Kent’s Plan: Fix zoning. Build thriving communities
Highlights
- Replace current zoning, including blanket rezoning, with neighbourhood zoning everyone can understand.
- Densify strategically, with open and transparent communication and consultation.
- Respect neighbourhood diversity, infrastructure and urban canopy.
- Build a affordable Ward 8 where everyone can live and thrive.
We need to act now to address Calgary’s housing crisis. As the city experiences record population growth and housing demand, city hall must act with vision, collaboration, and fairness to build communities.
Kent’s housing strategy strives for one critical goal: ensuring Calgary remains a vibrant, affordable, and inclusive city that puts people, not policy, first. Through reforms that encourage responsible densification, maximize the value of under utilized land and structures, and community-based housing models, we can, and will, build a more resilient city where everyone can thrive.
By incentivizing density in the right places, redeveloping underused spaces, and investing in community-based housing, Kent’s plan will enable Calgary to meet urgent housing needs while maintaining a city where residents can thrive.
Kent’s plan ensures community voices are respected while allowing responsible growth that considers infrastructure, appropriate land uses, community character, and resident input. As an experienced representative who delivered $2.6 billion of federal investment in Calgary during four years as an MP, Kent has the know-how and networks to get the projects Calgary needs done.
Calgary’s current residential zoning system is too complex. It limits public participation, favours those with the deepest pockets and inside track, and erodes trust in government.
As things stand, Calgary has over 20 residential and mixed use zoning categories, many of which include further sub-categories. Despite these specific categories, most developments still require in-depth individual review and must go through a full approval process. This system creates confusion for residents, barriers to public participation, and undermines transparency. According to a spring 2025 survey of Calgarians, only 52% of residents trust the City of Calgary.
We must restore people’s trust in city hall on many fronts, starting with how our neighbourhoods grow. Kent’s housing strategy plan does just that by replacing not just blanket rezoning, but the zoning system as a whole to foster responsible densification, limit costly and unsustainable sprawl, and ensure authentic and transparent consultation with stakeholders.
To simplify Calgary’s zoning bylaws, Kent will push for the consolidation of existing residential land use zoning into a smaller number of clear and understandable ‘neighborhood zones’ so people know what to expect in their community, along with limited additional categories for specific uses such as mobile home parks.
Developed with the input of urban planning experts as well as the people in communities most impacted by development, Calgary’s new zoning framework must consider existing infrastructure, heritage home status in older communities, parking, and the urban canopy. It must also close loopholes and prevent backroom deals to end the developer free for all the people of Ward 8 have endured.
Anything less is unacceptable.
Kent is committed to getting this done.
As housing supplies are strained and residents face a rising cost of living, Calgary faces an urgent need to better utilize urban space. The downtown core presents a major opportunity for adaptive reuse: According to a Colliers report, downtown office vacancy rates in Q1 2025 were over 27%.
Further incentivizing office-to-residential conversions will build on the city’s existing success in encouraging the remodelling of offices to residential spaces to increase Calgary’s limited housing supply and accommodate growth in the city.
By expanding incentives, streamlining approvals, and supporting mixed-use development, Kent plans to revitalize downtown while providing urgently needed housing, including family oriented and affordable units, without costly and unsustainable urban sprawl.
Calgary has already made strides in this direction with the Downtown Calgary Development Incentive Programme, which provides financial incentives to private developers converting under utilized office space into residential units. Since its inception, the programme has seen positive uptake, with 21 office conversion projects approved, representing 2,628 new residential units, a hotel, and a hostel. This success demonstrates both demand for such conversions and the feasibility of the initiative. Expanding the programme would allow the city to accelerate the transformation of its urban core into a more vibrant and better utilized environment.
Calgary’s next city council needs a strong vision to develop communities in the city centre and create vibrant living spaces; Kent has just that.
Co-op housing presents a proven, community-based solution that protects affordability over the long term while encouraging social inclusion, economic diversity, and sustainable urban development.
In Calgary, co-op housing is in high demand, with long waitlists and limited availability reflecting the city’s growing need for affordable housing alternatives. Ward 8 is home to multiple co-ops, many of which offer housing charges well below market rates. Co-op housing offers a pathway to support long-term affordability and community resilience.
Kent supports the expansion of co-op housing in Calgary—particularly in high-demand inner-city wards like Ward 8—to unlock stable, non-market housing options that remain affordable over the long term.
With significant new federal funding available through the Co-operative Housing Development Programme, Calgary is well-positioned to scale up co-op housing development in partnership with local organizations such as the Southern Alberta Co-operative Housing Association. Strategic zoning reform, land banking, and public information will be key to maximizing this opportunity and embedding co-op housing within the broader housing system.
Federal funding for co-op housing represents a critical opportunity for Calgary to expand our housing options. Kent plans to support the development of co-op housing in Ward 8 by accessing federal funding, scaling up successful projects locally, and strategically planning land use and zoning policies to facilitate co-op housing development.
As Calgary experiences major population growth, highly efficient and well-funded developments are essential to minimizing strains on the housing supply and increases in housing costs. Public-private development partnerships offer an effective approach for Calgary to enhance quality of life and encourage economic development by injecting private sector developments with public sector resources.
These partnerships involve collaboration between the municipal government and private firms to co-fund projects, including housing. In funding projects by providing public financing or taking equity stakes, the City of Calgary can take advantage of its monetary reserves to accelerate development while preserving long-term financial benefits for residents. In addition, the city can shape project priorities to ensure community benefits, long-term vision, and provide assets such as unused public land to enable developments.
Other cities have successfully partnered with private developers in similar initiatives. Toronto, for example, has benefitted from the Waterfront Toronto initiative, which transformed industrial lands into thriving mixed-use communities by attracting over $10 billion in private investment through coordinated public commitments.
By leveraging public-private development partnerships, Kent will deliver transformative projects and improve Ward 8’s livability. With strong governance and extensive public transparency, private-public development partnerships can align municipal goals with market solutions, offering mutual benefit and sustainable urban growth.