City of Edmonton to hold public hearings on new proposed zoning bylaw next week

Edmonton city council will begin holding what’s expected to be three days of public hearings on Monday to get feedback on its new proposed zoning bylaw, which one city councillor noted Thursday would be the first time it has been significantly changed in decades.

For five years, the city has been gathering feedback on the changes being proposed.

“I think there are some really exciting elements in the new zoning bylaw that are going to get us to that city plan vision,” Coun. Ashley Salvador said Thursday.

“I think about opportunities for creating more walkable 15-minute communities, incorporating small-scale retail, having cornerstores back in our neighbourhoods, child care closer to home and more housing options for folks who might not be able to afford a single family home.”

There are a number of major changes that the new zoning bylaw proposes: to allow for infill housing to be built on any residential lot in Edmonton without the builder needing to go through an approval process with the city and to encourage small restaurants, coffeeshops and retail stores to open next to houses in neighbourhoods.

The bylaw also proposes that dense housing be allowed on any lot in the city, with some zones allowing infill and small apartments and others allowing highrises.

In recent months, Global News has spoken with Edmontonians who support the changes being proposed, and others who oppose it.

Nadine Chalifoux, the chairperson of the Edmonton Coalition on Housing and Homelessness, said she has significant concerns about the proposed changes.

“This bylaw change is actually going to make it easier for developers to build wherever they want, whenever they want,” she told Global News on Thursday

“It’s for profit basically and it’s not going to encourage them to build affordable houses.”

On Friday, Coun. Andrew Knack was interviewed by Global News at Noon Edmonton about the upcoming hearings and acknowledged any such bylaw discussions generate concerns.

“This has been the tough conversation anytime we’re talking about new changes within our existing mature neighbourhoods,” he said. “I’ve been doing this now for almost 10 years and we’ve had different changes over the 10 years.

“I think back to 2015 when we allowed the subdivision of a 50-foot lot into two 25-foot lots, or in 2017 when we allowed garden suites to be built, and each step of the way, there were people who felt really concerned about what those changes would mean for their community, and there were other community members who were looking for different housing choices and options. And the conversation we’re going to have next week very much follows down that path.”

When asked about Edmontonians voicing concerns about housing affordability, Knack noted “changing the zoning isn’t a guarantee that suddenly you have more affordable housing.”

“When we made the change to allow lot subdivision in 2015, that didn’t really produce a lot more cheap housing in a lot of mature neighbourhoods because the land cost is higher,” he said. “And yet, as you start to see some higher forms of density, I think about the row housing that’s built in my neighbourhoods , those actually are quite affordable and often are competitive with the suburban communities within the city of Edmonton.

“Generally speaking, the higher the unit count you go, the more you can spread out the cost of that building over each unit. So there’s a potential for that, but the zoning bylaw isn’t necessarily a guarantee that that happens.”

–with files from Global News’ Sarah Komadina and 630 CHED’s Stephanie Swensrude

6:47 Edmonton moves closer to finalizing new zoning bylaw