Forest Heights infill project takes flak from both sides of debate

CTV News Edmonton's Jeremy Thompson has more on an infill project the owner said he intentionally scaled down, but still has neighbours upset.

Some residents in Forest Heights say they feel powerless to fight back against some new homes they think are too tall and don’t fit the neighbourhood.

One infill owner is intentionally building single-family homes rather than a multi-plex because of his own negative experience with infill.

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Julien Laplante’s new three-storey home certainly sticks out in the east-central Edmonton neighbourhood’s sea of bungalows and post-war semis.

Its height is allowed under city zoning rules, but there is one obstruction ahead: the neighbours.

Two years ago, his property on Rowland Road featured a bungalow which he said had foundation and roof issues.

Laplante and his wife plan to live in the middle of three single family homes they’re building on the 90-foot lot. He’s been introducing himself to neighbours, acknowledging it’s a big change.

There are anti-infill signs on lawns nearby, but Laplante didn’t build an eight-plex like the zoning allows because of his own experience with infill.

“We wanted to be close to single-family houses, not multi-family (ones),” he said. “We’re from (nearby neighbourhood) Strathearn right now. Strathearn has a lot of that development going on, so we’ve seen that.”

Ashley Salvador, the city councillor for the area’s Ward Métis, says while Laplante is following the letter of the zoning bylaw, million-dollar single-family homes are not the infill that city council is trying to encourage.

“Part of the reason we are moving forward with a number of changes in our zoning bylaw is to diversify the types of housing we’re seeing, so that we can start to integrate more affordable options into our neighbourhoods,” Salvador told CTV News Edmonton on Tuesday.

Whether it’s ‘not enough density’ or ‘too tall,’ Laplante is hearing concerns from both sides. He believes he’s found a middle ground.

“We really wanted to make sure that this wasn’t a multi,” he said. “This lot could’ve been used for something a lot different.

“We wanted to be an asset to the community, not a detriment.”

City council will debate zoning changes at a public hearing on Monday.

Tim Cartmell, city councillor for Ward pihêsiwin and a mayoral candidate in this fall’s municipal election, is calling for a moratorium on all new infill development.

He says the city has missed the mark on infills.

“Let’s engage the neighbourhoods on the plans that are actually about their neighbourhood,” Cartmell told media on Tuesday. “Let’s take a pause on these very interior infills and let people be heard and adjust from there.

He says the city’s infill strategy has moved faster than Edmonton’s infrastructure and planning and needs to be fixed.

Cartmell plans to move the motion for a moratorium during Monday’s public hearing.

Fellow mayoral candidate Andrew Knack, who is city councillor for Ward Nakota Isga, is against a full stop of the bylaw.

“At a time when we have a housing crisis, at a time where people are facing unaffordability challenges, particularly in housing, to stop all that in older neighbourhoods, and I live in an older neighbourhood, to stop all that development would mean we don’t have housing for people,” Knack said Tuesday.

Knack says during the public hearing, city council will already be making changes to the bylaw based on feedback from Edmontonians.

He says refining the rezoning rules and making adjustments is the best way forward.