The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - May 01, 2024


Calgarians outraged over rezoning plans


Episode Stats

Length

10 minutes

Words per Minute

193.14842

Word Count

1,994

Sentence Count

150

Misogynist Sentences

2

Hate Speech Sentences

2


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.940 Rachel Emanuel brings the news each day on Alberta Roundup. She has her say.
00:00:11.060 Hey everyone, welcome back to the Alberta Roundup. I'm your host Rachel Emanuel.
00:00:15.460 Outrage has broken out in Calgary as Calgary City Council has proposed new rezoning efforts.
00:00:22.800 The city has entered week two of its largest and longest hearing ever.
00:00:27.000 As scrutiny of the city's proposed blanket rezoning strategy continues.
00:00:31.680 The rezoning would amend land use bylaws in neighborhoods that currently allow Oling for single family homes.
00:00:37.960 Meaning that areas now zoned for Oling single or semi-detached homes would be rezoned and allow for townhomes and row houses.
00:00:46.060 Joining us now to discuss is Calgary Ward 13 City Councilor Dan McLean.
00:00:50.600 Dan, thanks so much for joining us today.
00:00:52.520 Thanks and good morning Rachel.
00:00:53.760 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.
00:01:01.920 So for example, let's say you live in a neighborhood, there's a little old bungalow beside you.
00:01:05.960 That bungalow could be sold, it could be taken down and four new properties could be built.
00:01:10.240 The city's saying it could be four.
00:01:11.700 The city's also saying that there would be allowed suites in each one of those four units.
00:01:16.740 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.
00:01:23.240 So what's your understanding of what's actually going to be allowed under these rezoning efforts?
00:01:27.960 Yeah, I think the city has done a very poor job communicating this.
00:01:31.540 When they say four units, that means like four doors that come off of a sidewalk, off of a street.
00:01:36.260 But you're correct.
00:01:37.300 It actually includes four basement suites.
00:01:39.220 But it's actually even worse than that.
00:01:41.720 You could have four backyard suites or granny suites.
00:01:45.580 So it's not just four.
00:01:47.080 It could be eight or 12.
00:01:49.640 12 units on one property.
00:01:52.560 So one of the problems that's going to arise with this is obviously infrastructure.
00:01:55.900 These neighborhoods weren't built.
00:01:57.040 The roads weren't built to allow for all the parking.
00:01:59.080 There could be problems with the sewage.
00:02:00.440 There could be problems with the recycling at the road.
00:02:02.680 Currently, I live in Rockland Park.
00:02:04.420 I'm only saying that because we're actually moving shortly.
00:02:06.120 Otherwise, I wouldn't let my viewers know where I live.
00:02:07.640 But it's one of five masterclass cities being built across Calgary.
00:02:11.960 And it's really incredible what they've done with the infrastructure here.
00:02:14.440 There's a townhouse complex towards the end that was built to develop and have extra parking
00:02:18.700 for all people that live in the townhouses.
00:02:20.360 As well, there's mass recycling bins, mass garbage bins to really manage all the people.
00:02:25.220 But when we have a situation where you could have a bungalow beside you that's now turning
00:02:28.520 into eight units, what's going to happen to the infrastructure in the city?
00:02:31.520 Because it just doesn't seem like things are going to hold up.
00:02:35.580 Good point.
00:02:36.300 And again, it could be 12.
00:02:37.640 Already, in some of these communities that have started to densify, there's problems
00:02:42.240 in the back alleys with, like you said, trash containers.
00:02:45.620 And don't forget parking.
00:02:46.760 Parking is a big one.
00:02:47.720 They're talking about 0.5 units, 0.5 parking stalls.
00:02:52.000 I had one person present the other day, and they said, who drives half a car?
00:02:56.980 I mean, this is where we're at.
00:02:58.340 So if you have, say, a single family home, like you said, one trash can and two parking spots,
00:03:05.020 and maybe you could park in front of you if you have a driveway and a garage.
00:03:09.000 But now this is going to be a problem with additional parking.
00:03:12.180 If you are in center block, mid-block is where we are going to see most of the problems.
00:03:16.360 If you have a corner or on a busy thoroughway by close to a transit station, I understand.
00:03:21.880 There's a 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.
00:03:29.940 Because not only with the parking, not only with the crowded trash containers, but like
00:03:34.300 you had mentioned, Rachel, the infrastructure.
00:03:37.720 Can we handle that many more toilets flushing?
00:03:40.820 And who's going to pay for it?
00:03:42.860 So yeah, there's some big issues here to consider.
00:03:46.580 Why doesn't the city use city-owned land to build some new houses instead of having people
00:03:50.840 who have really invested their entire livelihood into their home?
00:03:53.660 I mean, if you think about it, homes costing half a million dollars, people spend lifetimes
00:03:57.120 paying off mortgages and their investment is being ripped away from them.
00:04:00.220 They don't know what's going to happen to the neighborhood they live in.
00:04:02.760 Why doesn't the city use their own resources?
00:04:04.520 Yeah, it's their biggest investment probably in their life.
00:04:08.060 The uncertainty has created chaos in the market as well.
00:04:11.560 The city does own lots of properties.
00:04:13.900 We're the single largest landowner, obviously.
00:04:16.940 And a lot of these properties are by transit stations and community corridors.
00:04:21.020 You know, and it knows the transit nodes.
00:04:24.340 So we should be developing those first.
00:04:26.680 I agree with that completely.
00:04:28.320 And then gentle density.
00:04:30.180 So what's happening now, Rachel, is we already have what's called local area planning,
00:04:34.540 where the city goes through each community.
00:04:36.860 And then they decide, okay, well, right here is where we can maybe add some more density.
00:04:41.860 You know, some rural housing or some townhouses.
00:04:43.860 But right here is not a good place for it.
00:04:46.080 And here's where we can maybe put a shopping mall or maybe a grocery store or a convenience store.
00:04:51.000 It takes a little longer, but it's well thought out and it's planned per community.
00:04:55.740 We should just continue doing that.
00:04:57.680 This is now blanket is what I consider just lazy.
00:05:00.740 And you have to question the motives behind it.
00:05:03.580 Sure.
00:05:04.060 When we're talking about questioning the motives, I mean, another thing that's been raised is
00:05:06.860 it almost seems like this could be a cash grab for city property taxes.
00:05:11.020 If you think about it, if you live somewhere, you're one house,
00:05:13.500 you're paying property taxes on that one property that's taken down.
00:05:16.740 That's created into four units, maybe suites.
00:05:18.700 You said it could be up to 12.
00:05:19.920 Now all those separate units are paying property taxes.
00:05:22.780 The city is going to just be raking in the property taxes here.
00:05:26.020 And we're talking about affordable housing.
00:05:27.480 I mean, in most cases, this is an affordable housing that's going up.
00:05:30.860 Some of these townhouses that are being built are still going for $650,000.
00:05:34.580 That's an insane amount of money for a townhouse.
00:05:36.700 You don't even have a lot of land.
00:05:38.080 So the city is just going to be raking it on the property taxes.
00:05:40.720 Could that be a possible motivation for why they seem so bent on pushing forward this policy
00:05:46.040 that it seems nobody wants?
00:05:48.520 Well, of course, the city is going to have additional taxes.
00:05:51.240 And you're quite low on your $600,000 marks.
00:05:53.720 A lot of these are a million, a million plus.
00:05:55.880 They'll take a $600,000, $700,000 bungalow.
00:06:00.240 And again, this is where the speculation comes in.
00:06:02.060 It's not just the city that's going to be raking in money.
00:06:05.200 It's the industry developers.
00:06:06.700 I'm a capitalist.
00:06:09.320 I believe in the free market.
00:06:11.120 But this is still giving an unfair advantage.
00:06:14.720 You will see developers coming in, buying up people's homes in certain places.
00:06:20.300 And then what that does, it puts pressure on the person that wants to stay there in their
00:06:23.860 forever home and keep that home.
00:06:25.240 They have their equity, but it's not just that.
00:06:27.080 They enjoy their backyard and their neighbors and their trees.
00:06:29.780 And they move there for a reason.
00:06:31.940 But then two or three neighbors on that block decide to cash out with the speculators.
00:06:37.460 And next thing you know, their enjoyment of their property, maybe they put up solar panels
00:06:42.940 and maybe they've invested in a garden.
00:06:44.840 All of a sudden, they're moving out.
00:06:45.940 And so it just destroys the fabric of those communities, which is, again, why people are
00:06:50.520 upset about it.
00:06:51.640 The affordable housing aspect of it, you'll see that was a really huge narrative at the
00:06:56.340 beginning of this.
00:06:57.160 Everybody's backing away.
00:06:59.860 We've had multiple presenters, experts from the chief economists from Calgary Real Estate
00:07:05.060 Board, saying that this will not make homes less affordable.
00:07:09.080 It's been proven in New Zealand and in Vancouver, anywhere where density, the length of density
00:07:12.960 has been done, it has not lowered the prices of homes at all.
00:07:16.500 It's been actually the reverse.
00:07:18.280 So now we're not hearing that narrative because it doesn't carry any water.
00:07:23.020 It's more about building more supplies.
00:07:24.800 So, yeah, that's kind of my take on it.
00:07:29.760 How likely is it that this policy continues to go through at this point?
00:07:32.640 I mean, I feel fairly confident in saying Calgary residents, by and large, don't want
00:07:36.060 this.
00:07:36.240 It's a small percentage of people who support these policies.
00:07:38.900 But the homeowners who have spent their lives, as we mentioned, investing in their
00:07:41.760 properties don't want this.
00:07:43.100 So what are the chances that we can actually reverse this and get back to some common sense?
00:07:46.780 So what we're going to be having is a few more, several more days of debate, and then we will
00:07:54.320 debate amongst ourselves or several more days of public hearings.
00:07:58.120 And then that's when the councils will debate and put amendments forward.
00:08:01.140 The first thing I would like to do is put it back on the floor to bring it to a plebiscite,
00:08:05.480 to refer it back to administration, say this is 70, 80 percent of the population does not
00:08:10.420 want this.
00:08:10.980 Let's put it on the ballot and let's come back and at least we're working on something
00:08:14.900 that people is more tenable, that more people will support.
00:08:18.340 We will see how that goes.
00:08:19.620 I need eight votes.
00:08:20.640 It failed last time by one vote to take it to a plebiscite.
00:08:25.360 So the odds are it might not pass this time.
00:08:30.040 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
00:08:37.660 own wards.
00:08:38.080 So we need people to possibly vote with the public when it comes to time.
00:08:44.500 And again, not to go on too long, but there will be some amendments that some councillors
00:08:49.760 will put forward to maybe try to water this down instead of maybe four, eight, 12 units.
00:08:54.700 They might make some concessions.
00:08:55.960 But in my opinion, it's going to be, yeah, I can't tell how people are going to vote,
00:09:05.420 but it's going to come down to one or two councillors to see which way this goes.
00:09:09.160 And if this continues to go forward, I mean, obviously there's going to be some damage done
00:09:12.180 in the time since, but we're looking at a municipal election next year.
00:09:15.200 Is it possible that a new city council next year could reverse this policy if it is passed?
00:09:20.240 Oh, yeah.
00:09:21.020 City council can do anything.
00:09:22.380 If you've got eight votes, it doesn't have to include the mayor, but eight votes, you
00:09:25.760 can fire the city manager.
00:09:27.560 You can reverse policies.
00:09:28.720 There's a whole bunch of things you can do.
00:09:30.140 So one way or another, this will be under ballot next election.
00:09:34.700 Councilman McLean, I know you have to head out to continue going and listening to these
00:09:37.420 presenters talk about why this isn't a good thing for the city.
00:09:39.720 Thank you so much for taking the time to join us today.
00:09:42.460 Excellent.
00:09:42.860 Thanks for having me, Rachel.
00:09:44.380 All right, everyone.
00:09:45.080 I'll be back on Saturday with my regular show.
00:09:47.080 I hope that you guys have a great week.
00:09:48.260 I'll talk to you soon.
00:09:49.440 I'll talk to you soon.