Board composition

Citizen Board members bring a wide range of experience to the Board in fields such as building and development, planning and law.

Board members are appointed annually by City Council for one or two year terms. The Board consists of a minimum of 15 to a maximum of 25 citizen members. Citizen members cannot be employees of The City of Calgary or members of the Calgary Planning Commission.

To allow for a diversity of expertise and perspectives on the Board, there will be a 10 year term limit for regular members of the SDAB, beginning as of 2016. This change, together with the staggering of appointments, will support continuity and succession planning for the Board. The SDAB Bylaw has also been amended to remove the possibility of Councillors being appointed as members of the Board.

Individuals may not contact any Board member with respect to any appeal or potential appeal as this may disqualify them from participating in the hearing. The Board members do not discuss appeal cases with the Development/Subdivision Authority before or after hearings. In addition, individuals must not contact Board members regarding the outcome of an appeal. The Board only speaks to appeals through its reasons for decisions.

If persons appearing before the Board object to a Board member sitting on a hearing, on the basis of bias, they should state their objection, and reasons for the objection, at the start of their presentation. The Board member will then respond to their objection. The presiding Chair will consider the objection and the response of the Board member and will determine if the member should stand down from the hearing.