The biggest — and possibly most consequential — public hearing in Calgary’s history started with a whimper. In fact, it almost never got started at all.More than 1,000 people packed Calgary’s city hall and council chambers Monday morning to consider what could prove to be one of the most significant changes in municipal legislation in decades.That’s because the proposed blanket rezoning law would upend decades of municipal planning and allow a free-for-all of residential redevelopment under the premise of addressing the city’s housing crisis. It’s neatly summed up in the acronym ‘RC-G’.Over the next week, council will hear from more than 700 presenters and consider another 5,500 written submissions either for or against the proposal that could see construction of nearly 85,000 new homes, the number of homes the city said it needs built..Sessions will run every day this week, except Sunday, from 9:30 am to 9:30 pm, and spill into next week if necessary. That’s notwithstanding the next scheduled council meeting is next Tuesday, April 30.Supporters say it would allow for a greater diversity of housing types in all residential areas of the city; detractors say it will allow for a flood of cheap multi-family and row housing that will ultimately hurt property values.But it almost never even got off the ground after Ward 10 Councillor Andre Chabot worried that the proceedings posed a conflict of interest — not just to him but the entire council — because their respective properties would ultimately be re-zoned..Almost immediately, a passionate debate erupted about how to proceed. Councillor Gian-Carlo Carra called Chabot’s concerns “political theatre” given that councillors are required to vote on issues such as taxes where they have a pecuniary interest.The result?Mayor Jyoti Gondek halted proceedings to call a special ‘in-camera’ — off the record — session to consider the matter. More than an hour later, council was reconvened and the hearing was allowed to proceed as scheduled.Even though feedback suggests more than 70% of Calgarians disapprove of it, there was only one person who spoke against it in initial presentations — because it would upend trees in a ‘climate emergency’. More than 52 community associations have signed an open letter opposing it. In March, a motion to send the issue to a plebiscite was rejected by an 8-6 vote. But the overwhelming number of presentations were in favour of the zoning, framing it as an issue of generational justice.Said one 30-something who argued single-home family zoning is obsolete: 5,000-sq.-ft. houses allowed as acceptable under present zoning laws “are garish displays of wealth and extravagance… why is this acceptable?”
