Another Calgary community turns to restrictive covenants with blanket rezoning in effect

The day Calgary city council approved its contentious blanket rezoning policy — which allows for different housing types, like duplexes and row houses to be built in all residential areas — Lake Bonavista residents began planning ahead.

That spring day, a group of homeowners in southeast Calgary held their first meeting about protecting their homes and community through restrictive covenants.

They are legal contracts between homeowners that can prevent the construction of certain types of buildings. The covenants are attached to land titles, meaning they stay in place even when the property owners change. They're also known to be challenging to remove.

In Lake Bonavista, the goal is to legally prevent developers from tearing down single-family homes for multi-family developments, though residents have agreed to allow secondary suites in basements and garages.

"I think a lot of people are very uneasy about what's happening in the community," said Karen Robinson, a volunteer for the committee running the Lake Bonavista restrictive covenant initiative.

"I think it's going to be very disruptive to the fabric of the community and just not give people that comfort and peace of mind about knowing what their street is going to look like."

Robinson says she hopes at least 60 per cent of the community signs on so they can prevent "land assemblies" — where developers purchase multiple lots side-by-side to build larger developments — and remain a single-family community with wide streets, mature trees and large yards.

It isn't just happening in Lake Bonavista. Many Calgary communities have historic restrictive covenants in place, and a number of other Calgary communities are turning to the idea now that Calgary's blanket rezoning bylaw is in effect.

Curtis Marble, the lawyer representing Lake Bonavista residents, said 15 to 20 per cent of the community has agreed to get the restrictive covenant registered to their land titles.

According to the initiative's website, it costs $500 per household to get the covenant registered.

Marble's team is getting those covenants finalized in batches, with roughly 70 households officially registered, he said.

He said restrictive covenants are more common in Calgary than people think — but often people don't realize it's on their land title because, in most cases, there wasn't any reason to enforce them in court until recently.

"Given that the city's zoning laws were, until recently, in many of those neighbourhoods [consistent] with what the restrictive covenant was saying, it simply wasn't necessary to go to court," said Marble, a partner with Carbert Waite LLP.

That's changing, and so too is the nature of Marble's work. He's been litigating restrictive covenants for roughly five years. But now, his team is also working to draft new restrictive covenants for communities like Lake Bonavista.