For two days, the city council urban planning committee heard from several speakers about Edmonton’s residential zoning regulations as it reviewed amendments that would see more restrictions placed on infill development.
On the table are a few changes, including dropping the maximum number of units midblock to six from the existing eight, while also increasing the minimum size of a unit.
Over the course of two days, 70 speakers took time to voice their concerns and it became clear the amendments are not popular with some people on either side of the infill debate.
Coun. Aaron Paquette said there are no wrong arguments.
“Whether you’re dealing with the facts and the figures and the needs of the city or you’re dealing with the change of a neighbourhood or the feeling of not knowing what’s going to happen, those are all valid concerns,” Paquette said.
Council has been tasked with balancing the need for more affordable housing that developers actually want to build and people are willing to buy or rent with the concerns of existing residents about property values, not enough parking, predatory developers, quality of builds and housing affordability.
Paquette noted Edmonton is dealing with a massive population catch-up from hundreds of thousands of new people moving to Alberta in recent years, while there are also federal grants for multi-unit builds that developers are being enticed to take advantage of.
“So we see this natural spike based on those artificial or unusual circumstances. When those go away — and they will, like the pressure of the population and the pressure of that grant — we get back into a normal state of development and so what happens there? And should we change policy mid-stream in an unusual time? Or do we see how it plays out over the next six months and then revisit?”
Representatives from Edmonton’s development community argue that further restrictions could impact their profitability, which would in turn drive up the cost of infill housing.
Meanwhile, owners of mature homes said six units on a single lot that previously contained a single-family home is still too many. Some argued that a unit reduction doesn’t even necessarily equate to smaller buildings.
Get breaking National news
“It’s all about the massing,” said Kathy Hawksworth, who lives in the south Edmonton Parkallen neighbourhood and is with the Residential Infill Working Group.
“A huge building is a huge building whether it has one, two, six or eight dwellings in it.”
Hawksworth noted large infills can affect the privacy and sunlight of neighbouring yards, affecting plants and energy efficiency investments, like solar panels.
“The loss of gardens, the loss of solar: these have real impacts for residents that are quite apart from whether it’s six units or eight units, or in fact one unit or two.
“It’s all about the massing size, the sheer volume of these huge buildings.”
A handful of presenters at the urban planning committee on Monday and Tuesday were from the Residential Infill Working Group.
They said the issue is largely the size of the multi-family housing buildings popping up next to bungalows or other much smaller existing homes.
“Infill can fit in nicely, we just need to do it nicely. We just need to do it right,” said Beverly Zubot, who is with the Residential Infill Working Group. “We need some tweaks in the zoning bylaw to make that happen.
“We’re hoping we can sit down with city administration and the development industry, builders, to come up with those metrics.
“The kind of things that will work for everybody.”
They presented a number of potential solutions, including lining up front setbacks with existing homes and splitting housing among a front home and back garage suite, with yard in the middle — breaking up big walls that block sunlight.
Other speakers expressed a desire to leave the existing zoning rules as they are, feeling they’ve been successful in developing more homes in mature neighbourhoods and more affordable rents.
When councillors on the urban planning committee began questioning city administration Tuesday afternoon, many of their queries surrounded how amendments would effect change that actually remedies problems Edmontonians are bringing forward.
In the end, the committee decided to send the debate to city council, where the public hearing process will start over again.
In 2023, the City of Edmonton changed zoning bylaws to allow for more multi-unit buildings up to three storeys in all neighbourhoods.
The aim was to encourage a variety of development to be built more easily in residential areas.
Since then, there’s been mixed reaction to the increase in multi-unit buildings replacing single-family homes.
Infill ended up being a contentious topic during the 2025 fall municipal election campaign after residents of established communities expressed concerns with property values, not enough parking, predatory developers, quality of builds and housing affordability.
All the reacher are done by developers. Developers are making millions because none of these infill are affordable housing. There’s been lots built in Holyrood and none of them were listed under $680 thousand dollars. The lots that city councilor and developers say are big enough to accommodate a yard behind and a garage is a joke. City councilor keeps complaining about all the abandoned houses downtown and keeps saying they want to attack more people downtown, well sell the buildings to developers and built your plex units there. Bottom line is the city council are not going to listen to the public. The developers run the city.
The city has decided to allow zoning for an 8 storey high rise to block out the morning sun from my bungalow. Already being surrounded by high rises means this will take away my view of the river valley and all sunlight from my garden and yard. They have no conscience or consideration that the block I live on is already overflowing with condos and I suggested they build.a park there instead for all the people on my block who live in apartments to have a place to take their dog other than my front yard. Council could care less about how their decisions affect people’s lives in major ways.
The infill debate has been rejected by the citizens at every meeting, yet here we are with the “friends & family” mayor and council.