In October, The Sprawl did a big story on seven new suburban neighbourhoods going to Calgary city council.

Council approved the three that went to council last week.

This is the smaller batch, totalling 3,965 anticipated homes.

These neighbourhoods don't need capital funding right away but require small amounts of operating dollars starting in 2028—and hundreds of millions of capital funds in future budget cycles.

The bigger batch is still to come.

The four going to council during budget deliberations later this month are expected to add 17,176 homes to the city's supply. Admin has said these require $377 million in capital funding for infrastructure in the upcoming four-year budget cycle, and nearly a billion more in future budget cycles.

On October 27 council voted 9 - 6 to green light the two Glacier Ridge applications on the city’s northern edge, which admin raised numerous red flags about but recommended council approve.

“You're going to strand assets if these fail,” warned area Councillor Jennifer Wyness, referencing the north Calgary water servicing project, which includes a 22-kilometre feeder main currently under construction. Council also fast-tracked development north of these lands, including a $24 million fire hall, a year ago.

"If you stop this, you stop the continuation of housing," said Wyness.

The six who voted against were Mayor Jeromy Farkas and Councillors Andrew Yule, John Pantazopoulos, Myke Atkinson, Nathaniel Schmidt and Harrison Clark.

"I don’t have adequate line of sight in terms of what our actual capacity is to commit to these," said Farkas.

Farkas echoed earlier concerns from Atkinson that council shouldn't be getting into 2028 budget adjustments before hashing out the four-year budget first.

"It feels like putting the cart before the horse to pre-approve these things before we actually understand what our existing residents and communities need," said Farkas.

Council voted 11 - 4 to approve the third neighbourhood, which is in Belvedere on the city's eastern edge. Farkas, Yule, Atkinson and Schmidt voted against. 

Meanwhile, council is trying to get more clarity on how the Alberta government's Bill 28 will affect growth costs.

The UCP legislation puts new restrictions on what is eligible for the off-site levies that developers pay city hall to help cover infrastructure costs. Transit buses and fire trucks will be newly exempt from the levies, as will some fire hall costs that go beyond what the building code requires.

At council's executive committee meeting yesterday, admin confirmed that if developers don't cover the costs of fire trucks and transit buses, tax dollars will make up the difference.

Committee directed admin to update council by November 24 on Bill 28's "estimated impacts" to the budget. The proposed budget comes out next Tuesday, November 10. City hall plans to update its off-site levy bylaw in 2027.

It's November, and that means the three-wheeled version of The Sprawl's Pop-Up Press is tucked away for the winter.

I put it into hibernation last week (thanks, Horizon Heating, for providing an off-season storage spot!).

But the printing press itself is not deactivated.

We'll have it at the Shelf Life Books Zine Party this Saturday, which is happening from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. above the bookstore. Join us and other local zine creators!

We'll have a new Curious Calgary comic from Sam Hester that will only be available in print to start—so come by and snag one!

Sam's work will also be on the Pop-Up Press for you to print, and she'll be there to sign prints in the afternoon from 2 to 3 p.m.

Swing by if you're free. We'd love to see you on Saturday!

That's all for now. Thanks as always for reading. And remember to support our journalism if you value it!

Jeremy Klaszus is founder and editor of The Sprawl.