City council voted to allow the rezoning of a former golf course in northeast Calgary for a major new housing development, despite hearing from dozens of area residents opposed to the plan.

After a lengthy public hearing on Monday, councillors approved a new area structure plan and rezoning of the land in Harvest Hills, which paves the way for Cedarglen Homes to go ahead with its 716-unit mixture of single- and multi-family homes.

Rick Lundy, president of the Northern Hills Community Association, says the developers and the city have never adequately consulted with community members about the proposal.

"The engagement so far, that they've talked about, is a fairy tale. They went through the process to be able to check off the boxes in the application, to say that they've engaged the community," he said.

Area residents have raised concerns about the project's density, and how many mature trees will be cut down and how close the new homes will be to existing houses.

Lundy says proponents of the project fail to understand that the area is already "infrastructure starved" and that increasing the population will make matters worse.

"We have no schools, we have no recreation, we have no medical services. There's a lot that we're missing.

"So, adding thousands more to our community is not the answer."

Chris Ollenberger, a spokesperson for Quantum Place Developments, a company hired to help the homebuilder, says both the developer and the city held extensive engagement processes and community input was incorporated where possible.