CALGARY, Alberta — A heated debate over the city's blanket upzoning policy has intensified following a recent opinion column in the Calgary Herald, where former city councillor Courtney Walcott defended the approach as a long-term strategy for housing affordability. Critics, however, argue that the policy has failed to deliver on its promises, leading to the demolition of affordable older homes and exacerbating displacement in inner-city neighborhoods. The controversy comes at a pivotal moment, as Calgary's newly elected city council, which campaigned on a pledge to repeal the bylaw, prepares to take office.
Blanket upzoning, implemented in Calgary a few years ago, allows for denser development on single-family lots across much of the city without the need for individual rezoning applications. Proponents, including Walcott, have described it as a tool to increase housing supply and prevent older homes from becoming prohibitively expensive. In his November 21 column for the Calgary Herald, Walcott likened the policy to the automotive market, stating that while new homes might cost more initially, their construction could trigger a "chain reaction" that moderates prices over time. "New cars cost more than used cars, but producing new models supposedly triggers a chain reaction that moderates prices later," Walcott wrote, using the analogy to suggest that replacing older bungalows with modern units would ultimately benefit affordability.
But a group of housing advocates and former civic figures, writing under the banner of Calgarians for Thoughtful Growth, sharply rebutted Walcott's arguments in a follow-up opinion piece published in the same newspaper. They contended that the policy has not only failed to lower costs but has actively worsened the housing crisis for many residents. "New homes built under blanket upzoning are not cheaper than the ones they replace," the group stated, accusing Walcott of engaging in a "word game" between "cheaper" and "affordable." They emphasized that for families struggling to enter the market, the key issue is whether homes are within financial reach, and they argued that the city's promotion of upzoning as an affordability measure has been undermined by its outcomes.
The critics pointed to specific examples of how the policy operates in Calgary's inner city. Modest bungalows and older rental properties, often priced around $600,000 before teardown, are being demolished to make way for infill developments featuring multiple units priced between $500,000 and $700,000 each. According to the opinion piece, this shift eliminates the "entry point" for first-time buyers and renters. "The bungalow was the entry point — the 'used car.' After upzoning, that entry point disappears and land gets pricier precisely because the entitlement changed," the group wrote. They rejected Walcott's car analogy outright, saying, "If you want cars to be more affordable, you don’t crush every used Corolla and replace it with new SUVs, then claim the market will sort it out later. That isn’t a supply chain. It’s speculative churn."
Financialization of the housing market was another focal point of the critique. The advocates described Calgary's real estate landscape as increasingly influenced by investor speculation, out-of-province capital, and federal financing programs that favor multi-unit projects. "Blanket upzoning is a land-value accelerator — when every lot can suddenly hold duplexes or fourplexes, the land beneath every house becomes more valuable overnight," they explained. In this environment, they said, families are competing not just against each other but against builders and speculators who benefit from low-cost loans, leading to higher land values and displacement rather than broader affordability.
Walcott, who served as a city councillor and actively promoted the upzoning policy during his tenure, has maintained that it was never intended to immediately reduce new home prices but to address the rising cost of existing stock. He noted in his column that without upzoning, a $600,000 teardown bungalow might have been replaced by a single $1.6-million detached home, whereas the current framework allows for multiple smaller units. However, the Calgarians for Thoughtful Growth group countered that even these smaller units are often unaffordable on a per-family basis and that the policy's design ignores the loss of low-cost options. "Smaller units are not necessarily cheaper on a per-family basis, and they remain out of reach for many households," they argued.
The city sold blanket upzoning as an affordability tool, and Walcott promoted it as something that would “support housing affordability.” He can’t champion rezoning as the fix for affordability, then later claim affordability was never the point.
This exchange highlights broader tensions in Calgary's housing policy debates, which have been simmering for years amid a surge in population and construction costs. The city has seen significant infill development since upzoning's introduction, but affordability metrics tell a mixed story. According to city data referenced in various reports, average home prices in Calgary have climbed above $500,000, with rental vacancies remaining low and costs rising. The policy was part of a larger push by previous administrations to meet provincial and federal housing targets, but critics say it has disproportionately affected established neighborhoods like those in the inner city, where community groups have voiced concerns over character loss and traffic increases.
The political landscape shifted dramatically in Calgary's October municipal election, where a majority of new councillors ran on platforms opposing blanket upzoning. Voters, frustrated by soaring prices and perceived overreach in development, elected candidates who promised to repeal the bylaw and pursue more targeted approaches. "Calgarians just elected a majority that promised to repeal blanket upzoning," the opinion piece noted. "Telling councillors to ignore that mandate is an interesting strategy, but it’s flatly incompatible with democratic accountability." As the new council prepares to convene in early November, observers expect the repeal to be a top priority, potentially reshaping the city's growth strategy.
Representatives from Calgarians for Thoughtful Growth, including Rusty Miller, Robert Lehodey, Patricia McCunn-Miller, Lisa Poole, Jennifer Baldwin, and Chris Davis, advocated for alternatives in their column. They proposed a zoning framework that emphasizes "targeted densification aligned with infrastructure, preservation of existing low-cost stock, brownfield redevelopment for below-market housing and affordability tied to public financing." Such measures, they argued, would respect neighborhood contexts and involve communities more directly, avoiding the "imposed" changes of blanket upzoning. "Calgarians aren’t asking for miracles. They’re asking for homes they can afford, and growth that’s deliberate, transparent and built with communities, not imposed on them," the group concluded.
Walcott's perspective, while defended in his original piece, has drawn pushback from housing experts and residents alike. In interviews following his column, some community leaders echoed the critics' concerns, pointing to specific sites in areas like Bridgeland where new developments have sparked debates over traffic and social impacts. For instance, a recent McDonald's opening in the neighborhood drew mixed reactions, with optimism tempered by worries about increased congestion — issues that upzoning proponents say can be mitigated through planning, but opponents see as symptoms of unchecked density.
The debate extends beyond Calgary, mirroring national conversations in Canada about how to balance growth with affordability. In cities like Toronto and Vancouver, similar upzoning experiments have faced legal challenges and public referendums. Here in Calgary, the policy's fate hangs on the incoming council's actions. Officials from the previous administration have not publicly responded to the latest opinion pieces, but city planning documents from 2022 outline upzoning as a response to a projected need for 20,000 new housing units annually to keep pace with migration driven by the energy sector's recovery.
As winter sets in, Calgarians continue to grapple with these issues. Rental prices in the city's core have reportedly risen by 10 percent year-over-year, according to local real estate boards, pushing more families toward suburbs or out of the province. The Calgarians for Thoughtful Growth group urged immediate repeal, warning that continued implementation could lead to further "speculative churn" without tangible benefits. Meanwhile, supporters like Walcott maintain that abandoning the policy now would stifle supply and drive up costs even more.
Looking ahead, the new council's first meetings, scheduled for late November, will likely feature discussions on zoning reform. Community consultations are expected, with input from groups like Calgarians for Thoughtful Growth playing a key role. Whether the city pivots to a more nuanced strategy or doubles down on density remains to be seen, but the election results signal a clear public demand for change. For now, the blanket upzoning saga underscores the challenges of urban planning in a booming yet strained market.
In related news, Calgary's housing authority has announced plans to accelerate below-market projects on underused land, potentially aligning with the critics' suggestions. As the debate unfolds, residents like those in affected neighborhoods await policies that prioritize their needs over speculative gains.