Zoning is a hot topic in many cities, and Calgary is no exception. Calgarians have their own biases and prejudices as we have discussed here before. The biggest politically acceptable prejudice in Calgary appears to remain against renters by owners. This is mostly bogus, but deeply ingrained into the Calgarian psyche. It is essentially a class based prejudice and a false assumption that by purchasing a home in an area you ‘own’ the zoning rights of your community. Pseudo arguments related to character are then crafted to disguise the raw prejudice into something an educated progressive person can publicize without fear of being shamed by an online zoning ‘me too’ backlash.
My thouhts on this issue are apparently out of the norm. I don’t believe the zoning of a community should be frozen in time. I think zoning is like mineral rights and those are owned by society not individuals and the way the rights are deployed needs to change over time. Calgary is a city that has changed more in 30 years than other cities have changed in a century yet many of our ARP documents that guide zoning at the community level are very old.
Zoning creates a lot of compliance cost. It often results in land being underutilized or built up in a way today that is a misallocation based on a best use that isn’t allowed or would take years of effort to change.
creating new Zoning rules is often needed to accommodate new types of development. it has all sorts of unintended consequences. A classic case is the redesignation of land into the rowhouse zone yet not allowing it to work on mid block lots that are the most commonly available size.
The real answer could be simpler rules and deregulation in policy documents that give some guidance to development but are less prescriptive. I don’t think anyone wants to create a hodgepodge mess in a community. But regulating of every possible built form, regulating context and character, and trying to keep up to date with a dynamic society is impossible for a slow moving bureaucracy.
Maybe we need a few more of these billboards around town?