Frustration, confusion over city hall hearing on Edmonton infill

More than 100 residents came to Edmonton city hall to take part in a public hearing that might not happen. Jeremy Thompson reports.

On a beautiful summer day, the day before Canada Day, about 100 Edmontonians squeeze into city hall, eager to share their feelings with council on the infill developments they say are harming their neighbourhoods.

It’s been a year and a half since the city-wide zoning overhaul kicked in, its most impactful change allowing eight units on virtually any residential lot.

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“The destruction that we see every day when we look out our window or drive down our street is causing us severe emotions,” Joe Spelliscy, a registered speaker for the public hearing, told city council on Monday. “We are sad, we are anxious, stressed and at times angry, and you don’t seem to care.”

Monday’s public hearing is a zoning check-in, an opportunity to make changes based on lessons learned from the past 18 months, but the agenda contains 32 items and only a few are about the zoning change.

City councillor Tim Cartmell, who’s running for mayor this fall, called the hearing “an absolute mess.”

“We’ve split this thing into a discussion at the beginning of the meeting, and a discussion at the end of the meeting, and the meeting is two 12-hour-days long, and people don’t know if they should be here at the beginning, or here at the end,” Cartmell, who represents Ward pihêsiwin on Edmonton’s south side, told media on Monday.

Ward papastew Coun. Michael Janz says the confusion is partly Cartmell’s fault as his colleague promised a pause on infill as he runs for the mayor’s seat.

“I think quite frankly people were misled today,” Janz told media. “They thought they were coming to see a moratorium debate, and that’s not happening.”

Janz calls the proposed pause “reckless and illegal,” and believes in incremental change to infill rules.

“Where there are issues, we are fixing them, we are taking action (and) we are being responsive to community,” he said.

The public hearing is scheduled to last all day Monday into the evening and all day Thursday.

After that, city council is on summer break until mid-August.