‘Absolute mess’: Public put on hold as city council wades through marathon zoning session

Coun. Tim Cartmell put his thoughts in very simple terms.

“It’s an absolute mess,” the mayoral candidate said of city council’s Monday public hearing into proposed changes to the zoning bylaw.

A proposal is in front of council that would see single-lot, mid-block developments in existing neighbourhoods capped at six units, down from eight as called for in the one-year-old zoning bylaw. On the agenda, 87 people are listed as speakers in support or opposition. Council chambers were full on Monday, with about 100 in attendance. As well, Cartmell had promised to dovetail that with his own motion to put a moratorium on infill projects in Edmonton, to give the city some time to process the rapid changes the zoning bylaw has brought to communities across the municipality.

Article content

But attendees were soon told they could all go home because the earliest council would likely debate the issue is Thursday.

It’s a procedural issue. The discussion about the eight-to-six proposal was last on a packed agenda. Council will go on a summer break at the end of the week. And council defeated a motion to have the issue moved to the top of the agenda. So, with so many other items ahead of it, eight-to-six and the accompanying infill debate will wait.

Cartmell said that council won’t likely have time to get to all the scheduled speakers on Thursday, which means the issues won’t get resolved until council gets back from vacation. And, in the meantime, more developments will be approved.

“It’s not me that said ‘let’s leave the most important item till the last item of the summer’ and literally talk about it starting on Thursday afternoon, knowing full well there’ll be no time to hear from all the people registered to speak, to actually complete the item,” he said. “It punts it to August at the very earliest.”

Article content

The move to go from eight to six, proposed by Coun. Michael Janz, came after large groups of residents in Glenora and Crestwood made plans to enter into restrictive covenants that would prevent larger scale developments to replace their homes. Restrictive covenants are agreements between homeowners where they determine what can and can’t be built (or torn down) on their properties. The covenants are placed on land titles, and are passed on if the owners sell. Covenants allow landowners the chance to place legal roadblocks to upzoning and new developments.

Through the new community lobby group Edmonton Neighbourhoods United, more communities are looking for ways to legally battle new developments.

Even though he proposed the move from eight to six, Janz said Cartmell’s plan to put a hold on all infill is out of order.

“I think that’s absolutely reckless, and illegal,” Janz said. “We, as a city, are not able to do a pause. People have rights under the Municipal Government Act, we’re told that in our first day on the job. Homeowners have a right to apply for decks, apply for garages, apply for uunits, and to imply otherwise is untrue.

Article content

Article content

“It’s creating false hope in the community or misleading the public.”

Even though they were told they were free to go, the majority in the gallery elected to remain. Attendees included mayoral hopeful Tony Caterina and Reed Clarke, who is running for election in Ward Nakota Isga as part of Cartmell’s Better Edmonton party. Another Better Edmonton member, Ward papastew’s Joshua Doyle, was also there. The Principled Accountable Coalition of Edmonton (PACE) party had several candidates there, including Hali Kaur, Mark Hillman and Justin Thomas. PACE president Sheila Phimester was also at City Hall.

What council did get to

They sat and heard as council addressed another zoning issue, which also has been a hot-button topic in mature neighbourhoods. The zoning bylaw currently states that the city would “support” small-scale densification developments in existing residential neighbourhoods, even if the projects were outside of the “nodes and corridors” specified in the City Plan. This led to blowback from community groups concerned that this created a development free-for-all.

Article content

An amendment on the table would see the city consider upzoning if the development meets two of these conditions: “In a node or corridor area or within 100 metres of a node or corridor area; within 400 metres of a mass transit station; along an arterial roadway or a collector roadway; at a corner site or adjacent to a park or open space; adjacent to a site zoned for greater than small-scale development.” The proposed change would create some rules for developers to follow.

“It’s a good first step,” said John Soltice, a co-founder of Edmonton Neighbourhoods United, “But it could go further.”

Another speaker, Sabina Qureshi, said that she’s encouraged that council is “finally listening” to residents.

“These are the people who live in the neighbourhoods,” she said. “These are the ones you should listen to. These are the people who elect you.”

Article content

Like Soltice, Jennifer Faulkner of the Parkallen Community League said the proposal is a first move to prevent “overbuild neighbourhood capacity.” She’s concerned that the zoning bylaw opens the entire Parkallen neighbourhood to redevelopment, when the south side of the community has only one access to an arterial road and can’t handle the added capacity.

There were concerns about the lack of fencing around infill projects, which presented hazards to the communities in which they are being built. Concerns were also voiced about streets being narrowed or closed to accommodate construction, which could impact access for emergency vehicles.

But, there are other considerations at play. While there is no doubt a grassroots movement happening throughout the city’s mature neighbourhoods to battle the zoning bylaw, there are investors who have already sunk money into in-progress developments and they worry that changing the rules after just one year pulls the rug out from under their feet. There are also concerns that blocking densification efforts would, eventually, push house prices higher and wreck the affordability advantage that Edmonton has over other major Canadian cities.

Article content

“Shifting back to minimizing density after just a year stands to undercut these efforts,” said Kelvin Hamilton, a local architect.

Jeff Booth, representing the Infill Development in Edmonton Association, said that placing conditions on upzoning will limit housing choices and drive more people to the suburbs. That means more traffic.

“We risk falling behind just as we gain momentum,” he said.

Rick Dulat is a developer with more than 20 projects on the go, and seven are in the permitting process. He warned council that changing the rules could result in legal actions against the city.

“This is not how a reliable permitting process works.” he said.

“It’s hard not to see the political motivations at play,” said Dulat, a swipe at Cartmell’s planned motion to pause infill.

Dulat said he’s been developing in mature neighbourhoods for a decade. And, he’s met resistance. He said signage of a corner-lot development in Crestwood was vandalized with the words “slum lord.”

Article content

“I am really tired. I am exhausted. I face racism. I face vandalism.”

Dr. Sandi Culo is a psychiatrist who works with patients in the inner-city patients. She owns a home in Crestwood, a half block from a new infill development. She said that she has faced threats from someone who worked on the site of the infill.

She said that she supports a moratorium on infill, and said that new densifying developments are affecting the mental health of long-term residents.

“There is moral injury to community members whose opinions are disregarded and disrespected,” said Culo. “The city does not seem to care what Edmontonians want.”

A balancing act

Coun, Andrew Knack, expected to be Cartmell’s main rival for the mayor’s chair, said council will strike a balance between the two opposing forces.

“We’ve been making changes to the zoning bylaw for the last decade and, each time we make changes, there are always going to be some applications that are impacted,” he said. “We absolutely want to respect (the development industry’s) time and attention. We also need to make sure we’re listening to the residents that we serve, as well.

Article content

“We’ll probably debate what the the right time is for this to take effect, and if there are any legal requirements that we have as a city for applications under review.”

Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add EdmontonJournal.com and EdmontonSun.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters.

You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post, and 13 other Canadian news sites. The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun

Article content