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Originally Posted by you&me
In regards to upzoning, I think it makes sense to do it in stages, rather than a single, city-wide blanket like (I think) GGG was proposing.
Let's be realistic - it's not like Calgary has such a shortage of underused or brownfield sites that we need to start upzoning across the city so we can teardown corner lots in Edgemont or (*GASP*) Bonavista to develop 4 townhomes.
I believe the city implemented a "Main Streets" upzoning policy recently, where properties along arterial roads are upzoned... Let's work our way through that a little bit first before we get on with something like blanket 4-stories-everywhere zoning.
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If you want to really deal with supply issues, you need to open up a significant amount of zoning at once. Otherwise, you end up in a situation where new builds are slowly trickled into the market and never actually satisfy demand.
That being said, obviously there needs to be a lot of planning and foresight into which areas actually get upzoned, with transportation being a major consideration. For example, you should be pushing for upzoning along major arteries, transit lines, and in central neighbourhoods. A lot of these areas are already rundown to begin with, so I don't see how putting in new builds with their own amenities decreases the character of any of these neighbourhoods.