City council votes against holding plebiscite for zoning overhaul

City council has voted against holding a plebiscite on a contentious proposal to change the zoning in all residential areas of Calgary.

The zoning change would allow for different housing types, such as six-plexes and townhomes, to be built in neighbourhoods that currently only allow single-family homes.

If council had approved the motion, a plebiscite would have been held alongside next year's municipal election.

However, a public hearing on the zoning changes will now go ahead in April, as the motion to hold the plebiscite was defeated with six councillors voting in favour and eight opposed.   

A second vote to push that hearing to late June was defeated by council as well. 

Today's motion was initially set to be discussed on March 19, but Mayor Jyoti Gondek, with the support of several councillors, called for a special meeting to move it up the agenda. 

Gondek said it was important to vote on the motion as soon as possible before the planned public hearing for the rezoning proposal on April 22. 

"There are letters that are due to go out to all homeowners to let them know about the proposed change, about the public hearing," said Gondek. 

"Those letters are on hold until we review this notice of motion and deliberate it. Waiting an extra week for those letters is waiting an extra week to inform homeowners of what might be coming. So we're trying to expedite information getting out to the public." 

If the motion to hold the plebiscite had passed, the public hearing on April 22 would have been cancelled. 

The rezoning proposal is a key part of the city's housing strategy, which the city says is an important measure to address housing supply and affordability.

But some city councillors believe Calgary residents didn't have enough of a say in the changes, which is why they hoped to take it to a vote.