Back in the Calgary Courthouse, Today...
Blanket Rezoning Hearing.
If you’re not up to speed where we are on this whole Blanket Rezoning thing in Calgary, it’s okay…neither was I, up until this morning…but I can hopefully get you there in a couple of short moments.
What’s happening is that there are a number of homeowners - or Plaintiffs - against the city who want the Blanket Rezoning or Unzoning Bylaw, shredded in the courts. In this and on the initial complaint, there were 288 signed up and if I got the numbers correct an additional 293 signed up - around 600 in total, I’d imagine this to actually grow more with a little more awareness to the situation.
This does make sense because the blanket zoning was approved in May by Calgary City Council, following one the largest list of speakers in a hearing at City Hall, regarding this very issue, where were over 700 in attendance, some 5000 presentations submitted and about 70% of these were AGAINST passing the blanket rezoning bylaw.
“Cut the Red Tape” - they screeched.
“We Need more Affordable Housing” - in choired unison.
But those who face a duplex or multi-plex, 4-8 dwellings added to a single family sized lot, don’t seem to agree with this as being a possibility. Purchase a home, tear down the old, and you are well in the neighborhood of $1M bucks at current pricing before you’ve actually built a complex. These smaller sized parcels of the single space, will not be selling in an affordable $150k-$250k price range.
Addition to this, from my perspective…
Imagine what it’s like when your neighbors have a family gathering and people park in your spot in front of your home…this can be a bit of a nuisance, but given that it will only last a few hours, you can get past this. Imagine this FOREVER…competing with a brand new set of neighbors that all want to park in the same spot…your spot…without the same commitments to the community.
Let’s also add in a loss of privacy, loss of sun, loss of property enjoyment…I mean there are a zillion reasons that you could be NIMBY on this, but why should we need to be when the majority of homeowners disagree with this to begin with…for their own reasons?
Moving right along…
Todays hearing was a Stay Hearing…like being stayed for execution…meaning that all permits that have already been issued, would have to be halted before a full judicial review.
What happened is, this stay was not actually granted by Justice Hall, presiding over the case, because the legal parties representing the plaintiffs didn’t allow for enough time before todays hearing for the City to be able to reply. As I understand it, documents were only produced the to the City as of Thursday of last week - including expert testimony. This delay was due to finding an expert who could weigh in on this complicated situation.
And because of this, the hearing for the stay was delayed for a month, meaning the first available time in court, no sooner than November 8th, 2024.
This isn’t all bad and it’s definitely not due to a partisan judge tipping in for the city.
Rules are rules…
But inside of the delay from today, if you were a developer and found out that your project could be potentially halted in one month from today, would you throw shovel to ground?
A lot of people are hoping not.
Because if the stay goes through, the bylaw affording your permit would be halted and then you’d be delayed in your construction anyways.
If the stay, because of the urgency of this situation arrives at a judicial review in an expedient timeline and the judicial review throws out the bylaw, as a developer, you are either going to be spending a lot of time in court trying to recoup costs, against the city…or, you’ll have to chase down the loss of funds that you’d already had and try to push a square peg - new bylaw allowances - into a round hole - old bylaw restrictions.
While this does look like a procedural mishap on side of the plaintiffs, as it very well is, it’s still a win.
People who develop properties are already taking gambles but ones they’ve already calculated…not with the potential loss of what throwing out the bylaw in a judicial rule would look like.
People who don’t want these projects to proceed, have delayed this into what will surely be colder temperatures that may impact these developments, meaning a greater pause.
How long will this all take to get through?
With any hope, if the Judicial Review is Not in favor of throwing out the bylaw…enough time to elect a new city council that is representative of their constituents.
You’re pretty much all caught up now.
That wasn’t so bad, hey?
Thank you Sheldon for staying on top of all this corruption. I don’t know if you know how much you are appreciated by us ordinary citizens.
Also not considered is the increased utility usage from electric to electric now that bobbleheads have accepted alleged carbon caused “Global Warming” - in spite of never having a model made based on measurable facts (still just a theory regardless of a “97% Consensus” of coerced scientists eager to keep their phony baloney jobs, keeping WEF infiltrated Leftist Governments supplied with agreeable studies). After 2030 (6 short years), when all cars will be legislated electric, where is the additional power going to come from? Where is the building of high voltage feeders, the additional electrical substations and residential distribution system increases (underground or overhead?
Also not considered are potable water supplies going back to leaky mains, distribution laterals, design maximum sewage branches and mains, and overcapacity sewage treatment plants.
Get ready for tax increases because not enough lay people out there understand the bottlenecks nor are there knowledgeable Council members, voted in by the aforementioned, willing and able to delve into the matter. They just go along with whatever City Bureaucrats happen to decree.
It’s all DEI, ESG and Woke mentality hey-ho.