Juno News - May 01, 2024


Calgarians outraged over rezoning plans

Topics
mid-block infrastructure problems
Mentioned
Rachel Emanuel Councillor Dan McLean Alberta Roundup
Poilievre hints at using notwithstanding clause to pass tough-on-crime laws Trudeau blames EVERYBDOY except himself for housing crisis

Episode Stats


Length

10 minutes

Words per minute

192.57

Word count

1,997

Sentence count

158

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this week's episode, Councillor Dan Mclean joins me to discuss Calgary's proposed blanket rezoning plan, which would see existing single family homes converted into townhomes and row houses. We talk about the potential issues that could arise from this change, including infrastructure issues and parking issues.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.760 Rachel Emanuel brings the news each day on Alberta Roundup. She has her say.
00:00:11.040 Hey everyone, welcome back to the Alberta Roundup. I'm your host Rachel Emanuel.
00:00:15.400 Outrage has broken out in Calgary as Calgary City Council has proposed new rezoning efforts.
00:00:22.780 The city has entered week two of its largest and longest hearing ever.
00:00:26.980 As scrutiny of the city's proposed blanket rezoning strategy continues.
00:00:31.660 The rezoning would amend land use bylaws in neighborhoods that currently allow oling for single family homes.
00:00:37.940 Meaning that areas now zoned for oling single or semi-detached homes would be rezoned and allow for townhomes and row houses.
00:00:46.040 Joining us now to discuss is Calgary Ward 13 City Councilor Dan McLean.
00:00:50.580 Dan, thanks so much for joining us today.
00:00:52.500 Thanks and good morning Rachel.
00:00:53.720 So one of the questions that I'm hearing a lot of when I talk to Calgary residents is they actually aren't sure how many properties are going to be allowed on a home.
00:01:01.880 So for example, let's say you live in a neighborhood, there's a little old bungalow beside you.
00:01:05.940 That bungalow could be sold, it could be taken down and four new properties could be built.
00:01:10.200 The city's saying it could be four.
00:01:11.660 The city's also saying that there would be allowed suites in each one of those four units.
00:01:16.700 Which would actually mean that there's eight new properties on a home beside you, which before was just a bungalow with maybe a couple people living in it.
00:01:23.220 So what's your understanding of what's actually going to be allowed under these rezoning efforts?
00:01:27.940 Yeah, I think the city has done a very poor job communicating this.
00:01:31.480 When they say four units, that means they have four doors that come off of a sidewalk or off a street.
00:01:36.220 But you're correct.
00:01:37.280 It actually includes four basement suites.
00:01:39.180 But it's actually even worse than that.
00:01:41.880 You could have four backyard suites or granny suites.
00:01:45.560 So it's not just four.
00:01:47.040 It could be eight or 12.
00:01:49.600 12 units on one property.
00:01:52.520 So one of the problems that's going to arise with this is obviously infrastructure.
00:01:55.880 These neighborhoods weren't built.
00:01:57.020 The roads weren't built to allow for all the parking.
00:01:59.060 There could be problems with the sewage.
00:02:00.420 There could be problems with the recycling at the road.
00:02:02.640 Currently, I live in Rockland Park.
00:02:04.400 I'm only saying that because we're actually moving shortly.
00:02:06.100 Otherwise, I wouldn't let my viewers know where I live.
00:02:07.620 But it's one of five masterclass cities being built across Calgary.
00:02:11.940 And it's really incredible what they've done with the infrastructure here.
00:02:14.400 There's a townhouse complex towards the end that was built to develop and have extra parking for all people that live in the townhouses.
00:02:20.320 As well, there's mass recycling bins, mass garbage bins to really manage all the people.
00:02:25.200 But when we have a situation where you could have a bungalow beside you that's now turning into eight units,
00:02:29.820 what's going to happen to the infrastructure in the city?
00:02:31.500 Because it just doesn't seem like things are going to hold up.
00:02:35.540 Good point.
00:02:36.260 And again, it could be 12.
00:02:37.620 Already, in some of these communities that have started to densify, there's problems in the back alleys with, like you said, trash containers.
00:02:45.600 And don't forget parking.
00:02:46.720 Parking is a big one.
00:02:47.700 They're talking about 0.5 units, 0.5 parking stalls.
00:02:51.980 I had one person present the other day, and they said, who drives half a car?
00:02:56.960 I mean, this is where we're at.
00:02:58.320 So if you have, say, a single family home, like you said, one trash can and two parking spots, and maybe you can park in front of you if you have a driveway and a garage.
00:03:08.980 But now this is going to be a problem with additional parking.
00:03:12.160 If you are in center block, mid-block is where we are going to see most of the problems.
00:03:15.960 If you have a corner or on a busy thoroughway by close to a transit station, I understand this density is needed in the right places.
00:03:24.300 But mid-block and middle of established communities, that's where people are having a problem.
00:03:29.880 Because not only with the parking, not only with the crowded trash containers, but like you had mentioned, Rachel, the infrastructure.
00:03:37.680 Can we handle that many more toilets flushing? 1.00
00:03:40.780 And who's going to pay for it?
00:03:42.840 So, yeah, there's some big issues here to consider.
00:03:45.760 Why doesn't the city use city-owned land to build some new houses instead of having people who have really invested their entire livelihood into their home?
00:03:53.740 I mean, you think about it, homes costing half a million dollars.
00:03:56.100 People spend lifetimes paying off mortgages, and their investment is being ripped away from them.
00:04:00.180 They don't know what's going to happen to the neighborhood they live in.
00:04:02.700 Why doesn't the city use their own resources?
00:04:04.440 Yeah, it's their biggest investment probably in their life.
00:04:08.020 The uncertainty has created chaos in the market as well.
00:04:11.160 The city does own lots of properties.
00:04:13.760 We're the single largest landowner, obviously.
00:04:16.840 And a lot of these properties are by transit stations and community corridors, you know, and it knows the transit nodes.
00:04:24.300 So we should be developing those first.
00:04:26.620 I agree with that completely.
00:04:28.280 And then gentle density.
00:04:30.180 So what's happening now, Rachel, is we already have what's called local area planning, where the city goes through each community.
00:04:36.820 And then they decide, okay, well, right here is where we can maybe add some more density.
00:04:41.640 You know, some rural housing or some townhouses.
00:04:43.760 But right here is not a good place for it.
00:04:46.220 And here's where we can maybe put a shopping mall or maybe a grocery store or a convenience store.
00:04:50.960 It takes a little longer, but it's well thought out and it's planned per community.
00:04:55.680 We should just continue doing that.
00:04:57.620 This is now blanket is what I consider just lazy and you have to question the motives behind it.
00:05:03.600 Sure.
00:05:04.020 When we're talking about questioning the motives, I mean, another thing that's been raised is it almost seems like this could be a cash grab for city property taxes.
00:05:10.980 If you think about it, if you live somewhere, you're one house, you're paying property taxes on that one property.
00:05:15.560 That's taken down.
00:05:16.740 That's created into four units, maybe suites.
00:05:18.660 You said it could be up to 12.
00:05:19.680 Now, all those separate units are paying property taxes.
00:05:22.760 The city is going to just be raking in the property taxes here.
00:05:26.000 And we're talking about affordable housing.
00:05:27.460 I mean, in most cases, this isn't affordable housing that's going up.
00:05:30.840 Some of these townhouses that are being built are still going for $650,000.
00:05:34.540 That's an insane amount of money for a townhouse.
00:05:36.680 You don't even have a lot of land.
00:05:37.820 So the city is just going to be raking in on the property taxes.
00:05:40.680 Could that be a possible motivation for why they seem so bent on pushing forward this policy that it seems nobody wants?
00:05:48.480 Well, of course, the city is going to have additional taxes.
00:05:51.180 And you're quite low on your $600,000 marks.
00:05:53.680 A lot of these are a million, a million plus.
00:05:55.860 They'll take a $600,000, $700,000 bungalow.
00:06:00.200 And again, this is where the speculation comes in.
00:06:02.040 It's not just the city that's going to be raking in money.
00:06:05.180 It's the industry developers.
00:06:06.680 I'm a capitalist.
00:06:09.280 I believe in the free market.
00:06:11.340 But this is still giving an unfair advantage.
00:06:14.680 You will see developers coming in, buying up people's homes in certain places.
00:06:20.360 And then what that does is it puts pressure on the person that wants to stay there in their forever home and keep that home.
00:06:25.220 They have their equity, but it's not just that.
00:06:27.060 They enjoy their backyard and their neighbors and their trees, and they move there for a reason.
00:06:31.420 But then two or three neighbors on that block decide to cash out with the speculators.
00:06:37.420 And next thing you know, their enjoyment of their property, maybe they put up solar panels, and maybe they've invested in a garden.
00:06:44.740 All of a sudden, they're moving out.
00:06:45.820 And so it just destroys the fabric of those communities, which is, again, why people are upset about it.
00:06:51.620 The affordable housing aspect of it, you'll see that was a really huge narrative at the beginning of this.
00:06:57.140 Everybody's backing away.
00:06:59.820 We've had multiple presenters, experts, from the chief economists from Calgary Real Estate Board, saying that this will not make homes less affordable.
00:07:09.020 It's been proven in New Zealand and in Vancouver, anywhere where density, the length of density has been done, it has not lowered the prices of homes at all.
00:07:16.460 It's been actually the reverse.
00:07:18.260 So now we're not hearing that narrative because it doesn't carry any water.
00:07:22.980 It's more about building more supplies.
00:07:24.780 So, yeah, that's kind of my take on it.
00:07:29.680 How likely is it that this policy continues to go through at this point?
00:07:32.600 I mean, I feel fairly confident in saying Calgary residents, by and large, don't want this.
00:07:36.200 It's a small percentage of people who support these policies.
00:07:38.940 But the homeowners who have spent their lives, as we mentioned, investing in their properties, don't want this.
00:07:43.060 So what are the chances that we can actually reverse this and get back to some common sense?
00:07:47.500 So what we're going to be having is a few more, several more days of debate.
00:07:52.560 And then we will debate amongst ourselves or several more days of public hearings.
00:07:58.100 And then that's when the councils will debate and put amendments forward.
00:08:01.120 The first thing I would like to do is put it back on the floor to bring it to a plebiscite, to refer it back to administration and say this is 70, 80 percent of the population does not want this.
00:08:10.960 Let's put it on the ballot and let's come back and at least we're working on something that people is more tenable, that more people will support.
00:08:18.320 We will see how that goes.
00:08:19.600 I need eight votes.
00:08:20.600 It failed last time by one vote to take it to a plebiscite.
00:08:24.120 So the odds are they might not pass this time.
00:08:30.100 But again, Rachel, there's been so many people speaking against this.
00:08:33.320 And so there's a few councillors that are really listening and have done polls in their own warts.
00:08:38.060 So we need people to possibly vote with the public when it comes time.
00:08:44.460 And again, not to go on too long, but there will be some amendments that some councillors will put forward to maybe try to water this down.
00:08:52.500 Instead of maybe four, eight, twelve units, they might make some concessions.
00:08:55.920 But in my opinion, it's going to be, yeah, I can't tell how people are going to vote, but it's going to come down to one or two councillors to see which way this goes.
00:09:09.140 And if this continues to go forward, I mean, obviously there's going to be some damage done in the time since, but we're looking at a municipal election next year.
00:09:15.240 Is it possible that a new city council next year could reverse this policy if it is passed?
00:09:20.180 Oh, yeah.
00:09:21.040 City council can do anything.
00:09:22.240 If you've got eight votes, it doesn't have to include the mayor, but eight votes, you can fire the city manager.
00:09:27.560 You can reverse policies.
00:09:28.740 There's a whole bunch of things you can do.
00:09:30.120 So one way or another, this will be under ballot next election.
00:09:34.780 Councilman McLean, I know you have to head out to continue going and listening to these presenters talk about why this isn't a good thing for the city.
00:09:39.800 Thank you so much for taking the time to join us today.
00:09:42.440 Excellent.
00:09:42.840 Thanks for having me, Rachel.
00:09:44.380 All right, everyone.
00:09:45.040 I'll be back on Saturday with my regular show.
00:09:47.040 I hope that you guys have a great week.
00:09:48.240 I'll talk to you soon.
00:09:52.240 I'll be back on Saturday with my regular show.