SLC discusses upcoming Board of Governors meeting and Blanket Rezoning Public Hearing
By Danijela Marcinkovic, March 24 2026—
At the Students’ Legislative Council (SLC) meeting on March 17, Board of Governors Student-at-Large Representative Lujaina Eldelebshany discussed the pre-report for the March 20 Board of Governors (BoG) meeting, and Vice-President External Julia Law discussed the blanket rezoning public hearing that will occur on March 23.
Eldelebshany stated there will be four main agenda items being discussed at the upcoming BoG meeting.
“The first of which is the approval of the UCalgary 2026-2027 consolidated and capital budgets, where the Board of Governors [hopes] to approve the consolidated [and] capital budgets that are set forth in the documents, and it is recommended by the budget committee and the finance and property committee,” Eldelebshany stated.
“The second action item is just the approval of the establishing and managing policies and procedures,” she said. “It’s pretty much just drafting and changing the policy and procedures to simplify explanations, remove duplicates and ensure that there are more clear accountabilities, particularly for the implementation authorities.”
“The third action item focuses on the approval of the proposed closure of the Department of Classics and Religion in the Faculty of Arts, and it’s recommended by the General Faculties Council (GFC),” she said. “This proposal [is] just in line with the broader Faculty of Arts renewal following recommendations from the Faculty of Arts unit review.”
“As I don’t come from the Faculty of Arts, I plan on consulting with some of the faculty reps in arts to understand the student perspective on this,” she said.
“The last action item on the board is the approval of the biomanufacturing facility project budget,” she said. “The motion here is just that the board hopes to approve the biomanufacturing facility project for a total cost of 9.67 million as recommended by the finance and property committee. The construction is set to begin in April and complete by May of 2027.”
“Lastly, some of the discussion items is the name change from the Biogeoscience Institute to the University of Calgary Kananaskis Centre, as well as the last discussion item that the Electricity Centre at the University of Calgary become a transdisciplinary centre for outreach, training and research,” she stated.
Next, Law began by explaining what rezoning means, as well as its controversies.
“In 2024, city council passed blanket rezoning. [It] changed all citywide based residential zones to either residential grade oriented, which I will be referring to as RCG, or residential low-density mixed housing,” Law said. “RCG allows for the building of row homes, semi-detached homes, single detached homes and town homes.”
“The requirement with RCG is that any of these four different types of housings could be built on any lot across the city…as long as they were under 11 metres tall and had parking of 0.5 stalls per unit,” she said. “Residential low-density housing, on the other hand, has all of the same except for town homes, and they have to be…12 metres tall or under, [and] have to have a parking stall of one stall per unit.”
“For the most part, it’s been RCG across the entire city,” she said. “It just allowed for developers to go forward with creating, say, a four-plex, a duplex, or something on a lot that previously had a single-family home without having to do a rezoning application.”
“So one of the most controversial parts of rezoning was that it got rid of the public hearing process of when a developer asked to rezone a lot. However, that public hearing process still exists because of the development permit process,” she said. “It basically was just a way to eliminate the long-winded nature of getting a home from start to finish.”
Law then explained how rezoning helps students.
“Rezoning…helped to streamline the process of planning, meaning that more homes went up, as well as causing home prices to go down slightly,” she said. “It also helps provide more affordable alternatives because most developments made after rezoning…tend to be cheaper than a single-family detached home.”
“We are currently in ward seven, and ward eight is the one that includes communities like Mardaloop and Mount Royal. [These] got the most development after the passing of rezoning,” she said. “So inherently it helps students because it’s housing where students need it.”
“Rezoning also indirectly helps students by…making more density,” she said. “Rezoning helps to create more density meaning that people are concentrated in more areas, meaning…less infrastructure concerns, etc.”
The purpose of the upcoming public hearing on rezoning is that many elected officials want to repeal rezoning.
“The majority of this year’s elected council ran on positions of repealing rezoning. Some of them want to repeal and leave it at that, take it back to what it was pre-2024, set everything back, beating the process of every time someone wants to make a change…they need to come back to city council, basically making the process long and lengthy again,” she said. “Others want to repeal and replace…some of them are saying, well, we want more thoughtful development. Things like tree canopy have gone down since rezoning has been implemented, meaning that they want to go back to the drawing board…still keep with the rezoning to ensure that we have more development citywide, but ensure things like…you want a duplex at the edge of the street not in the dead middle between two single-family homes.”
“Generally speaking, it is looking like rezoning will be repealed,” she stated. “The hope is that it’s repealed and replaced, so that affordable development can continue in the City of Calgary.”
The Public Hearing will begin on March 23 at 9:30 a.m. at Council Chamber Municipal Complex 800 MacLeod Trail S.E. Calgary, AB T2G 2M3. The hearing will also be livestreamed at calgary.ca/watchlive.
The deadline to submit written comments has passed, but those interested in speaking at the hearing can fill out the online Public Submission form.