Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp, chair of the IPC, said given the persistent housing need in Calgary, it’s important to consider these new communities carefully.
“What’s important is we’re looking at not just doing inner city development, which is super important, but also looking at building in some of these outlying areas,” she said.
“You need to have that balance. We should not be dictating where people live.”
Coun. Sonya Sharp, who voted in favour of land sale, said it was only the first step toward the possible future of the site. ‘We have to absolutely take in consideration everything we've heard from the community. But we also have to think about if this land right now is being used to the best of its ability,’ said Sharp, who represents Ward 1.”
“Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp said the info sessions are timely but she isn't convinced there's enough of them to allow Calgarians to attend. So she's organizing a session of her own, perhaps in March. ‘My office and I have decided we are also going to do our specific little town hall for all the communities to come specifically to speak to their member of council,’ said Sharp. She's unhappy there are only six meetings being held by the city and not at least one session in every ward. Sharp said there's a lot of concern among homeowners about the zoning proposal. ‘There's a lot of questions. A lot of folks are asking specific technical things that I think is really important for them to ask administration at those sessions.’”
“Sharp added many of her constituents told her the rezoning proposal was being ‘shoved down their throats’ at a town hall she hosted on Monday. ‘The biggest issue I heard last night was stripping the democratic right of having to speak to your elected official and giving your five minutes for or against a project in your community,’ she said. ‘These are investments that for some people, this is all they have is their home in their community. A lot of people aren’t opposed to densifying. The communities are putting densification in the right areas. It’s really removing that democratic process from the land use portion and not being able to come to council chambers to speak.’”
"This blanket rezoning isn’t just a significant change on how we grow, but a significant change for the process we use to get there and how we see people participate in it.’”
“‘It’s exactly what I expected. A lot of people signing up for this public hearing, a lot of passion in the community supporting, not supporting blanket rezoning,’ said Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp. ‘I think we’re going to hear a wide variety of opinions… We’re going to hear a lot of repeat that we heard when folks came to speak to the housing strategy and that is great. I think we need to start getting down to the crux of why everyone is here this week.’
"This cuts out the wrong four months. It cuts out the public’s four months of engagement and input, not administration’s four months of process. Nothing in this requires administration to innovate, improve, do jobs faster,’ said Coun. Sharp. ‘The people, what I just heard, the people some of you referenced in your debate, are not the red tape.’”
‘If these investigations find any member of administration or the mayor misled Calgarians or council there needs to be serious consequences,’ says Sharp. ‘If heads need to roll, heads need to roll.’ Sharp wants to know if there were any secret meetings where certain members of council were not included and only the mayor's office was meeting with senior administration. The councillor speaks of ‘flip-flopping’ and ‘smokescreen answers’ by city hall paper-shufflers. She speaks of her feeling council and Calgarians were misled. And she believes ‘Justin Trudeau should not be able to write our land use bylaw and use Calgarians' federal tax dollars as a stick. This rezoning should never have come to council with the amount of pushback we got from Calgarians.’ Sharp adds city hall has ‘a fragile reputation. Now this has crushed it.’”
