane each way now you’re going to bring in 42 new units with people who probably have at least one car we’re probably going to end up with Street permit parking uh which you know probably could have been avoided we are probably going to have massive more congestion and traffic so we live 15 minutes from downtown it takes 45 minutes to get to the outskirts of downtown today you bring in more people that makes it an hour at this point what difference is it if we move to Cochran takes an hour to get to downtown the whole point of why we live here is we are close we have lots of trees and we have a beautiful space and now it’s congested it’s tra it’s full of traffic uh Water Systems we have water main braks all the time in boness it’s insane um what and what other infrastru I’m not I’m not an engineer I don’t even know what other infrastructure there is but when you put that many people pounding on any given surface it will start to crack and then people have to fix it and then the other thing about these tow houses is they’re beautiful now but they’re not condos who’s repairing them in for in 30 years who’s paying for the roof how do you going to get four people to agree to replace all the windows and the siding and maintain the cement and the walkways like it seems like a quick and easy idea now but it seems like there’s going to be so many problems down the road and unless we upgrade our uh public transit you’re literally dependent on cars from boness to almost you have to go to Brentwood to then go to anywhere so you can’t there’s no direct routes other than downtown so how are these people going to get around takes two and a half hours to get to anywhere other than downtown and even that’s slow now due to the road being changed so these are things you have to think about the impacts I mean to be fair I’ve bumbled through life for most of it I’m married an engineer and he has spent a long time keeping me alive and telling me to have foresight and think about the consequences of my actions and by 44 I would say I’ve kind of gotten there you guys have a lot of foresight to do there’s a lot of unintended consequences that this was an unintended consequence but how many more are there going to be I talking about controlling the worst of it controlling the most of it having a plan for the worst case scenario again I’ve been married to an engineer too long but have a plan for that because without a plan we Bumble along these things prop up and then the worst case scenario happens um okay so just to State a fact would you consider like all these Lots like rcg are not equal so no definitely I don’t think they’re all equal but I don’t think they should be 60% I think that’s the worst part of it is the 60% allows them to be super invasive there’s no backyard to Backyard of like to like of what there was there before and there is no the height requirements are vastly different but there’s also no green space left to the people who buy them and they’re going to buy them because there’s nothing else to buy that’s what they’re going to do they’re going to be like well at least I have a house at least I have a balcony but kids like a yard they have a dog they want to have somewhere to play they want to maybe grow some Tomatoes like something it’s very sterile those pictures are very sterile and the whole thing will be cement it’s not going to be good for rain capture it’s not it’s not going to in the end it’s a it’s a big cement lot is what it is and that that has its own consequences as well okay thank you and one more question um I’m going to ask you as a question are you aware that bonus isn’t part of any local area plan I am not I know lots of people in the community have been fighting to create an local area plan I know the boness has been they had their own little group that was approving and kind of going through things it sounds like it’s been a mess for a long time and that we really need the community to come together and kind of figure out who they are but now it seems like we’re developers Haven is what we are and if that’s what we’re going to be let’s at least do it properly do it right and make a nice home for the new people to move into so they can come and hang out with us and volunteer at the school and but at least make it try to find a way to find something lovely in it rather than just make it for the sake of making it with no loveliness and no joy thank you for being here you’re done a great job I know there’s some other counselors that might have some questions for you um and uh again thanks for sharing your story and I think it is really important thank you and that’s all I have to say thanks thank you let’s go to councelor dong please thank you and yes Miss papait um I I also am am horrified by what you’ve gone through and and I’m so sorry that this this is through to through to you um just following up what councelor sharp was talking about with the lap process uh are you familiar with what an lap process might do yeah I’ve been watching for nine days so I’ve had lots of people talk about it so I have a hint of an so designate where some things should be and where other shouldn’t so if if an lap process had gone through and I’m I’m sure as an active participant you probably would have gotten involved in it and seen and and and been involved uh if it had still identified your nextdoor neighbor as a location for an rcg what do you think your next Mo movement might have been I would have asked the Builder if he would buy my lot out I I’m actually saying before before this guy even sold if if you had gone through the LA process 5 years ago I would have sold that’s what I would have done now at the time when my neighbor was building I thought it was just going to be a older style fourplex or executive duplexes both of which I didn’t have an issue with uh and I never did get to see the plans yeah now if I had been told an rcg was going to be lovely and it was going to be non- impactful and noninvasive I probably would have been fine with it I would say 5 years ago I would have sold knowing what I know now okay because I was 5 years ago I was very into my community and very happy where I was and again I do think that people should develop their properties and and their Investments so but only knowing what I know now would I have run I would have sold my house and run but I wouldn’t have been able to see the future I I I okay um the other line of I that really got my attention was the amount of sunlight that was taken away from your location and and that concerns me in on on a number of different veins and I’m not really sure how to ask ask a question to you but the idea that you can lose sunlight and have to basically take a loss on what you’ve put into your y backyard strikes me in similarity to someone that may have actually had solar on their roof and would have lost half or so whatever that energy might might be I I’m not sure how to ask a question to you other than to say what if you had had solar as well what would your reaction have been solar would have just been uh the icing on the cake at this point for me okay a $35,000 investment that is subsidized over 15 to 25 years that you don’t actually see a return on for a very long time like I considered solar uh a few years ago and I’m really glad I didn’t spend the money um but how much is it worth all the Planters I’ve built and all the soil I have made and purchased all the compost all the the uh all the tomatoes I can no longer grow all like all of these things now nobody’s living there yet so I don’t even know I’m not here to complain for the sake of complaining maybe it won’t be as bad as I think it will I am worried about four giant air conditioners that are half a foot above my patio and my and my fire pit that I have a feeling it’s going to be loud if we have a hot summer and they’re all going at once what does that sound like in my mind it sounds like a jet plane do I know what it’s going to sound like in reality I don’t but I worry again married to an engineer for too long I worry about what it’s going to be like and lots of people have said the sky is not falling with this up blanket resoning it’ll be fine everybody you know calm down it’s going to be okay for me what’s here right now before the air conditioners turn on is not okay for me the fact so my house has Windows on the front and the back all my son used to come in from the South have big patio doors there and I used to get sunlight from 8 in the morning until dusk now it’s 2:00 p.m. before I get any sunlight in my house well when winter happens and the sun goes down at 4: that’s not a lot of time and I’m a stay-at-home mom I’m home a lot I find it very draining and very exhausting on myself and some people will say well maybe other people don’t have any windows and they don’t have a house to live in we don’t feel sympathy for you and that’s fair being homeless sounds terrible and when I first moved to Calgary I lived with 12 roommates okay that’s how I could afford to live when I made 5.90 an hour and go to UFC right so it’s more expensive now but I I feel the struggle I lived it too I understand understood but I bought that window of sunlight right yep I replaced that patio door to get more sunlight and now I have no sunlight and so the garden for people who don’t Garden is not a big deal the mental health and the anxiety and the you know winter depression that’s a real thing it affects a lot of people it does affect me understood Miss papait thank you so much for coming here and telling us your stories it it it really does matter I just want you to know that thankk you thank you let’s go to councelor Wong please thank you mayor uh Miss po you’re obviously not leaving there you meent um councelor dong asked a question if you knew there was an lap process there would you stay or not and you said you would leave right no if I knew there was an lap process that I could get involved in I would have yeah sorry oh if I knew it was an rcg exactly I probably would have assumed that it wasn’t going to be this bad okay right is 60% of a lot doesn’t sound really bad when you look at it you’re like that’s terrible but that doesn’t look like 60% um the idea of it and the reality of it are two very different things um knowing what I know now I would have sold my house and I would have run screaming into the dark like I would not have stayed I’m very sad that I didn’t sell my house but what I was trying to get to is you said over the last nine days you’ve heard about lap processes you’ve heard about rcgs right in that learning yeah at what point did you learn that an rcg had a maximum of six 60% sight coverage and you know 11 meter height I found out about that after this got built and I kind of started looking into it um there’s a fourplex across the street from that one there’s a picture in the slide and that one’s on 40 40% or 45% and it’s adorable I mean it’s not going to make anybody millions of dollars but it was it’s lovely and it has lots that one has lots of tenants in it four of them and they’re lovely and they have very cute dog and um it never occurred to me that that was going to get built next door it never occurred to when they built the third story I almost fell on the floor I was like they’re doing another one like I I never occurred to me that anything could be built that tall in our little area Okay so the process if I always assume that things will work out the way they’re supposed to work out so in the beginning not knowing what the reality was I would assumed it was fine now I would fight that tooth and nail anywhere it’s going I would say don’t let it happen beg cry steal do whatever you have to do cuz that is a monstrosity so where where I was getting to is that in the lap process we talk about different Urban form categories Urban form categories neighborhood local low low low density residential which could be rc1 RC 2s rcgs right I guess if you known if you’re participating I’m just speculating if you participating in the lap process and somebody told you rc1 r2s rcgs rcgs could be 60% sight coverage could be 11 M height would that have triggered you at that time yes okay so the um he made reference to councilor sharp that if it was 50% site coverage if we said if the if we told you in the lap process rcgs are 50% site coverage still 11 met high no no what no Too Tall still too tall yeah that’s a raised basement and three stories that’s insane and I have adult mine’s a two story if you put that next to some little lady’s Bungalow she’ll never see the sun okay recognizing that RC 1’s today you can go up to 10 m despite the fact that most most houses are are Bungalows or two stories that are under 10 meters but and they should have to buy the lot next door and build it and build something next door of equal height this is the thing I’m left holding the cost okay my house is now a tear down for developers nobody want wants to live in the shadow of that now whatever they build they could build two uh duplexes or one giant house of the same height maybe that will make it feel less terrible the way it is now it’s not good you should give the if you’re going to build that you’re going to approve it you tell the people next to them and say we’re going to build this sell your house if you can’t live next to it give them the chance to run because it’s not fair to make them live with it thank you so where I’m trying get to is that we have a a land use process with blanket we can get you know we overcome that land use no public hearing we have a development permit process to which affected parties yourself would be circulated should be should be notified uh that’s a development permit you should have access to the permits right that’s I guess where I’m trying to get to is that do you feel when your neighbor built this that the city could could have done a better job even though your neighbor didn’t the city could have done a better J job to notify of the development permit provides you the information about the the plans the the the concept of what is going to build height do you think the city should be doing more to tell you what’s going on to be fair I wasn’t horrified sooner by the city not notifying me if you’re going to notify me and I have no say in the situation then for me the nightmare just starts that much earlier I like to I was pretty happy while they were building thinking it was going to be great until it wasn’t if if you’re going to notify someone give them the chance to speak give them the chance to say something give them the chance to look at the plans and go okay what I have 97 objections what can I object about can I object about the drainage pipes that are going to flood my house or the right do I have a do I have a chance to say could your windows be frosted so that you’re not looking in my bedroom like there’s no point in notifying somebody if they have no say so in the a lot of things we talk about are development permit sort of questions and you know again you had the right to look at the plans you had the right to comment on the plans but you’re you’re saying by that time it’s a little too late well I was told I I had like it was automatically approved the city never contacted me they never asked nobody ever asked for my opinion and by the time I realized I was upset it was built y okay okay there is there is a notification process okay thank you for that um Mr Cavanaugh please thank you one of the one of the things we hear often from people who are struggling for housing is that we need to build more housing we need to make housing available we need housing location we need housing that’s affordable right and there’s no doubt that people that need housing want housing and are looking for the city to create opportunities for housing my question to you is where’s the balance between the need to want for housing versus those that have housing those that have property Investments where’s that balance there where we can satisfy both ends of that stick I know and I’m sorry a very difficult question I don’t think anybody has a clear answer to that uh would you I mean yeah you would have to look at uh the uh impacts of a lack of housing on the population and you’d have to look at the impacts of you know or the benefits I just say of home ownership right I I appreciate your question and it’s a very interesting one but it’s also a little bit abstract and I don’t think it’s one that anybody has a clear answer to so yeah cuz one of the things that that we we we’re focusing on is one particular housing form rooh house townhouse uh sorry said oh Rous town housee you said yeah we’re we’re focusing on this bylaw Ro house Town Hall townhouse but there are other houses forms that could be there secondary suits garage Suites apartments condos you know even co-op housing that sort of thing yeah and and for those that are looking to get into the marketplace and yourself 21 years old you know is an rcg type property what you’re looking to get into or could could you could these other forms be just as available to you uh well for me personally I mean there’s there’s two questions there there’s sort of what’s good for the city at large yeah um I I’ll answer for me right I’m somebody who could I think get by and just as long as I have enough space for my computer as long as I have uh an ebike or it doesn’t have to be an ebike you know just a form of transportation right and I can uh I’m not a huge fan of owning a car I think it’s just kind of a big expense and you know I’m uh I would like to start being active being more active and I I think uh cars AR very conducive to that um as as for the answer for sort of what is what is the correct housing for for for us right for the city as a collective um I think I think that uh sort of and I’ll have to ask you for clarification uh when you say co-op housing is that um could could you define that is that like uh social housing I’m not I’m just not sure uh familiar with that term so Coop housing is where you get together with a group of people and you have um common responsibilities whether it be tency or ownership but it’s with regards to a a complex okay based on what I know I think that the solution is just more more Supply um I think that we can’t really accomplish that without density I think there’s like drawbacks to you know uh building into the Prairies I don’t think we should expand anymore um because you know there’s there’s the question of uh do we need more affordable housing right and to that and here you know interesting line here I don’t believe that we need affordable housing to make housing more affordable and what I mean by that is that I think that there are people uh right now now who are occupying homes that were designed for uh income levels that are lower uh than theirs and they haven’t been able to move out into something more modern uh because of you know competition or a lack of Supply so I think as long as we get uh you know more units on the market just more more more you know uh the market movement and uh sort of those forces will naturally sort of open up uh so yeah I hope that answered your question sufficiently yeah I think you did because again the housing strategy had many different types of housing on that Continuum for different different needs whether you’re homeless or could I add something sure to please there probably is some Nuance in terms of like um you know how would I say it like getting uh getting the levels right like how much of this housing do we need how much of this housing do we need but I think right now in our crisis it’s just more more more so just to clarify that but no that’s appreciate that’s good because again that’s that’s the if I can say that’s the lever that we need to pull on the rcg type housing you know the the apartment type housing and so on so forth right where do we pull the appropriate levers to find the right Supply balance to be able therefore provide Supply location choice and ultimate affordability right thank you yeah thank you all right let’s go to councelor Chu please thank you worship uh Mrs pich please so to start with thank you for being being here and I got couple of three questions for you um I’m just going to this I’m sure that you might not know and I’m just shooting in the dark and I will tell you why I asked this re this questions is that do you know are those building beside you going to be condos if not do you know whether maintenance agreement or some other form have been register on or between this units let me tell you the reason why I ask you that because I believe these buildings may not be condos if they’re not condos they might have no legal standing to address future repair and maintenance so do you know that because you’ve been talking to the builders and they’re not condos they’re not e no so I’m just curious what H I’m I’m I’m genuinely curious what happens to four people that live together if it’s not a condo and they’re not putting money away for maintenance what happens in 20 years my husband and I can barely agree to redo the roof when you know so how do you agree with your neighbors but that’s thought you the boss at home but I’m I’m going to step in for just a minute and it it’s not that I want to interrupt the conversation you’re having but we’re talking about a very specific specific address and we’re talking about a very specific tenure of Housing and that’s not what’s before us so I appreciate the question you’re posing counselor chew but I would recommend perhaps booking a time um with Miss papovich to have a wider conversation if you want to it’s not before us at this hearing what I I believe it is is uh is one of the reason is a very important the legal standing and I simply ask Miss pich if she knows and she said no but she wanted further answer that question and I think is is her right to answer the question the way she wanted coun to I’m not questioning how Miss papovich answered the question I have no issue with that I’m asking you to consider that the question you’re posing is not appropriately put for this hearing that’s why I’m saying taking this offline having a conversation with her booking an appointment to chat with her perhaps getting the word counselor involved would be a better way to address her personal situation I don’t want her to have to take an example she’s already brought us and have to get into the technical merits of it please first of all I believe that’s a very important issue and you have led others to go on and on and on and I I only use about less than two minutes I’m just saying that my question is very short and then we can make this faster if you just let me finish what I have to say and let the public to finish what she has to say please but you as the chair in concert with legal I’m advising you that the question is not appropriate for this hearing it has nothing to do with me not giving you the same amount of time as other people I’ll give you your time back on the clock I’m asking you to please move to the next question I already finish my asking you you asking me to stop something I already stopped I’m just waiting for her answer if you don’t mind mayor can you please let the lady finish what she need to say please councelor Chu I will tell you what I have ruled on this as the chair and I’ll invite you to move on to the next question please you’re asking a very specific question about a particular piece of property that is not part of the hearing right now so please carry on with your next questions I’ll give you your two minutes back that’s okay thank you worship I already mentioned I already said I finished my questioning okay and just waiting for her answer she wanted to elaborate a little bit and I think it’s as personally I think it’s fine let the lady to say what she need to say it’s fine you okay I’m okay it’s good okay thank you thank you thank you let’s move on to councelor Walcott please sorry Miss Papa witch I’m calling you back up um it’s it’s a it’s less complex um councelor w got most of the way there and I was I wanted to just kind of uh put a bow on it for for you is your your description of the situation is is is a really significant one uh because the difference between um a permitted use uh and a discretionary use so just your your neighbor when you had that conversation they told you that like we’re standing within the rules we’re making it easy right and then we’re just building what’s within the rules yep by chance did you know we changed the rules for this hearing um so that that’s doesn’t happen anymore I did not know that I just know that I was I just had no say and then one day it was there and I was crying in the shadow is what was happening so I’m glad you changed the rules cuz that’s a terrible it’s a terrible surprise it’s it was definitely one of the most important pieces of feedback and as you can tell your story caught a lot of people’s attention um it was one of the changes to the process that came forward here that and I have to form this as a question uh did you so are you would you have been more comfortable with what you described as the ability to comment knowing your uh very very intimate like local knowledge of how that property interacts with yours and actually have had uh a say in some of those very specific things about Windows frosting drainage and so on I think if the property took up that much of the lot and that all the trees were cut down and it was that little green space if it was as tall would I have been happy for the wind to manipulate some small things to offer myself or whoever’s going to live there or whatever some privacy I would have taken whatever I could have gotten but I think that more for me to have been like it’s fine and I’m going to live here they would I would have had to have a little bit more input and or the set automatic approval rules need to be less invasive that’s my personal opinion um it is the opinion of our Administration as well now right like it was just it’s a huge change from a bungalow to three and a half Story House from a house over here to a house over here up here Windows Doors everything and you can hear everything that’s goes on in those units in my yard when those door their door is open and I’m in my living room it sounds like they’re talking in my backyard my dog’s always running out to see who’s in the backyard and it’s people next door uh there’s a lot of things I would have loved to have input on the reality of how much input you have on your neighbor’s yard is limited and I’m aware of that I would have taken any win that I could get to at least protect my property from damage Absolut and thank you so much yeah I I councelor Wong was going there and and I just wanted to make sure that you were aware of that change as well so that’s a good change thank you thank you that’s all for me thank you very much there are no further questions for this panel so thank you all of you for being here today we really appreciate you sharing your presentations with us um we’re going to move on to the next panel and I’m going to add someone to the panel who’s here um but I’m going to confirm from 187 do we have Helen you okay great so this next panel is going to be Brendan David Wesley brindle Tammy Evans Bob SCH Mike ainson and Helen Yu it will be six people on this panel but we’ve been able to accommodate that before so as those folks are coming up to take their seats at the front or getting ready on the phone I’m just going to prepare us for the panel after this it will be panel number 190 which is lindsy Davis Mindy Kos Mandy Kosh sorry Shirley art Linda nette and Richard Hill so for now let’s get started with Brendan David please this next panel is BR I’ll be following up Miss pop wit okay um just give me one second and I did have a slide yeah okay all right I’m ready to get going here is that okay is that a little better yeah hello thank you for the opportunity to speak and thank you for listening my name is Brendan David I’m a professional in the buildings industry I work across western Canada my wife’s a teacher we have a one-year-old we resided in Tuxedo Park although temporarily relocated to W for so I’m here today to ask Council to please support Citywide missing middle zoning um but there’s an asterisk there and uh I hope to speak on that I’m hoping today to to be a bridge and actually might be the perfect chance to follow up Miss papait So within a few blocks of us there’s already been a number significant amount of development and a lot of land use changes many in opposition have talked about you know definitely what could happen I’m here to talk a little bit about what has happened I’m also here to provide a little bit of feedback on how that development went uh so we can immediately get to work on improving the policy so to be a th% clear my position is pass this proposal and then the day after that we set up a recurring feedback loop so that we can introduce um tiers of improvement and I repeat improvements not uh exclusions not exemptions or bypasses how do you move oh next slide how do you move a stubborn donkey right you have the carrot a reward an incentive to get us to our desired location or a stick a penalty for deterring bad behavior Bad actors next slide where are the carrots where are the sticks after reviewing the proposal and uh attending Town Halls my biggest criticism is around parcel coverage we don’t need to incentivize density at these higher levels density is the incentive and you know what about our other goals right whether it’s efficiency universal access Heritage or retrofit incentives uh tree canopy you know I I see those missing here and I don’t think they should be so I’m going to chat about this in the context of uh oh next slide please uh a couple projects I’ve seen you know 98% probably fall here in this kind of okay to good range architecture build quality it’s kind of me and this is actually a good example of that land use change and lap process kind of failing actually um and 98 of these Pro perc of these projects are going to end up exactly here unless we make some improvements yeah it’s missing middle density so that helps but it really drops the ball when it comes to Greater housing or greater housing strategy so as currently proposed a builder can do the bare minimum and get the maximum profit you how does that make sense next slide now I’ve seen a few glimmers of Hope um but to my knowledge you know this has come because of Grants or national incentive programs and I just don’t think that’s good enough so in this example here you know there’s much more balanced in terms of scale and design there was quite a bit of original tree retention and then a high tree replacement ratio next slide uh I even spot the occasional unicorn so here’s a project underway it’s adding density in what I feel is a pretty meaningful way the Builder based right in that community so they have just as much interest and stake in seeing it succeed long term uh they’re building to a very high Energy Efficiency standard with measured and verifiable targets uh it’s going to have a blend of market and Below Market rents uh next slide so how do we create a space for outcomes Beyond just that bare minimum uh right getting from just that good and bringing something into better and and best how do we balance the density we need with our other goals while addressing some of the concerns raised exactly like Miss pich and the answer is already there so she kind of touched on it right we’re using parcel coverage but I challenge Council and uh City admin to leverage it far better than we’re doing so kind of at a very high level left to right the idea is you get to unlock that highest parcel coverages of something like 60% uh and those additional units and profit that come with it uh when you incorporate more of our goals so for example airtightness or barri free or maybe some contextual um uh considerations so we’re still adding density but we’re guaranteeing a blend of outcomes meaning more Choice and then eventually in time more affordability next slide now they’re not so good ultimately if we want to get to affordability in Choice uh we need to penalize some of the Bad actors in the system right if you’re purely speculating without adding any value you don’t simply get to uh keep rentable homes vacant and you don’t get to sit on billable lots for years at a time you know would it be ridiculous to have a vacant lot lot tax I don’t think so um and further I think it should have pretty steep increases after a set number of years I can actually speak to one or two of those later if you want about going through the lap and uh additional comments next slide uh next slide again so we love our single detached homes in the city you know that’s not going to change anytime soon uh however single family zoning doesn’t guarantee the existing form and it it won’t save a garden from shade oh next slide please uh instead I think that missing missing middle densification is a way that we can come together to share the growing pains so that one neighborhood isn’t overwhelmed and I’ll stop there thank you thank you let’s go to Wesley brindle please [Music] hi is this Wesley [Music] brindle hi there hi whoever’s playing the piano is that Wesley brindle or is he nearby okay tell you what you know what we’re going to come back to Wesley let’s go to Tammy Evans please good evening members of the council and Mer gondek my name is Tammy Evans I am here representing myself a 34-year-old resident of Maple Ridge in w 11 I what sociologist refer to as a boomerang child having returned to my parents’ house mult multiple times their support was my lifeline preventing me from falling into the abyss of homelessness today I stand on more stable ground having built a career that provides a comfortable income my next step is to secure a home in my own a dream that seems increasingly distant in our current housing crisis I recognize the need for or I recognize the lack of affordable housing and the inadequate rental market in our city I am keenly aware of the urgent need for Action throughout this process I have listened to numerous speakers many of whom oppose blanket resoning Echo this statement while I acknowledge the absence of a perfect solution I firmly believe that blanket resoning falls short particularly in addressing affordability throughout my academic and professional journey I have learned of the critical importance of thorough analysis and selecting any strategic plan I am skeptical that the current plan has undergone such scrutiny while I could communicate all my concerns I amware aware that others more articulate and insightful than myself have already vocalized them comprehensively councelor Wess you acknowledge the broader economic factors affecting property values primarily the influence of interest rates set by the Bank of Canada indeed these rates not only devalue property but have a direct impact on rental rates as landlord seek Returns on their Investments this discussion has underscored the significance of interest rates while the Bank of Canada raises rates to curb spending and combat inflation our city is moving in the opposite direction enticing developers and others in our city to spend transitioning from historically low interest rates to higher ones may indeed present challenges but it is a necessary step to addressing inflationary pressures my parents experience Echoes the challenges posed by high interest rates they navigated through times of 21% mortgage rates making significant sacrifices to build a home and a better F future to dismiss their concerns as entitlement or fear of Change Is Not only offensive but fails to recognize um maso’s hierarchy of needs the fact that most Generations have moved on from addressing basic needs such as housing to other survival B non-s Survival needs reflects a journey of resilience and perseverance not privilege or ignorance while I fully support the idea of diversity and density in Calgary’s neighborhoods including Maple Ridge I remain cautious about the E efficacy of blanket resoning as a solution to our City’s affordable housing crisis the notion that such rezoning would magic would magically achieve socioeconomic diversity in every Community during my lifetime feels akin to selling snake oil and I am not buying it I’m running out of time sorry handing over the Reigns to developers won’t address the root causes of affordability issues instead I believe affordable housing initiative should be led by our city and supported by not for-profit organizations which are better equipped to handle the needs of residents over profit margins blanket resoning does not align with council’s mandate to promote an integrated and strategic approach to inter Municipal land use planning instead it opens the door for developers to dictate land use decisions potentially allowing council members to Sherk their responsibilities justifying such actions under the guise of cutting red tape is misguided and risks undermining effective governance therefore I urge Council to vote against the blanket resoning proposal in its current form instead let’s engage with communities to develop solutions that are both effective and respectful of local concerns while there will inevitably be opposition I have faith that calgarians will demonstrate their support and willingness to participate in shaping the future of our neighborhoods thank you thank you for your presentation let’s try Wesley brindle again good evening Madame mayor my name is Janice Lo I’m also on panel 187 I just wanted to let you know that I am here okay thank you for that do we have Wesley brindle okay let’s go with Bob schal please okay thank you uh good evening my name is Bob SCH and I live in world 6 I am against resoning because it will not benefit the residents the city says that their objective is to provide more affordable housing by replacing single family homes with multif family homes the city believes that higher density will result in more affordable housing for the average person the city’s objective is to reduce urban sprawl and increase the city’s density they want to build up and not out the city has been pushing density for a long time it starts with secondary Suites and ends with slowly eroding our quality of life resoning will increase the city’s tax revenue and decrease their operating and capital costs but what about the residents the city says that we have a housing crisis and we need more affordable homes well then build more affordable homes residents have been loud and clear build more affordable housing sorry build more affordable housing in new communities and where it makes sense in existing communities we’ve also heard from the younger generation they cannot find an affordable place to live the city currently operates 10,000 affordable housing units for 25,000 low and moderate income calgarians in need of non-market rental housing there are 7,000 people on the wait list the city is planning on building 300 units per year 300 affordable units per year I suggest that we increase it to 600 units this will provide 1,500 people with affordable living if affordability is the issue then affordability housing is the answer please vote no to resoning and yes to increasing the budget for affordable housing thank you thank you very much for your presentation let’s go to Mike Atkinson please great is that work in there yeah perfect okay yeah uh yeah just zoom to the full page or whatever great hello councel thank you for having me my name is Mike ainson and I am a homeowner in uh B Trail here in Calgary uh and I I want to start my presentation today uh talking about the idea of like stopping people moving to Calgary uh I’m born and raised here uh and one of the things you get to know being born and raised in C as the people move to Calgary but that’s a great thing people choosing to live in this city people choosing to come here and make a life that brings in a lot of vibrancy a lot of new ideas we get to learn from all cultures all over the world we get the best restaurants we get all kinds of benefits when those folks come here and maybe you could do something about immigrants coming from outside of Canada I don’t know uh but you sure can’t stop all the people coming from across Canada they’re Canadians they can live wherever they want there’s nothing you can do about that and if you did that if you did stop that then you would stop people like my wife who moved here from Ontario right you would be stopping this this migration that comes into this city from other cities uh and I think it’s really important to also look at this little chart here this is uh our population over time but I think look at this uh change annually in our population it’s really not that bad the problem is that we haven’t been dealing with this issue for years and years and years and now you’re in a position unfortunately where we have to do some drastic changes to actually be able to accommodate and deal with the problem that’s on us right now the other side of this is uh I want to speak about my mom my mom is actually going to be celebrating 50 years uh in Canada as of uh this October she moved here from Malta uh 50 years ago uh that’s her on the one side there that’s her her 12 grandchildren that that she’s got here in Calgary uh and she’s she’s put a lot of effort into building a family that you know stays here and stays connected in Calgary we get together usually once every week or two and I am so blessed that my kids get to have friends in their cousins that luckily actually all of us got into housing about 10 to 15 years ago at a point in which things were relatively somewhat affordable at the time uh and and that uh you know we’re actually quite connected uh between all of us I visited Malta with my mom a couple years ago and we uh we went and saw my uncle here this is uh him just sitting beside my mom there he actually just died this just couple months back uh he’s from diabetes uh but in the in the Years leading up to his death he actually ended up having both of his legs amputated uh and he would sit out on his front porch and he would to see people as they walk by right you get to see friends and family and and folks and sort of this this uh level of community and why did that happened well that happened actually because uh this parcel of land right here uh he’s right here uh well that entire block there was actually owned by my grandfather and they split it up and they turned it into housing and it actually houses uh almost you know you know a good a good majority of my uh seven uncles and aunts my almost two dozen cousins on this little plot so it was amazing cuz you know my uncle didn’t have a lot of Mobility but uh every day his daughter who lived around the corner would get to walk by the house check in on on his her dad and and and keep on going that’s how we build a community that’s how we do it and luckily they also had this benefit of the ability to sort of bring your your generation the Next Generation forward and to sort of continue on the lot and so with that I just want to sort of move into my my asks of council here uh in this final minute so first encourage non-market housing very very important this is one of the proven ways to actually start combating affordability is to start breaking out of being this corporate bid back and forth and whatever have to encourage and I’m not talking about affordable housing I’m talking about non-market housing like co-ops different models for building housing that gets out of sort of the the make as much money as you can we need to evolve the engagement process in bam Trail I was on the development committee uh over the last little bit for a little while wasn’t on it after a while was on the board wasn’t on it after a while you guys know many of the things that happened in B Trail and uh we need to change the engagement process so that it starts looking at how we make our houses more green how we can start bringing in different demographics into the building how we get people to make their front yards uh something that is more conducive to a a a community thank you for your presentation yes just at time thank you very much okay let’s go to hel and you please are going to need this sorry yes okay yeah got Helen you can come on up thank you honorable mayor and the counselors for hosting this hearing I’ve learned a lot from amazing calgarians my name is Helen U and I’m a resident of world seven I’m in opposition of the blanked resoning because it not only it failed to address the housing shortage and affordability but also it takes away future public hearings in regards to other community land use why do we need a Citywide blanket resoning for po 4.6% possible single family lots in the last several years almost every corner lot in my community has been turned into 4 unit or 8 unit build buildings all is currently under construction each unit is priced at about 700,000 a lot of these units are only for rent most youth won’t be able to afford these rental prices next to my duplex there is an old Bungalow with three bedrooms upstairs and two bedrooms downstairs one young couple living in the basement a second young couple plus their friend occupy the main floor if this Bungalow was converted into a new multi-unit development none of them would be able to afford to keep living in this location many speakers before me have presented enough evidence to prove that blanket reasoning is the wrong solution for the type of housing shortage and affordability we are facing but what has really baffled me is that in the first couple of days of the hearing several developers had no hesitation of the conflict of interest I witnessed the various presidents of student unions nonprofit representatives and even International students passionately accusing mocking and ridiculing single family homeowners for shortsightedness lack of sympathy and consideration and fear of change as if homeowners who oppose blank res zoning singlehandedly caused their hardships I was shocked to see these proceedings they brought to mind instance of the cultural revolution from 1966 to 1976 in China in order to stabilize his sideline political power during the economic collapse chairman ma used the divisive tactics to divide the society to five black classes and the five red classes just for your information landlords belonged to the five black classes which were enemies of the people M instigated young people to Rebel to traditional ideas culture customs and habits millions of young red guards responded to M’s call forming local revolutionary committees they proclaimed that to Rebel is Justified schools closed books burned intellectuals were expelled jailed or eliminated property seized historical sculptures demolished cultural artifacts and the materials destroyed children reported on parents while wives reported on husbands or vice versa Uprising everywhere over 10 million Urban USS were forced to relocate to the remote Countryside the chaotic and the violent movement lined the many families and the lives we need to look into history and learn from it to avoid the repeating tragedies did I hear correctly we are not building a city for grandparents we are bu building a city for Young Generation are we going to create Injustice and inequity in the name of social justice and Equity did the grandparents not fight so hard during World War I and World War II for the freedom peace and prosperity we have been enjoying through this hearing I Can See Clearly that we are being lured into a constructed ethical trap but homeowners are not as oppressor here and the youth are not as oppressed in fact both have suffered from the failed federal government policies I wish all the best to the youth the sky did not fall on immigrants came 100 years ago it did not fall on to immigrants that came 50 years ago or on to me who came 24 years ago the majority of speakers here have expressed favor of resoning but not blanked resoning with all due respect I implore mayor and councilors to vote no to blank resoning thank you for your time thank you for your presentation one last call do we have Wesley brindle hello hello hi is this Wes can you hear me now yes we sure can we heard a lot of piano playing before but now we’ve got you oh that I wish I was that good on the piano but I’m not I don’t know who that I don’t know what that was but I’m on my landline now so sorry about that my cell phone must have went bad that’s okay please go ahead okay thanks for the chance to speak as we follow these proceedings it has slowly become obvious that the council is very shortsighted and has no idea what to do after painting themselves into a corner you want to slowly destroy all of the established neighborhoods to raise taxes we were around 40 years old when we got together with me and my wife and she was finishing her schooling to become a psychologist me with a high school education started a transportation and safety company with my existing vehicle with the things I had we scrimped and saved a few years and without much time off and saved up for down payment house we now have a nice comfortable 1600t home in pineridge that we wanted to live out our lives here because at 67 years we had it all set up now this is all up in the air and we may need to relocate during uh du only if you check out YouTube You’ll see counselor cot explaining how we in Pine Ridge here in600 ft now live in a mansion anyway there is plenty of land around Calgary for plan development and you can Zone build all types of fresh properties for people to be proud when they live there and and with all the proper infrastructure for many years a happy living and affordable houses with ro housing or anything you want to build out there you know it it just doesn’t seem to really make any any sense for me Stony Trail seems to be the borderline for inner city now while Stony Trail was put there because a lot of industry and everything is on the outside of Stony Trail so people can commute to work in Foothills Industrial Park from the east side of Calgary and stuff like that and it’s not uh not a big deal the entitled youth that thinks everything should be handed to them at the expense of our retirement dream being destroyed should look inward for some answers they seek there are already a few illegal suites nearby and the city won’t even look into these things cuz they’re afraid of hurting somebody’s feelings why should we believe that the proper oversight of rezoning would be handled by the city now and it’s understood why nothing was being done because of this rezoning let’s have a plebis site or wait till the election to decide to for the decision to be made uh we don’t want council’s Legacy to be the destruction of Calgary start with the neighborhoods that need to need it and consider you know the places with universities and stuff maybe you want to put up some apartment buildings use some of that city property anyway the the disruptions that come with the construction if the property next to me are purchased and developed and the need to fight for RCV zoning don’t take that away from my output or don’t take that output away from me sorry anyway um I keep hearing how people moved here to get away from density and now emergency on our part or sorry what we have worked with for many years poor planning on their part does not constitute an emergency on my part anyway it’s it’s Justin Trudeau is our George W bush trying to save his father after we kicked him out after that National energy policy in the early ‘ 80s which probably nobody remembers but it was always good to have a conservative conservative government that could keep them back allowing outside real estate investment to drive up prices is a big part of what is happening if you don’t live here you can’t own here as well and I’m well aware of the Ontario area codes on the rental side when something comes available in my neighborhood I look forward to the next municipal election when I can show you my appreciation for your decisions thank you very much for your time thank you for your presentation let’s go to questions for this panel we’ll start with councelor Spencer please thank you mayor uh my question is for Mr David Mr David I just wanted to introduce you to this gentleman with the green tie and the great hair right here this is general manager Keane um I appreciated your conversation your presentation um can can you just give us a sense of you’ve obviously done a lot of research on this do you have a jurisdiction that you would look to that’s getting that great balance between the carrots and sticks I really liked your idea that you presented today it’s a bit loaded that question uh coun Spencer just because you know you’re one level of government but you work hand inand with other levels of government so in some jurisdictions um you know there is a a provincial code let’s say that is a bit more Progressive and so you you might not to be as heavy-handed at the local level because you have that to back stop you um what I would say that I’ve seen work well is tiered codes yeah that works very well for both Builders and you know people to know what is coming down the line um and to stick to those tiers and interestingly enough uh if we look at um British Columbia for instance at least with energy because that’s kind of more my forte um there’s been jurisdictions that have been able to municipalities that have jumped forward that said oh we’ve already been able to hit this base level we’ll just move forward because we’re already doing it uh so I think that gives industry the um bit more confidence to know what’s coming down the line otherwise they’ll also come up here and then change tune and say you know if you do this it’s going to drive up the cost so I think tiered codes are certainly one way to um Implement things effectively um I mean in the context of the conversation obviously I mean the panel just before you and you mentioned it I mean we want good outcomes yeah um but you as you look at uh the proposal that’s before us you you’re identifying an an opportunity with what we’ve presented to get better outcomes I’m curious in terms of how confident you think that would operationalize um if we were to make such a change at the execution level um yes so it um one of the things I can talk to a little bit would have been about the lap process and kind of submitting some changes during the process honestly I didn’t feel like that was a super effective so that’s kind of why I’m up here now saying if I’d rather just have a better set of rules so if the rules were better then I think the outcomes could be better okay um so regardless of where whatever Direction this goes um the city is involved in aligned use bylaw refresh um so if you haven’t already open that portal and given some feedback um they could use voices like yours so thank you very much for being here today sir thanks you bet thanks let’s go to councelor Walcott please you can pretty much resend mine I had exactly the same questions for Mr David as uh Mr Spencer did so please feel free to move on okay let’s go to councelor putman’s please thank you mayor Mr SCH Please Mr Bob SCH yes I’m here hi it’s Richard pman I wonder if I may ask you one or two questions thank you for your support of more affordable housing I think everyone in the room agrees 110% with you on that but what I’d like to do is drill down a bit with you to discuss in the neighborhoods the development of infill Housing and how you feel about that well I think um you know a lot of the discussion centers around this so-called missing middle you know the the people that think that um that if you increase the density then you’ll increase more affordable housing and I think that the market determines the prices of houses it it it’s not the city building or not building houses but you know when I look around the city I’ve been here for a while uh when I look around the city I see um a lot of infills and they fit in with the community and these communities are I’d say the older communities you know they’re probably 50 60 70 years old you know so I think it’s appropriate when you know someone has a house and needs a lot of repair and the most effective thing to do is to rebuild the house I think it it makes a lot of sense and and the quality of life in Calgary is absolutely fantastic I mean we’ve heard so many people talk about how great the quality of life is when the city first designed this place they designed it right we live in a beautiful place so let’s keep it a beautiful place what a nice note to finish on thank you Mr Mr small thank you mayor thank you let’s go to councelor Wong please thank you mayor uh Mr ainson please thank you I’m not sure if you fully finished your presentation did you have one more slide there or something like that it was it was just basically to accept and yeah approve the the Citywide resoning um I I think it’s really important I’ve been to many of these Council hearings for things uh in bam Trail over the last number of years um your time is important it was really great tuning in accidentally on Wednesday morning and hear you talk about something else uh for a little bit and we have a lot of really important issues for this city going forward uh and I would really like your time to be focused on on some of those matters you got to get it right for sure we have to get it right and I so that’s why I really appreciate you taking this time uh we got to hear these stories we have to make sure that we don’t have these problems but there also has to be a path forward where not every single time that a development goes up that’s you know above one person or one family living in an area or two if it happens to be developed in an rc2 area it has to come through Council and then you have to get find people from the community uh to come out and sort of say like is this a good thing is this not um there has to be some sort of Better Way Forward forward yeah um after just seeing sort of there’s been a lot of talk about the lap process and and that kind of sort of side of things we do have an lip in bam Trail it’s been amended but even that does not provide uh a path forward even for the rcg units in the area as you know restrictive covenants have been an issue within bam Trail there have been uh it it is I’ve literally seen it actually tear my community apart and and in I I do hang that on the engagement process for the city people don’t know what they can talk about right they’re asked whether they like something or whether they don’t um do you like it or do you not and then you provide all the list of answers on why you think you should or why you think you shouldn’t uh we need to evolve that process we need to start talking about how we get things to be more envir environmentally friendly or to to to to push um sort of different ways of of mobility within the city or whatever so that’s that’s yeah that was my final U piece okay you you touched on where I was going to go which is the engagement process sure and your your graphics showed different sort of considerations that went in the engagement process um and you and I know the the history of where b tril b Trail went I guess the question I have is given to what you’ve done you know your experience in B Trail given what you’ve just said what would be the single most thing that we could change on engagement process uh I think it I think it’s asking better questions that are in a yes or no answer right actually getting people to like come to the table and have discussions um you know hearing the story like we heard earlier of the the shade um right and and the effects that that is going to cause there’s the con concerns around water drainage and these kinds of things there are solutions that’s that’s another reason to bring in people all over the world like solutions to these problems exist Australia has incredible uh you know developmental guidelines in terms of sight lines from Windows into next door residences and they apply to all new buildings whether it’s a fourplex or whether it’s a giant mansion going up beside you right it doesn’t matter uh if the if the windows are coming into your backyard so so what can we take from elsewhere in the world and build into our process to to sort of like make certain things uh this is how it is this is how we have a path to move forward but then to also structure what is it that we’re actually allowed to talk about what are the concerns that we can actually address in the design and the development process um just being yeah I think a little more uh less black and white and starting to sort of get people to sort of say like okay if this is going to happen how do we make this the best possibility for everyone knowing that in some ways there is going to be pain points for everybody involved right so to answer to your point ask better questions right ask good questions but we also heard throughout this nine days people don’t always have the background don’t have the the the understanding don’t have the um literacy or or understanding of bylaws right yes so to be able to form a good question you need to have that knowledge correct I don’t know that you do I think like a lot of the bylaws and things and the height restrictions and and like these are technical things right like um yeah setback limits and these they’re based in livability and and whatever in theory right like we’ve we’ve set these numbers in terms of of livability but I think um I think you can have conversations about like the what it’s like to live in a neighborhood that don’t necessarily have to be to you have to be totally informed but when you run into the sort of the bureaucracy of okay I’m having to come to Council there’s something going up next to me next door uh I don’t know what it is I actually I haven’t even seen the drawings the first time people sometimes see the drawings is even right like coming to council they don’t necessarily know how to access the portals all these kinds of things right um those complications add to the stress and then there is then you start if you start to open up like rcg bylaws like they’re not written for even someone like myself that has been involved I’m not a planner by trade I have no background in this it’s it was just through being involved with my Community Association and putting in time uh in the on the development committee that I sort of gained a bit of knowledge on these things and and and dove in a bit more but I think those questions about livability how uh sight lines how we’re doing uh you know water catchment on site these kinds of like you don’t need um you don’t need to know the bylaws to make a suggestion that like can we do something about the water catchment that not only doesn’t dump it and ruin this person’s Foundation but actually captures it and maybe even makes it available to her a water you know like there are ways in which this neighborliness can occur through but you have to tell people what it is we is it at Play Because when it’s all at play when it’s at play from it can be built in the exact way that is being put forward and it can just get put through as the developer put through put it or it can get denied on the other side well then that huge Spectrum doesn’t actually allow for a fruitful conversation to take place yeah okay my my final question is just simply this the previous panel we heard a lot of what you just recited um from Miss papovich and and uh Mr Calvin believe was yeah I guess my concern is if we approve the blanket resoning without improving the engagement without improving the awareness the risk that we run into is guess the greatest question do you believe there’s a risk in B tril if we don’t inform educate before we implement this well I think like in bam Trail where we need to be it is not about the rcg housing we have let uh you know that there’s been that stat I think what 94% have been passed whatever right let’s use a broader broader exactly but and I think for us it’s what we need people to come to the table about actually is not the rcg housing what we need to be talking about are actually the fourplex six plexes that are going to be going up by the train stations these kinds of things right um but it needs to be conversations around uh like what’s on the ground floor are we talking about only housing um one one kind of unit is there commercial do I get an ice cream store is there a daycare like right when when you start to bring in the possibilities that’s how people start to imagine oh my neighborhood actually could be growing and getting better because now we’re actually starting to have uh a conversation around those kinds of things so I think the stability on some things might be able to then refocus that energy into the areas that we really need it right uh these these larger develop in terms of B Trail uh because we already have been seeing that development um and I think it’s we’re just at a point with the the mdp and these kinds of things that like that has left the building right like rcgs are getting approved proved at 94% yes small changes are made and and these kinds of things I think that that can be done through a smart and engaged planning process that doesn’t necessarily have to come to this table and then let’s refocus that those lap efforts on this extra density how does it work where does commercial come in to create more livable communities uh bringing in commercial how are we trying to make it so that people can age in place where are the starter homes like those are the questions right when you look at how are we getting people to sit on their front porch and meet their neighbors where are the places that people are walking their dogs how do we encourage places that allow renters to bring pets into the those kinds of questions that are more about humans living in the space that’s where we need to refocus our our attention and efforts thank you because you just hit exactly what I was going to get to that engagement is not just about you know approving a land use and for that matter it’s not even just about approving a DP it’s about building communities building neighborhoods thank you yeah great thank you I think we’ve got councelor shabbo now you Miss Evans um I want to start out by saying um I was actually surprised to hear your presentation I I liked your presentation it was good well done um I I’m just trying to understand do you think there’s a path forward based on our current proposal IE through amendments or do you think we need to start over I I like the idea of amendments I don’t like middle of the block um infills stuff like that I support ba uh basement Suites uh Carriage Houses my mom and I actually joked that if they were to build a Carriage House they’d never get rid of me so I support those ideas my reluctance in just passing this with amendments Echoes something else I heard somebody say in that the trust is kind of eroded in not informing the people accurately and comprehensively about what was going on so I think you’re going to have difficulties even passing it with amendments that are fair right we’re an intimidating Bunch aren’t we I do much better on one-on-one when I can kind of talk to somebody I don’t know um I think you’ve done a great job I um and I guess the other question is um the engagement idea that’s been discussed do you think we there was one presenter Miss um Lis Lis Lisa po Lisa P she was talking about using our NPCs as at least that method and the ne neighborhood program or partnership coordinator program coordinator whatever they are uh anyways the way they engage with community ities U at least maybe as an intermediary between the planning department especially when it comes to things like local area plans to help to help I guess bring the community on side do you think that’s a good process to go forward with as far as looking at more comprehensive sort of strategic planned intensification yes I do and I actually believe with this process that’s been going on you’ll get a lot more engagement than may have prior I know I recognized one of the things I said was a little bit contradictory in that uh I don’t see socioeconomic diversity in all the communities in Calgary during my lifetime and one can argue well shouldn’t we leave the future better for everyone and I believe absolutely and I think when I do buy a home that I am definitely going to work on getting into those getting more active in those communities um just one last question is when your parents ever ask you to take your stuff with you when you go um so it’s been about five times I’ve stopped taking my stuff with me when I go sorry that’s terrible question no further questions thank you thank you thank you and that’s it for the questions for this panel so thank you all for being here with us today we appreciate all of your presentations um we’ve got a little bit of time left I know Janice low are you still on the line yes I am okay please stay there I’m going to put you on to this next panel I think we’ve got time for a couple of people so um is there anyone on the line that was on a panel prior to 190 yes uh I am it’s number 90 panel 91 it’s Susan Fox oh okay you’re back Susan okay thank you and hi I was on 177 hi Sor which one were you on 129 yeah and your name David C okay thank you and did I hear somebody else on the line as well yeah this is Corbin AR uh for 177 okay do we have anybody else all right Council I’m going to ask for General consent to extend past 9:30 does anyone have a concern with that seeing and hearing none we will hear from these four speakers uh Janice low why don’t you start us off good evening my name is Janna slow as someone who has worked with the homeless people with developmental disabilities and people in Correctional institutions I firmly support building affordable housing for those in poverty and making housing more affordable for the public by building new easily accessible communities connected to our public transit system however I strongly oppose the current rezoning plan for four reasons rezoning would quadruple the population density of wellestablished communities increase the amount of crime and safety issues in these communities hurt housing affordability by increasing the cost of all property and reduce the property values of detached homes which have four plexes and roow houses built beside them this does not only affect those who are wealthy reduced property values also affects lowincome retired couples including one I care about who immigrated to Calgary over 40 years ago from Asia both individuals worked the mother worked in three different jobs to cover their costs they lost everything twice while living in Calgary and contined to use furniture that is falling apart and wear clothes with holes in them because they prefer to provide food for other people rather than spend money on themselves rezoning will negatively affect them since their only major asset is their home which they purchased when they first moved here and is now located in a beautiful wellestablished Community I sympathize with students I was a university student for eight years I lived in basement Suites and rented and my husband lived with his parents until we bought our first home when we were in our 30s nevertheless I question why so many students seem to think that they should be able to buy a home right out of University or when they were in their 20s I don’t think most people ever could we certainly couldn’t however if it is a problem of not being able to afford rent one could better address this through building affordable homes in mass in newer communities where land costs less I’m deeply disappointed that city council opposed A pleite on such an important issue and denied calgarians the ability to consent to or reject this proposal I hope that you correct this after these hearings by holding a pleite which allows each Community to support or reject resoning in their own neighborhood as a mother with young children and a Calgary homeowner living in a safe Community is extremely important to me when we first bought our home over 10 years ago we chose a home in the outskirts of Calgary because it was much more affordable and we thought it would be a safe area since that time there was a murder on the street behind us and another murder several roads down the way both murders were targeted and drug related however we increasingly feel like Cal is becoming more and more unsafe crime is not the only thing increasing in Calgary we are also facing a serious issue of uncleanliness over the past few years there has been a rampant increase in the number of people leaving dog poo on people’s front Lawns and on public paths furthermore ever since alcohol was legalized in parks there has been a radical increase in the number of broken bottles found in and around playgrounds and on public paths broken glass is extremely dangerous for children playing in playgrounds and a serious concern for bicyclists and people walking their dogs I also question how increased density will affect our power grid a few months ago we were asked to shut off our lights and ovens on one of the coldest nights of the year due to power grid shortages increasing the population density of existing residential communities will only exasperate these issues lastly city-wide resoning should be rejected since it will not increase the supply of affordable housing we heard from many people that reduce Supply in one type of housing increases the cost of that type of Housing and the cost of every other type of housing city-wide resoning would actually increase the amount of unaffordable housing by reducing the supply of detached homes this is evident in Toronto and Vancouver where even the smallest homes cost exorbitant rates simply because these cities are so overpopulated since 60% of the homes that are bought are detached homes the supply of all types of homes needs to be increased proportionally including detached houses we could easily do this through expanding on the other side of the Ring Road and connecting new communities to our sea train system if you want to make life more affordable I would recommend reversing your decision to increase property taxes by 8% please vote against this highly divisive blanket rezoning of Calgary and choose a more conciliatory approach by building affordable homes in mass in new communities please take the advice of the many well-educated people who have offered excellent alternatives to address housing affordability thank you very much thank you for your presentation let’s go to Susan Fox please yeah thank you for taking my call um I do not support blanket zoning I live in bedington community a settled Community uh and I feel this blanket zoning will eventually evolve into a 15minute smart City’s government control the cost of operating this kind of community will fall on the taxpayers not the transient Community uh I don’t believe there was a short for housing I think the real problem is the huge influx of illegal immigrants into Canada and the big cities which we are not prepared to house or handle the answer we feel is do a mass deportation follow the immigration guideline and the according to the Constitution of Canada bring down the property tax to normality uh so housing and Rental will be affordable and last but not least um I feel you should consult with the premier before making rash decisions not just in trudo the Premier has the ultimate authority over Financial distribution uh to do in regards to the municipalities and cities accepting a bribe from Justin trudo as a slap on our democracy thank you thank you for your presentation let’s go to David cots please hi can you hear me we can Okay um I’m opposed to blanket resoning in the City of Calgary and surrounding areas I live in w 11 overlooking the LRT so my property is definitely at risk for this sort of thing we purchased the house here after considering all the factors of the location the neighborhood consists of many detached homes one of the great advantages is to have more space for everyone and better privacy since there are less people on the streets it is easier to have Community feelings this is often lost in higher density settings in communities like the resident turnover is lower in communities like this the resident turnover is lower and it is easier to identify Outsiders this way all residents can feel safer existing communities were planned and built in with initially approved density in mind mindless increasing the amount of residents in these neighborhoods will create unnecessary challenges to the residents of these areas increasing problems will devalue the properties in these communities making them less desirable as it can be seen in areas where changes have already started new buildings are not planned with consideration to fit nicely into the existing landscape mixing Styles like this diminishes curve appeal of the whole area should Council wish to increase density in certain neighbors neighborhoods these should be identified and infrastructure upgrades performed before increasing residency there are very costly upgrades to existing roads parkings amenities and even utilities preparation should be done before changes are started not to be instead of an afterthought Calgary Council should be more efficient with our tax dollars if you want higher density make it a goal in new prop properly planned areas do not blindly mess with the rest of the city now let’s turn to climate emergency this Council approves at the beginning of this term if this is a main road map We are following now blanket resoning of the City and surrounding areas will work against goals established how let’s start with temperature it is a well-known fact that temperature in cities is higher than in surrounding areas due to lack of green spaces which are absorbing heat instead of reflecting it older communities have large Lots attached to them in most of them people have nice Lawns Trees Gardens all these areas help the city maintain lower temperature absorb water and provide environments for diverse flora and fauna how much of the an animal diversity will be lost when green areas diminish how much overhaul temperature will rise when grass is replaced with concrete and buildings reflecting sun and warming the air around it we are told that the air is already too hot many people use air conditioning in the summer now how many more will need to resort to cooling their homes when you increase temperatures in the areas and the city overall what effect will that have on the electrical grid we are already starting to see blackouts you really need to have it monthly weekly or maybe a daily occurrence especially during summer do not forget concrete and rs accumulate heat during the day they return this heat during the night by heating the air around them our nightly breaks from the heat will become nonexistent and neighborhoods as neighborhoods are densified we’re to told to prevent to prepare for summer with water shortages and this issue will likely repeat in following years have you considered the effect of decreasing green spaces increasing runoff how many plants how will plants then be watered if they cannot suck enough water from the green areas around and need more water due to higher temperatures are we to expect to lose many of our beloved plants including trees just because our city council decided to put more concrete around them and lower our survival chances now let’s talk about communication you want to put a put you want to put way more people into the areas without improving roads and parking yes we know your climate plan implies that we will dis ditch our cars and use public transit but let’s be realistic our Transit is not a good option why would someone travel for two hours when they can take a car by that takes 20 minutes yes this is reality if you try to go far Mr CS thank you thank you for your presentation you’re just at time so please hang on please stay on the line on mute in case there’s questions for you all right thank you thank you do we have Corbin or RI yes please go ahead hello hello uh city council mayor ladies and gentlemen and Friends beyond the binary I stand uh well on the phone with you as a born and raised calgarian a business owner and somebody who enjoys many aspects of Calgary um however I cannot ignore the pressing issues that have led me to speak with you today Calgary as it currently stands is a city dominated by car Centric infrastructure suburban sprawl that is unsustainable and many locations within the city have become what I can only describe as non-places areas devoid of character Community complex native ecology and a sense of belong in it pains me to see the city in this husk of EST State while this uh hearing and this vote for blanket zoning to rcg is a step in the right direction it is unfortunately a very very small one what Calgary truly needs is a more comprehensive approach such as a blanket adoption of hgo um and a focus on pedestrianization active forms of transportation and public transit that’s actually high frequency and high quity while encouraging the development of residential businesses in all neighborhoods and mixed use areas these are very important things as we face this climatological crisis it is with a heavy heart that I must confess a Twist I have left this city behind despite my deep roots there with my parents brother and many friends and family who are still close to my heart still residing in Calgary the city’s current state made me deeply sad and pained and had to leave um a few years ago to toas DC uh in search of a walkable small town that was in close proximity to a big economy and City Vancouver that is I understand that this status as a non-resident May trigger some people but I cannot stress how important this issue is Calgary which is my birthplace deserves to be renewed into a livable vibrant City once again small actions like blanket zoning to rcg are a small start and we must focus on a more comprehensive solution such as prompting uh promoting co-ops and public housing so I implore you I implore you city council members to take bold action to transform the City of Calgary that prioritizes the well-being of its residents Fosters a sense of community and encourage sustainable growth um thank you for your time and consideration and I I really hope and sincerely want to see Calgary flourish and become livable and a VI City that it has the potential to be thank you thank you very much for your presentation thank you to this panel there are no questions for you so we appreciate you making the time to give us your presentations today now before we wrap for the night I’m just going to read out um who was registered on panels 163 through to 187 that was unable to join us I’m only going to read these names today but everyone who missed their opportunity should know that as long as the public hearing still going you can come let us know that you’re here and we’ll get you into a panel so from panel 163 we had Bob Benson Joanne Allens I think it is or Atkins Joanne Atkins and Robin Windsor from panel 164 we had Sarah gettis 165 was Nicole Chan 166 was Michelle Williams 167 John wildenberg Christopher Lesley 168 was Kathy Schultz Pelzer and trayon Zer and Jaclyn North Pagan 169 was Justin Paul om Mahoney and Clay Knights panel 171 Aron Ramos 172 Jordan Murray Roger shanik Kathy Danielson and Alvin cabaron panel 175 Imad taad saes Shan magum and Jes camell manise panel 177 no nobody because we just had Corbin panel 178 Katherine bled and Amy Poore panel 180 Juan Gomez panel 184 try fam Frank Anderson and Robert zabowski panel 187 a Katarina petrovich and Cassandra mallich so tomorrow we will start off by asking if there’s anyone here that missed their opportunity and we’ll get people into panels from there and we’ll start with panel 190 which will be lindsy Davis Andy cotch Shirley art Linda nesset and Richard Hill in case anybody’s wondering the informal count so far is 611 speakers and we have about 92 registered speakers remaining but I think there’s been some more people who have signed on so we’ll get you official counts tomorrow councelor thall you have a request you’re good okay thank you with that everyone we will see you tomorrow at 9:30 tomorrow we run from from 9:30 till 6:00 thank you e e