Council reconsiders decision to reject recommendations on affordability crisis

Calgary city council has reconsidered its decision to vote against recommendations made by an expert panel to address the city’s housing affordability crisis.

Calgary city council has reconsidered its decision to vote against recommendations made by an expert panel to address the city’s housing affordability crisis.

Late Wednesday afternoon, the city issued a release amending its Tuesday decision to reject six main recommendations over concerns over zoning and clarity surrounding proposed solutions.

Tuesday, in a 7-8 vote, council decided to end the task force’s work without moving forward on any of their recommendations.

The 33 specific actions called upon the council to implement policies such as removing all minimum parking requirements in residential areas along with establishing financial incentive programs to drive the production of more secondary suites.

Following the defeat, Ward 11 Councillor Kourtney Penner who voted in favour of implementing the recommendations, called on her peers to reconsider their vote.

“I’m deeply disappointed that my colleagues got hung up on one or two of those recommendations, but essentially that 32 other plausible recommendations couldn’t go forward.