Infill advocates oppose zoning reduction as city council revisits bylaw

More than 100 people have signed up to speak at a public meeting with city council in Edmonton. CTV News Edmonton's Jeremy Thompson reports.

The bustling Ritchie neighbourhood has been a skinny home hot-spot for some time now, but a new kind of infill has been popping up since new zoning rules kicked in a year-and-a-half ago.

Samuel Rad, a resident in the area who lives in one of two garage suites on a six-family lot, believes this is the future of infill.

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“It looks like a regular, single-family home, but it’s housing six families,” said Rad in front of his home Wednesday morning.

Rad shares the property – and amenities like a sauna – with four tenants in the main building.

He was at city hall Monday as some Edmontonians voiced support for the eight-unit zoning bylaw, while others supported a decrease to six units per lot.

About 18 months ago, the city passed a zoning bylaw that would allow developers to build eight units on a single lot as a way to create more affordable housing in desirable neighbourhoods.

But many residents of these mature neighbourhoods – where infill is really taking off – are opposed, saying the large units are creating problems.

Jacob Dawang, a member of the grassroots citizen-led housing advocacy group Grow Together Edmonton, said he’s hoping to avoid backsliding on the rezoning.

“In the past year and a half, we’ve seen a moderate amount of infill, with it driven in part by the eight units per lot,” Dawang told reporters Wednesday. “That’s already a few hundred homes, but some of those lots would never be developed in the first place if it were six units because you can’t break even on that redevelopment.”

Dawang said council has been focused on the wrong things and that it should be laser-focused on affordable housing for Edmontonians.

“It seems that council is in a race to the bottom on who can reduce the most housing possible,” said Dawang, adding that data his group has compiled shows that rent becomes more affordable in the city when rental vacancies increase.

He said a five-per-cent rental vacancy is ideal for more affordable rent, which allows renters to have more choice where they live.

“Council needs to be focused on how we build more homes in the places that people want to live in, not reducing the amount of homes that we can build in the places that people want to live.”

While construction can be a nightmare for neighbours, he said it’s worth it in the long run.

“I live in the mature neighbourhood of Queen Alexandra and I had a five-storey apartment building built across from me,” said Dawang. “The construction sucked. It was a hole in the ground for four months. But once it was completed, I was happy to have those new people there.”

Other perks of infill housing include community enhancement by providing a bigger customer base to businesses in the neighbourhood, providing population growth to keep public services high and providing a tax base to keep taxes low, said Dawang.

Ward pihêsiwin Coun. Tim Cartmell called for a pause on mid-block infill until more public consultation can be done. But on Monday evening, a city lawyer said doing so would violate provincial law.

Cartmell acknowledged the motion had the potential of legal challenges.

Council will debate some changes to infill rules on Thursday concerning building size, space between buildings and maximum units allowed mid-block.

But before council can vote, more than 100 people have signed up to speak at a public hearing which is expected to take place once council returns from break in August.

Many Edmontonians have voiced concerns over multi-family infill homes, saying the units are eye-sores and that parking will be an issue amongst other anxieties.