by Stephen Carter-Edwards
Our community association has many moving parts and one of them includes our Planning and Development committee. This has been a hot topic across the city recently, so our director of Planning and Development has shared a Planning 101 summary with us for this month for anyone who is interested in this area.
Planning 101
Communities have a life cycle. A new community is developed, and residents move in. Years later the area is redeveloped to suit contemporary home buyers. How does this redevelopment work?
The Federal government has direct control over national waterways and parks. They target programs and provide some financial support.
The Province has full control over a framework of legislation to structure planning. In Alberta, this is the Municipal Government Act.
Municipalities regulate local planning and development. The power under the MGA is delegated to the City of Calgary to prepare a land use bylaw, other plans, and to be responsible for issuing planning permissions and building permits.
Calgary’s Land Use Bylaw (1P2007) is undergoing revisions but currently provides both development control and zoning regulation. It does this by the mechanisms of listing permitted uses and discretionary uses for every parcel of land in the City. All parcels of land are categorized into districts.
There are several district categories in the Land Use Bylaw. Some of the categories include the following: low density residential, multi-residential, commercial, and special purpose (which includes schools, churches, parks, universities, and more). All of the aforementioned districts can be found in Springbank Hill. Direct Control districts (DC) have specific and unique sets of uses and rules. In the recent City-wide rezoning, the DCs were unaffected.
Relaxations, or variances, are discretionary divergences from the Land Use Bylaw specifics that the Development Authority has discretion to accept provided there is a sound basis for doing so. Examples include building height, landscaping, and setbacks. If a Development Permit (DP) application is for a permitted use with no relaxations, then the permit must be approved by the Development Authority.
DP applications go to the City’s planning department for review and approval. If the application is for anything else but a permitted use with no relaxations, then there must be a sign posted on the site that advertises the application and notice given to nearby neighbours. Comments are sought from the neighbours and the community association for consideration by the planning department. The planning department puts together a recommendation that is sent to the Calgary Planning Commission for approval or rejection. This is not a public hearing, only the comments are before the Commission.
Once CPC provides approval for a DP, it can only be appealed on very narrow grounds. The Appeal Board has limited jurisdiction which ends if the Board finds that an approval is for a permitted use where the land Use Bylaw has not been relaxed, varied or misinterpreted.
The other type of planning tool is a land use amendment or resignation also known as rezoning. These applications are advertised as well. A green “Proposed Land Use Change” sign requests citizen comments during the review process, while a black sign informs citizens of the public hearing date. The Community Association also provides feedback. Citizen feedback is summarized in the planning department’s reporting while the CA feedback is incorporated as written.
After the CPC hearing, if approved the application has to go before City Council in a public hearing as the Land Use Bylaw can only be amended by a majority vote. As it is a public hearing, interested citizens are allowed to present to City Council. The presentations are limited to five minutes each. City Councillors are supposed to be amenable to the submissions and not have predetermined their vote. An appeal of a Council decision is to a Judge in the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta. The standard of review on such statutory authority is reasonableness.
That’s Planning 101!
Click here to the Springbank Hill Community News home page for the latest Springbank Hill community updates.
