Thanks to critical investments in flood mitigation, Calgary’s flood damage potential of a 1:100 flood has been reduced by 70 per cent. Although this means our city is more flood resilient than ever, our river communities remain vulnerable to varying degrees of flooding. Development regulations in flood hazard areas remain essential to ensure safety and address residual risks, including groundwater impacts during river floods. Through the Calgary River Valleys Project (CRVP), we’re working to update Calgary’s Land Use Bylaw to reflect updated floodplain mapping and regulations.
Update on Flood Resilience Land Use Bylaw Amendments
The City is continuing work on the Flood Resilience Land Use Bylaw Amendments as part of the Calgary River Valleys Project.
Following consideration by the Infrastructure and Planning Committee on April 15, 2026, and Council direction on April 28, 2026, the report has been referred back to Administration for additional engagement with affected communities – particularly those in high hazard flood fringe and groundwater flood fringe areas.
This means the proposed amendments are not being adopted at this time. The project team will use this next phase of work to continue engagement, strengthen shared understanding of flood risk, and refine recommendations before returning to Committee in Q4 2026.
We will be conducting additional community engagement in Fall 2026. This next phase of work will focus on:
Engagement with High Hazard Flood Fringe and Groundwater Flood Fringe communities.Strengthening shared understanding of flood risk and resilience measures,Refinement of recommendations prior to presenting to Committee in late 2026.
Until the new maps and regulations are finalized and City of Calgary policies and bylaws have been updated, development applications will continue to be assessed under the current Land Use Bylaw.
However, we’ll continue to share the best available flood risk information with development applicants and others to provide advisory comments for further resilience, or to permit relaxations as appropriate, just as we’ve done since 2013.