“Submitted a permit or subdivision application before the first reading of the proposed bylaw.”
That line sits second on the City of Calgary’s list of exemptions from the repeal of citywide rezoning. It’s the reason a rowhouse can be going up next door while the same plan on your lot would need a trip to Council first.
Council approved the repeal on April 8, 2026, and the zoning changes took effect on August 4. The City says 99% of properties went back to the zoning they carried before the 2024 citywide change. The rest kept R-CG, R-G or H-GO zoning for reasons tied to one parcel at a time.
Key facts
- The City of Calgary states that Council approved the repeal of citywide rezoning on April 8, 2026, with the zoning changes taking effect on August 4, 2026.
- The City of Calgary states that 99% of properties returned on August 4, 2026 to the zoning that applied before the 2024 Rezoning for Housing change.
- The City of Calgary lists three exemptions from the repeal: a permit or subdivision approval under R-CG, R-G or H-GO before the bylaw took effect, a permit or subdivision application submitted before first reading, or an owner-initiated rezoning applied for after August 6, 2024.
- For developments after August 4, 2026, the City of Calgary lowered maximum height in the R-CG district from 11 metres to 10 metres and maximum lot coverage from 60% to 55%.
- The City of Calgary’s find your land use tool returns a property’s current land use district when an address is entered.
An exemption follows the parcel and its own paperwork
Each exemption starts with a file opened on one lot. An approved permit or subdivision under R-CG, R-G or H-GO. An application submitted before first reading. A rezoning the owner applied for after August 6, 2024.
None of it moves across a property line. If the builder next door filed in time, that lot kept its zoning. Yours went back to R-C1, R-C2 or whatever district it held before 2024, unless your own file passed one of those tests.
Council has kept adjusting the list. On July 21, it passed Bylaw 27P2026 to exempt parcels with approved applications submitted between January 1 and April 8, 2026, and Bylaw 28P2026 to return parcels to their old district where an exemption was granted in error or where the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board overturned the permit. It also directed that development permits supporting an exemption won’t be extended, and asked Administration for amending bylaws twice a year to restore the old zoning on parcels that aren’t proceeding. In a city where builders have waited six months for a yes, that clock matters.
So an exemption can lapse. The permit that kept a neighbour’s lot in R-CG this fall may not keep it there if the project stalls.
The R-CG rules changed for the lots that kept it
A lot that kept R-CG now builds to different numbers than it did in 2024. For future developments after August 4, maximum height dropped from 11 metres to 10, and maximum lot coverage dropped from 60% to 55%. Zero lot line developments are gone. Bylaw 25P2026 deleted the building depth rule that let a main residential building sit in the rear yard of a midblock parcel, while Bylaw 24P2026 kept maximum density at 75 units per hectare.
A plan drawn to the 2024 version of R-CG may not fit the 2026 version.
Suites moved the other way. Bylaw 26P2026 made secondary suites a permitted use in every low-density district. A lot can carry a secondary suite or a backyard suite, not both, and backyard suites need parking again. Timing now decides a lot in Calgary development, from the zoning cutoffs to the City’s 2026 development agreement deadlines.
What to check before you pay for plans
The City’s find your land use tool takes an address and returns the parcel’s district and the uses it allows. Start there, with your address, not the one next door.
Then call the City’s Planning Services Centre with the address and ask two things. What district does this parcel carry today? Is it named in any amending bylaw headed to Council? Get the answer in writing before you sign with a designer.
If the lot went back to R-C2 and you still want a rowhouse, the City’s own answer is a land use redesignation approved by Council, then a development permit, then a building permit. The Council decision summary lists what changed. Book the redesignation conversation first. The drawings can wait.
