CALGARY- City Council has taken some cautious steps towards the legalization of secondary suites, though they stopped short of any major reform until at least 2012.
On Monday, councillors voted unanimously to make it even easier to create suites in land-use zones that already allow them, which would include some 116,000 properties. There was also an effort to permit affordable housing units in areas within a five minute walking distance of LRT stations or nearby any post-secondary institutions. However, the majority of councillors voted against the proposal.
"Council has been paralyzed on this issue," says Mayor Nenshi, "and what we really did, through the process we’ve been going through for the last 3 or 4 weeks, is really get some much better ideas on the table. Because council has been consistently debating the same things over and over again for years and we were unable to move on them."
Nenshi says he would have preferred to move forward on all the ideas put forward but insists they did make progress on the issue.
The issue was a major part of Nenshi’s mayoral campaign leading up to the election back in October.
Council is also seeking to gauge public opinion before the issue is brought back to the table and they’ve asked staff to look into a new enforcement approach to better ensure suite safety.
"Trying to find a compromise between all users is what we’re trying to do here," explains Councillor Andre Chabot.
Finding that compromise, however, will require time and money.
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