New Community Growth Applications
New Community Growth Applications
Growth Applications are how The City evaluates and enables growth opportunities as part of the Citywide Growth Strategy, helping to ensure that new community growth happens in the right place at the right time.
Growth Applications
A Growth Application is not a plan or a permit. It is an evaluation process established by The City to review and make decisions on new community growth and associated capital and operating investments.
All new community developments require approval through a Growth Application before proceeding to Land Use and the rest of the development process.
A Growth Application can only be made once the related Area Structure Plan is approved, but applicants are encouraged to submit a Growth Application concurrently with a related Outline Plan.
-
Passionate about our city's growth and development? The City of Calgary's Dispatch newsletter is your essential resource for timely updates on city planning and development initiatives.
Lead time of Growth Applications
Growth Applications can be submitted at any time throughout the year.
Evaluation of Growth Applications and the development of recommendations to Infrastructure and Planning Committee can be complex and iterative processes.
Review of development scenarios, servicing capacity and timing, and operating cost may require five to eight months ahead of an Infrastructure and Planning Committee meeting. This is particularly if adjustments to applications or alternative approaches to servicing are part of the conversation. This means that Growth Applications must be brought to Infrastructure and Planning Committee no later than the April meeting of that Committee.
To ensure enough time for application evaluation and reporting, we recommend that applications be submitted at least 6 months in advance of the desired committee date.
Note: application review can vary depending on complexity and technical needs. The City reserves the right to ensure that evaluation and reporting are appropriately completed prior to a Growth Application proceeding to the Infrastructure and Planning Committee.
Updates
Council adopted adjustments to the 2023-2026 Service Plans and Budgets, thereby approving four Growth Applications in Keystone Hills, Belvedere, and South Shepard. See Page 12 of Attachment 3 for details.
Administration brought a semi-annual update briefing on Growth Application activity to Infrastructure and Planning Committee, with status information on ten active files.
Council adopted recommendations on Growth Applications in Belvedere, Westview, Keystone Hills, Providence, South Shepard, and Glacier Ridge. Four Growth Applications (in Keystone Hills, Belvedere, and South Shepard) were recommended for consideration in the 2025 mid-cycle adjustment to the 2023-2026 Service Plans and Budgets.
Average target timeline
Intake and initial completeness checking and circulation should be completed within a week.* The report writing and review timing to bring an item to Infrastructure and Planning Committee is approximately eight weeks.*
The City is committed to working with applicants to explain the next steps and provide guidance on what to do for applications that are not recommended for consideration in the current budget adjustment.
*The timing of application evaluation and review can vary depending on application complexity and servicing knowledge.
Current Growth Applications
-
Find detailed information on each application and its stages.
-
Learn more about current Growth Applications.
-
Browse semi-annual report on Growth Applications.
How to apply
1. Review contextual information
The first step in considering a growth application is to review the Growth Application Evaluation Criteria and consider what amenities, infrastructure, and policy are in place around the property, and what might be missing.
The following map and contextual documents will give information relevant to potential new community growth in Calgary. The map will be updated when there is a new growth application, a change in application status, and when decisions are made for each application. It will help applicants decide whether to proceed with a pre-application discussion for a new community Growth Application.
Overview
Tools to provide a summary overview of contextual infrastructure information are currently under development, and will be available here on release.
This map shows existing services and amenities relevant to potential new community growth in Calgary. It is provided here to help applicants decide whether to proceed with a pre-application discussion for a new community Growth Application.
Contextual information documents
The following documents each contain additional information relevant to new community Growth Applications. Applicants are encouraged to consult these documents before proceeding with a pre-application discussion.
| Description | Information |
|---|---|
|
Operating Cost Model |
One key aspect of the Financial Impact criteria is the consideration of projected operating costs and generated revenue. The impact is determined by using The City’s New Community Incremental Operating Cost Model (“the Model”), with this report specifically addressing previous Council direction to provide Council with more detailed reporting on the inputs and assumptions used in the Model. |
|
Funding approval status of capital requests identified in the 2023-2026 Citywide Growth Investment Portfolio |
Published September 8, 2023 This document, also known as the Funding Approval Current Status document (FACS), shows which infrastructure investments were approved by Council for the current business cycle in November 2022, and the extent of the approval. These approvals used the 2023-2026 Citywide Growth Investment Portfolio as guidance, following Council direction from July 2022 (through report IP2022-0545, Attachment 5 and 6). |
|
2022 Citywide Growth Strategy Monitoring Report |
Published June 7, 2023 The 2022 Citywide Growth Strategy Monitoring Report provides Council, Calgarians, developers, builders and internal partners with current citywide growth-related data and analysis, as well as progress updates from decisions made in 2022 and previous years. |
|
Suburban Residential Growth Report |
Published October 16, 2023 The Suburban Residential Growth Report (SRG) provides key information on the dynamics of Calgary’s new community housing market and specifically looks at existing land supply for residential growth over the next five years. It provides an in depth analysis of the developing areas broken down by sector including information on servicing status and requirements, near term forecasted growth patterns, total planned land supply capacity and categories of the planned land supply: growth management overlay in place, approved – yet to be serviced and approved - serviced land. |
|
Long Range Financial Plan |
Published January 18, 2022 The purpose of the Long Range Financial Plan (LRFP) is to provide a plan to deal with the 10-year financial challenges facing The City beyond the current Service Plans and Budgets cycle, to progress toward long-term financial sustainability and resilience. The 2021-2032 Long Range Financial Plan is a thorough strategic plan based on projections of The City’s operating and capital requirements for ten years, on top of the current four-year budget cycle, extending to 2032. The plan manages changes by identifying emerging risks and providing corresponding financial strategies. |
|
Corporate Asset Management Plan |
Published October 20, 2022 One of several useful Corporate Project and Asset Management resources, the Corporate Asset Management Plan (CAMP) is a long-term plan created to manage infrastructure and help to ensure The City is meeting service levels and mitigating risk. |
|
Off-site Levy Annual Report 2022 |
Published July 4, 2023 The Off-site Levy is one of several funding sources that contributes to covering the costs of the infrastructure needed to support communities. The Off-site Levy Annual Report 2022 provides information on levies collected and spent, along with any remaining balances available for future capital investment. |
By combining the information from the map and contextual documents with the Growth Application Evaluation Criteria, the applicant can consider what amenities, infrastructure, and policy are in place around the property, and what might be missing, before proceeding with a pre-application discussion for a new community Growth Application.
All of the information on this page is subject to change at any time, including immediately after publication. The information provided here cannot replace a pre-application discussion, nor can it be used to make any legal decision or any decision regarding land development or any other business. Additional and updated information will be made available to applicants during the pre-application discussion and subsequent stages in the new community Growth Application process.
The City of Calgary provides this information in good faith, but it provides no warranty nor accepts any liability for any incorrect, incomplete or misleading information or its improper use. Information and numbers are current as of the indicated date for each figure and document.
2. Pre-application discussion
Due to the complex nature of Growth Applications, pre-application enquiries are recommended. They can help highlight major issues with the proposal, provide updated contextual information, and identify additional technical information that will be required with the formal application.
To request a pre-application discussion, email newcommunity@calgary.ca. There is no fee for pre-application enquiries for Growth Applications.
If you are submitting your Growth Application concurrently with a related Outline Plan you may request a single pre-application discussion for both applications.
3. Submit your application
The steps to submit your Growth Application are as follows:
1. Download the Growth Application Complete Application Requirement List (CARL)
2. Review the following documents:
- 2023 Land Use Amendment Fee Schedule, which includes fees for Growth Applications.
Please note that on October 17th, 2023, City Council approved an adjustment to Growth Application fees. This adjustment is reflected in the above-linked Fee Schedule.
The adjustment reduces fees on smaller applications (up to 16 hectares in area). These applications would pay a flat base fee ($3,264) plus a pro-rated fee of $1,836/ha up to 16 hectares. This new approach applies to both initial submissions and resubmissions. The fees for applications over 16 ha in size have not been changed ($32,640).
3. Download and complete the Growth Application Form
4. Submit your completed application to newcommunity@calgary.ca.
5. Submit payment via one of the following options:
1) In person via Cheque, credit card, cash at:
Planning Services Counter
3rd Floor Calgary Municipal Building
800 Macleod Trail SE, Calgary AB
8 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., Monday - Friday
2) By mail/courier addressed to:
Planning Cashiers Office
Canada Post
The City of Calgary
Planning Cashiers (MC#8108)
PO Box 2100, Station ‘M’
Calgary, Alberta
T2P 2M5
Courier or In-Person
The City of Calgary
Planning Cashiers (MC#8108)
3rd Floor
800 Macleod Trail SE Calgary, Alberta
T2G 2M3
3) By Phone (only available by credit card):
In order to make payment over the phone by credit card please call 403-268-5417.
4) Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT):
If you would like to pay by Electronic Funds Transfer, please send an email to planning.cash@calgary.ca requesting to pay by EFT. Make sure to reference your Growth Application number in your email. We will reply with payment information in the order your email was received.
After you apply
After you submit your application, you will receive a confirmation email with a Job Access Code (JAC), and a file manager will be assigned to support you through the rest of the process.
To track your application and check its status, enter your Job Access Code in Vista.
4. Application evaluation and refinement
The Growth Application evaluation team will review your application against the qualifying criteria in the Growth Application Evaluation Criteria to evaluate whether the application merits recommendation for consideration through the Service Plans and Budgets process. If your Growth Application is not yet ready for recommendation, the team will provide comments to support you in refining and resubmitting it.
To ensure that applicants and their Growth Applications are as prepared as possible before proceeding to Infrastructure and Planning Committee, the Growth Application evaluation team will support as many rounds of evaluation and refinement as required for a given Growth Application, and there is no additional fee for resubmission of amended applications during this part of the process.
5. Recommendation for consideration through Service Plans and Budgets process
The development of any new community Growth Application requires some combination of capital and operating investment from The City, and so the decision whether to fund those associated investments is the final approval decision for Growth Applications.
Once the Growth Application evaluation team determines that your Growth Application meets the qualifying criteria in the Growth Application Evaluation Criteria, the team will recommend that the investments associated with your application be considered through The City’s Service Plans and Budgets process. This recommendation must first be brought to Infrastructure and Planning Committee (IPC), who will decide whether to bring the recommendation to Council, who will decide whether your Growth Application proceeds for further consideration.
Growth Applications that are not recommended for consideration through The City's Service Plans and Budgets process may remain open and able to proceed to IPC at a future time or may proceed to IPC with a recommendation not to consider the required investments in the next Service Plans and Budgets process. In both cases, The City will continue to collaborate with Applicants to advance planning, design, and other supportive work in support of a future recommendation to IPC.
6. Final Council decision through Service Plans and Budgets
Through the Service Plans and Budgets process, Administration prepares proposed services plans and budgets, or proposed adjustments to Service Plans and Budgets. Then, every November, Council deliberates and makes the final decisions on these proposals.
If the capital and operating investments associated with your Growth Application are supported through the Service Plans and Budgets process and approved by Council, your Growth Application is considered approved, and it may proceed to Land Use Amendment and the rest of the development process.
Growth Applications whose associated investments are not approved may be resubmitted through the beginning of the Growth Application process, and may be eligible for a reduced application fee on resubmission (see the 2023 Land Use Amendment Fee Schedule, which includes fees for Growth Applications for more information).