CALGARY’S BLANKET-REZONING REVERSAL A BEACON OF HOPE, SAYS TEAM FOR A LIVABLE VANCOUVER

Vancouverites will have a chance next fall to choose a council that gives residents and neighbourhoods a say in shaping local development

VANCOUVER (Dec. 16, 2025) – Calgary’s move to repeal blanket rezoning of the city shows what happens when political parties like ABC ignore residents’ wishes, says TEAM for a Livable Vancouver.

It’s a beacon of hope that Calgarians have replaced a council that didn’t listen with one that will, TEAM says. Even though hundreds of people lined up in May of 2024 to oppose the blanket rezoning plan at the longest public hearing in Calgary’s history, it passed anyway.

But this fall, Calgarians elected a council majority that promised to repeal the blanket approach and start again “with real, community-specific planning.” A Calgary councillor might have been quoting from TEAM’s playbook when he said a one-size-fits-all approach that treats every street in the city the same is not the way to go.

Next fall, Vancouver will have a chance to do the same thing as Calgary -- elect a Council that believes residents and neighbourhoods matter, and must be an important part of the process when communities are being reshaped.

Vancouver’s Local Area Plans and Community Visions were consigned to history by a Nov.1, 2023 ABC Council vote as part of its implementation of our own blanket approach: the Vancouver Plan.

“Vancouver's legacy CityPlan was a tapestry of unique neighbourhood plans that involved 100,000 residents,” said former TEAM Coun. Colleen Hardwick. “Hopefully, the pendulum will swing back to a livable City focused on the quality of life of its residents.”

TEAM notes that former Calgary director of city and regional planning Josh White has played a big role in Vancouver’s blanket-rezoning efforts since May of 2024, when he took over as General Manager of Planning, Urban Design, and Sustainability.

White has told The Vancouver Sun that he is so philosophically aligned with the provincial housing mandates that “I could have written them myself.” He was at the helm of Vancouver’s planning department when Council voted to piggyback on provincially-imposed density by amending the Broadway Plan to increase it.

At the Nov. 27 public hearing on the proposed Social Housing Initiative, which would have seen 65,000 Vancouver lots rezoned in one fell swoop, when Coun. Mike Klassen asked if there had ever been a rezoning of this size in a major Canadian city, White pointed to his work in Calgary.

The disruptive, over-the-top development now occurring in Vancouver has been imposed by both the NDP provincial government and by the majority-ABC party, usually with the support of the so-called opposition parties.

TEAM supports more housing of all types in neighbourhoods, but believes it should be in scale and carried out in collaboration with residents rather than imposed by politicians and bureaucrats who think they know best.