Calgary city councillors voted to send a number of proposed restrictions for development in high flood risk areas back to city administration for more engagement with the public.

The vote by the city’s Infrastructure and Planning Committee came after hours of feedback from residents, particularly in Bowness, opposed to the proposed regulations.

City administration proposed the changes to reflect updated flood hazard mapping from the province, which was released last year. 

According to the city, the updated maps introduce the “high hazard flood fringe,” where water is deeper and faster than the rest of the flood fringe, as well as the “protected flood fringe,” where a community is protected by a permanent flood barrier that can withstand water levels of a one-in-100-year flood.

According to Frank Frigo, the head of environmental management at the City of Calgary, the new maps include updated flood risk as well as the impact of improved flood resiliency efforts through various mitigation projects over the last decade.

“Since 2013, 70 per cent of the risk that we have in Calgary has been eliminated by engineered investments that are now in place,” he told reporters. “That means for most properties in Calgary we can move to less stringent regulations.”

Although new development is prohibited along areas designated a floodway, the proposed regulations for high hazard flood fringe areas included a ban on added density, restrictions on living spaces below flood elevation, and increases to building footprints would also be prohibited.

In Calgary, the high hazard flood fringe is primarily in Bowness, according to committee documents, and “to a lesser extent” in Bridgeland and some industrial and park lands along the Bow River.

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Around a dozen Bowness residents, many of whom live along the riverfront, shared their concerns with committee members about the proposed regulations.

Some in the community argued they’d be restricted from renovating their basements, including adding a suite, or expanding their homes if the new regulations took effect.

“The city doesn’t regulate what you can do in your home, but they’re proposing to do that,” said Jean Woeller with the Bowness Responsible Flood Mitigation Society. “We feel that’s an overreach.”

Others, like Jason New, said the regulations are unfair for homeowners that haven’t redeveloped their homes yet like older bungalows along Bow Crescent N.W.

“Is it reasonable to ask a person that has a 750-square-foot house to rebuild on that exact same footprint?” he said.

According to Frigo, the regulations are meant to balance public safety amid increased growth and development.

“If we put more buildings into the space where water would otherwise flow, it’ll make the water levels and velocities for adjacent properties higher or different, either creating erosion or incremental flood risk to properties that have already been regulated,” he told reporters.

The move to refer the proposed regulations back to administration for more engagement with the public came from Ward 1 Coun. Kim Tyers, who said councillors need to balance “property rights” with being risk averse.

“I hope that administration can sit down with these people and come to a compromise,” she told reporters. “There does need to be some sort of flood mitigation to protect the community, but what that looks like, according to what I’ve heard so far, this isn’t it.”

Ward 4 Coun. DJ Kelly said he views the situation as an “insurance issue,” and that property owners should have the right to build if they can get insured.

“Obviously it doesn’t make sense to be building things in high risk areas, but if somebody wants to take that risk on and they’re willing to pay for that, I’m willing to have that conversation,” he said.

Ward 8 Coun. Nathaniel Schmidt, however, opposed scrapping the restrictions on development.

“What we had here was a plan that went through three years of engagement, as imperfect as that may have been.” Schmidt told committee. “The engagement was not triggered by us, it was triggered by changes that we had to adapt to coming from the province and we worked hard to find a compromise and that compromise was reasonable, all things considered.”

It’s not the first time the Bowness Responsible Flood Mitigation Society has gone head-to-head with city council, after opposing the construction of a berm along the Bow River in the neighbourhood.

Instead, the group has been pushing for upstream mitigation on the Bow River, similar to the now-completed Springbank Off-Stream Reservoir, which has helped reduce the flood risk on the Elbow River.

“The mapping and these bylaws, to me, are a symptom of the greater problem,” Woeller said. “The problem is we need to keep the water out of the city limits and we do that with greater upstream storage on the Bow River.”

The province is working on an expansion and relocation at the Ghost Reservoir, but city officials said that project is likely going to take a decade to complete.

“We cannot be waiting more than 20 years since the flood of 2013 to be able to get this built,” said Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas.

“I strongly support better collaboration and consultation with our First Nations neighbours. We want to make sure this infrastructure project is built right.”

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