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Mayor Naheed Nenshi is reprimanding the top Calgary home builders group for speaking out against the city?s planning department.
Photograph by: Stuart Gradon , Calgary Herald
Mayor Naheed Nenshi has punted the top Calgary homebuilders association from city committees, and wants its president to apologize for recent remarks before lifting this formal reprimand.
The group's head won't apologize for his critical comments, but that might prove to be moot - many aldermen want to discuss and possibly overturn the mayor's action at a council meeting Monday.
The reprimanding letter to the influential Canadian Home Builders Association's Calgary wing, sent Thursday, comes on the heels of Nen-shi's public spat with Premier Alison Redford and her municipal affairs minister over regional planning and a city charter.
But while that power struggle has much of council behind it, that doesn't appear the case with this fresh feud with the organization whose members build new suburbs and infill developments.
"Diplomacy does not seem to be alive and well at the moment," Ald. Gord Lowe said Friday.
Charron Ungar, who delivered the speech that rankled Nenshi, said he was taken aback by the response and wants to speak directly with Nenshi on the matter.
"Since when has being critical meant that you get kicked off of committees?" said Ungar, the association president.
The advisory committees that CHBA members have been yanked off include panels devoted to cutting red tape, planning future growth and overhauling the entire planning department.
Nenshi told the Herald the city would continue to work with the development industry and home builders, but it "will find our representatives from the home building industry elsewhere" until they clarify comments the mayor contends contain "misleading and inaccurate information" regarding the state of development-ready suburban land and the planning system.
He took issue with a speech made by Ungar at a Jan. 9 industry dinner, which was attended by Premier Alison Redford, but not by Nenshi.
Ungar was critical of the city's planning and accused the city of freezing suburban development in favour of increasing density in existing communities.
"Currently, there exists a significant (divide) between city hall and our industry on this issue of how we are going to grow," the Herald reported Ungar saying at the meeting.
Ungar, an executive with a major home builder, called the city's plan to balance growth by increasing density in existing communities "essentially a suburban development freeze."
Nenshi said Ungar's comments to colleagues contradict what CHBA has been saying directly to the city.
"It doesn't mean we can't disagree, we disagree with one another all the time, but we need to do so in a respectful, thoughtful way," Nenshi said in an interview.
The mayor also says Calgary "is up to pre-recession year levels in housing starts."
Council members were informed of Nenshi's letter to the home builders' group in a late-night e-mail Wednesday, hours before it hit inboxes at CHBA. Some aldermen had discussed this option during a closed-door portion of a Nenshi-led committee meeting Tuesday, but many other members feel left in the dark as to what the offending remarks were
"I thought the reaction was too strong and should have not been done by one independent member of council," Ald. Andre Chabot said.
"We're going to have to discuss it as a council and decide whether to uphold that decision or overturn it."
Lowe wants council to bring the group back to the table, even if the city doesn't agree with its perspectives.
"I've taken right royal ma-chine-gunnings from people, and my education and upbringing was that you remain courteous, you keep the door open, you don't slam doors shut and stamp your feet."
Ald. Brian Pincott, who normally agrees with Nenshi on growth and development issues, agreed that some statements need to be corrected.
"Is exile the right answer? I don't know. "We've got to figure that one out. I can't say whether this punishment specifically fits the crime."
The CHBA is a top lobbying force in the city, and its home-builder members are among the top civic campaign finance donors.
Pincott and Lowe both praised the fair, diligent and valuable work of Amie Blanch-ette, the CHBA employee who had until Thursday served on most of those advisory panels. In fact, sources say the mayor's letter made a point of stating that there was no quarrel with Blanchette's own city dealings.
She declined to comment for this story.
jmarkusoff@ calgaryherald.com szickefoose@ calgaryherald.com
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Source: http://feeds.canada.com/~r/canwest/F233/~3/oZNexHuM5-s/story.html
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