‘I’m concerned because council is tone-deaf and it just pisses me off,’ says Robert Lehodey, the lawyer in the homeowner court fight against Calgary citywide rezoning
When it rains, it pours.
It’s Calgary city hall and the hits just keep on coming.
The next day there’s an impending battle in court between city hall and a large group of Calgary homeowners over the decision of the city council to push through blanket rezoning where semi-detached houses, rowhouses and townhouses will be allowed across the city, a move kicking in Aug. 6.
Reminder. That decision of the city council majority included a Yes vote from Mayor Jyoti Gondek.
Robert Lehodey is a lawyer in the court case. There are 288 people in this court action and the list is expected to hit 400 souls.
Why is he willing to stand up to city hall?
“I’m concerned because council is tone-deaf and it just pisses me off we have elected officials that aren’t prepared to listen to Calgarians.”
When all is said and done he feels the strongest argument against city hall pulling this bylaw change off is “the hue and outcry from so many Calgarians that were against it. Council failed to listen to Calgarians.”
Lawyer Lehodey calls the citywide blanket rezoning “a fundamental change to people’s rights,” taking away the right of 311,570 homeowners to have a real say in rezoning properties next to them or in their neighbourhood, their right to go in front of city council and object.
Instead, “It’s simply city planning departments rubber-stamping development permits.”
The lawyer adds under the new city hall rules you can complain about the development permit, “but that and 50 cents gets you 50 cents.”
So later this month there is a court date.
Then we’re looking at a hurry-up hearing likely in October where there would be “real submissions, real arguments.”
Lehodey says the city must hand over to the court everything related to council’s rezoning decision.
That includes the written submissions from the public, all the hundreds of public presentations, all that went into the deliberations of council in the longest city council hearing in Calgary history.
The lawyer says it could add up to 15,000 pages.
Then there is the issue on whether to put on hold development permits under the citywide rezoning until after the court has made a decision on whether the city council decision will stand.
You see, if construction starts somewhere and the homeowners win and the rezoning is punted, the buildings put up may have to be taken down and those affected may have a claim against the city for approving construction while there were court proceedings.
Without getting into the weeds, the homeowners will say the city made misrepresentations to the public and did not follow all the requirements of provincial law.
“You have to step back and say what’s in the best interests of the community as a whole. We don’t think they did that in any way, shape or form,” says Lehodey.
The next claim is certain councillors had already made up their minds before listening to Calgarians and that’s a definite no-no.
They draw attention to one councillor, Gian-Carlo Carra, who they say coached people on how to present to city council if they backed the rezoning.
“A listener to that public proceeding would not walk away with any certainty as to whether the money was forthcoming or not forthcoming based on blanket rezoning.”
How confident is the lawyer of homeowners carrying the day?
“Whenever you’re before a judge the coin is in the air. We think we’ve got reasonable and valid arguments. We don’t think this is frivolous by any stretch of the imagination.
“We’re pretty convinced the councillors in favour of blanket rezoning have an agenda that is not in the next interests of the city.
“Our goal is to try and convince the court that’s the case.”