City can't stall on housing affordability measures

Community rezoning, infill development in Calgary is critical, writes David Barrett.

Calgary is experiencing the fastest growth in the Prairie Provinces, with an increase of more than 100,000 new people expected to call this place home by 2027. That's an astonishing 68 new residents a day, all of whom need homes. As the city continues to grow and population outpaces home supply, housing affordability will continue to grow as an issue — ultimately pricing Calgarians out of homes, neighbourhoods, and the city itself.

Calgary is not unique in this struggle, following in the footsteps of other major cities like Toronto and Vancouver. The difference is that we have the runway to act proactively.

Currently, the city has 67 per cent of residential land zoned exclusively for single-detached homes (R-C1). One piece of the solution to avert the impending affordability crisis and to curb suburban sprawl — something most Calgarians acknowledge is fiscally and environmentally unsustainable — is to increase growth within the existing footprint of the city.

Currently, the process for rezoning, even to a modest missing middle zoning such as R-CG or the newly approved H-GO, requires paying thousands of dollars, listening to your neighbours' concerns around shadowing and street parking, and winning over a majority of council during a public hearing process. If successful, you might proceed and eventually build a structure similar to new single-detached homes, in terms of lot coverage and overall height.

So long as there is demand for single-detached homes, they will not disappear — the market will make sure of this. Importantly, residential zoning stipulates the maximum that can be built on a plot. We are in a housing crisis, and it is functionally illegal to build more housing in much of the city.

This past May, 33 recommendations were put forward by the expert panel making up the city's housing and affordability task force. One of these included a modest change in the base residential district to “residential — grade-oriented infill,” or R-CG. This change would allow up to fourplexes and townhouses, which are more cost-effective to build, to be built across the city.

This could spur the creation of 1,000 new homes a year, helping to stabilize housing prices. Older neighbourhoods near the inner city with grid streets, back lanes and rectangle lots would likely see redevelopment occur at a rate of roughly one per cent per year. Areas with curvilinear streets, cul-de-sacs, oddly-shaped parcels, and without back lanes would likely not see much change, if any. This small change would bring much-needed investment and growth to inner-city areas that have suffered population decline over decades.

Some have benefited from the housing crisis as their property values have increased, while prospective neighbours have been priced out of amenity-rich areas. It would be a mistake to allow communities to stagnate based on a government-shaped distortion of land values. Continuing down the current path will push less-affluent Calgarians to the periphery, all while increasing infrastructure service costs to the city.

We need new approaches to planning focused on curbing urban sprawl and getting people into homes quickly and affordably. Our current model allows existing homeowners and developers to gatekeep growth based on outdated planning approaches focused on suburban sprawl. While local input in planning is highly valued, it is critical to remember that parking can be managed through policy and broader mobility options; more trees can be planted and parks can be expanded. None of this should obstruct the fact that homes need to be built.

Our elected municipal officials need to act swiftly and decisively to address an urgent housing crisis. Without this made-in-calgary solution, we risk having one imposed by higher levels of government. Making decisions that shape the future of our great city is exactly what they were elected to do. Governments shape housing markets through policy, and swift action is required to maintain Calgary's position as affordable and desirable. Those with the luxury of not having to worry about a roof over their head should not have their voices amplified the loudest in this critical endeavour.

David Barrett is on the City of Calgary established areas growth strategy working group, the Federation of Calgary communities urban planning committee, a board member of Sustainable Calgary and a past community association president.