At a public hearing scheduled for next week, where Edmonton city council will discuss a motion to potentially put new limits on some infill development, one city councillor says he plans to suggest putting a moratorium on new infill development entirely.
The campaign team for Tim Cartmell, who is one of two city councillors running for mayor in this fall’s election, issued a news release Tuesday explaining that he believes Edmonton is “missing the mark on infill.”
“I will be moving a motion to place a moratorium on all new infill development,” Cartmell said in a statement, saying he plans to move the motion at a public hearing on June 30. “Edmonton’s infill strategy has moved faster than our infrastructure, faster than our planning and faster than public trust.
“We need to pause, reflect, and fix what’s broken before we approve more of the same.”
At the June 30 hearing, city councillors will debate a motion put forth by Coun. Michael Janz at an urban planning committee meeting last week to put a limit on the number of infill residential units that can be built in the middle of a residential street.
The motion came as there have been a growing number cases of Edmontonians expressing concerns about the impact the city’s zoning bylaw — which took effect a year and a half ago — is having on their neighbourhoods’ character. The bylaw was implemented to help the city densify the inner-city while also providing more diverse housing options as Edmonton’s population continues to grow.
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“When the new zoning bylaw came into effect, the promise was bold: modernize the way we grow our city, create more housing options and make neighbourhoods more complete,” Cartmell said. “And while we’ve seen a lot of success after 18 months in, it’s clear that we’re missing the mark on infill.
“I’ve heard you. Edmontonians are not opposed to growth. But they are opposed to being left out of it.”
Mayor Amarjeet Sohi was speaking to reporters at an unrelated news conference on Tuesday when Cartmell’s campaign team issued its news release.
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When asked about the proposal, Sohi said he would need to see exactly what Cartmell is proposing before commenting specifically. However, speaking broadly, he noted that as Edmonton’s population continues to increase, the city needs to mitigate urban sprawl because providing services in new communities is more expensive and less environmentally sustainable than improving services in existing communities where more people can access them.
“As we continue to grow, we want to make sure that we are implementing our city plan which talks about half of our population being accommodated in either mature (and) existing neighbourhoods, and then the other half creating conditions for suburban living,” he said.
“I think that is a very good balance to have. In order to create opportunities for people to live in mature neighbourhoods, we want to make sure that we have diversity of housing choices.
“We have a lot of single-family homes — absolutely important. But when opportunities come to refurbish or demolish and build new, creating conditions to build a duplex, a four-plex (or) a six-plex is the right approach to take.
Coun. Andrew Knack, who is also running for mayor in the fall election, told Global News he too had not yet seen Cartmell’s news release, but that in thinking about the issue in broad terms, he would have concerns about putting a moratorium on housing at all in the midst of a housing crisis.
“We are a rapidly-growing city — 200,000 people in the last four years have moved into Edmonton,” he noted. “If we aren’t building in our older neighbourhoods, … where is everyone going to live?”
In an interview with Global News on Tuesday, Cartmell said he has heard from a lot of Edmontonians who say they are concerned specifically about “redevelopment of established neighbourhoods and the residential zoning within those spaces.”
He said what he would like city council to do is to revisit specific sections of the zoning bylaw regarding established neighbourhoods and district plans and then to re-engage with citizens about the issues.
“A temporary pause on that particular part of the rezoning process,” is how Cartmell described the motion he plans to put forward next week, adding that his proposed moratorium would not impact major projects like housing developments in Blatchford.
“We’ve been doing this for 18 months. Let’s take a breath, take a beat, and refocus and understand where we might re-craft and redirect this work.”
Global News reached out to the Infill Development in Edmonton Association (IDEA) for comment on Cartmell’s idea. The non-profit has a stated goal of trying to “drive change towards people-centered communities.”
“Edmonton’s population is rapidly growing in part due to in-migration from other Canadian cities where housing has become unaffordable,” said Sean Sedgwick, the executive director of IDEA. “Canada is in a housing crisis and restrictive zoning practices constraining supply are a major cause.
“To call for a moratorium on infill homes under these circumstances is to advocate for recreating the same problem here.”
Sedgwick noted he believes the federal government’s incentives meant to spur infill development are a major reason “so much is being built” currently.
“IDEA firmly believes that infill will help our mature neighbourhoods remain sustainable, vibrant places that even more people can enjoy. We need new homes, but we cannot afford more sprawl.”
–with files from Global News’ Sarah Komadina
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