Image source: Globe and Mail
📡 UPDATES♻️NIMBYs recycling secondary suites objections 🦆MYTHBUSTER: Anti-housing NIMBYs attempt to co-opt environmental issues 📈5 Ways Housing Strategy Also Benefits Homeowners |
Calgary's Housing Strategy at risk of being blocked
The City of Calgary’s Housing Strategy, which includes the recommendations put forth by the Housing Affordability Task Force, will come to committee on September 14, 2023. There will be an opportunity for public comments and a committee vote on whether the City moves ahead with expert recommendations to build more housing.
Council needs to hear from the majority of Calgarians who support building more housing.
The Housing Strategy offers real solutions to benefit all Calgarians
Experts have spent months developing sensible reforms to build more housing in Calgary. These include common-sense ideas, such as ensuring that duplexes are no longer banned in many Calgary communities and that the City has the ability to make developers pay their fair share of new affordable housing costs. The Housing Strategy also expedits the construction of new housing on City-owned land.
Council must approve all Housing Strategy recommendations without gutting them:
✅ Make it easier to build housing across the city.
✅ Make more land available to build more housing across the city.
✅ Ensure that the supply of affordable housing meets the needs of Equity Deserving and Indigenous people living in Calgary.
✅ Convene the housing sector to collaborate.
✅ Increase the investment to support housing providers.
✅ Ensure more individuals have a safe place to call home.
The Housing Strategy reduces the City’s reliance on costly sprawl
Image source: Government of Alberta
Without the Housing Strategy, Calgary’s growth will be more reliant on new sprawl that is costly for all Calgary taxpayers who are ultimately forced to subsidize construction and operation of new roads and infrastructure to support more new far flung communities every year.
The Housing Strategy maximizes land values for homeowners
Image Source: Globe and Mail
Calgary’s housing strategy will empower homeowners to obtain the maximum value from their properties, without an unnecessary regulatory burden. Homeowners will have more freedom to make decisions about their properties' best use, encouraging economic growth and maximizing the value of their investments.
We must maintain Calgary’s economic advantage: affordability
Image source: CBC
Calgary’s business leaders have warned Council that the city’s economic advantage is at stake, unless it builds more housing:
“Calgary’s financial future depends on remaining an affordable city. Previously, our wealth was created by significant valuable resources; in demand around the world and located here. In the future, wealth will be created anywhere with little reliance on geographic anomalies. This change demands Calgarians focus on what sets us apart from other jurisdictions: affordable lifestyle.”
If the Housing Strategy is rejected by Council, housing prices in Calgary will likely continue to skyrocket faster than all other cities in Canada–including Toronto and Vancouver.
Councillors must avoid acting as "gatekeepers"
In June, several councillors shockingly blocked the City’s Housing Strategy to build more housing. Even federal conservative MP’s called out their role as “gatekeepers” to more housing. Unfortunately, these "gatekeepers" risk burdening Calgarians with red tape and costly sprawl, while restricting homeowners’ ability to maximize the value of their properties.
Conservative MP’s called out the Calgary City Councillors who acted as “gatekeepers” in their role to block Calgary’s Housing Strategy last June. (Source: Twitter)
Cllr. Sharp's "band-aid" proposal subverts Housing Strategy
Councillor Sonya Sharp is behind a last minute scheme that would subvert the Housing Strategy and is also the architect of the City's disastrous sweetheart arena deal for the Flames owners that could see taxpayers subsidize 97% of the $1.2 billion in upfront costs. (Image source: CBC)
In a surprise announcement, Councillor Sharp and six other Councillors are proposing an unworkable band-aid pilot program to try and speed up housing approvals, by putting all of the red tape in the same pile.
Mayor Gondek and experts have rejected Cllr. Sharp's proposal as a "band-aid solution", developed without public input. The pilot program has been panned by experts as an effort to delay solutions, rather than to address housing challenges.
Council must stop wasting time dreaming up band-aid fixes and pilot projects and focus on approving the Housing Strategy.
🚨TAKE ACTION
We need your help to tell Calgary City Council to vote for the Housing Strategy and build housing now.
1) 📋 Sign the petition
Sign the petition to show your support for Calgary's Housing Strategy.
2) 🗓️ Speak at the public hearing April 22nd
A public hearing on removing outdated exclusionary zoning banning row homes and townhomes will be held on April 22nd, 2024.
Join us for a rally for housing at 12PM in the Municipal Plaza in front of City Hall.
| REGISTER TO SPEAK |
Update: Given the number people already signed up to speak the public hearing will likely extend over multiple days. Once you sign up to speak, you can expect to be notified by City Administration your order in the speaking queue. Each person is entitled to up to 5 minutes to speak before Council.
3) ✉️ Spread the word
Share this petition with your friends and family.
4) 🥳 Join the list of supporters
Do you know an individual organization that would like to support Project Calgary’s housing advocacy? Have them email us at [email protected].