Lorne Gunter: Infill housing unit reduction an attempt to fool voters to re-elect ‘progressive’ council

Really!? Just who do Edmonton city councillors think they’re going to fool?

At Tuesday’s meeting of council’s urban planning committee, councillors voted four to one to reduce the number of units permitted in mid-block developments from eight to six, after councillors had encountered crushing opposition to the eight-unit bylaw they passed more than a year-and-a-half ago.

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Whoop-de-do.

If you can take any 50-foot lot on any block in any neighbourhood inside the Henday and build an oversized building on it that blocks out the sun and invades the privacy of the neighbours, who cares whether that building has six or eight suites in it?

It’s the loss of enjoyment of their property by surrounding homeowners and the loss of value of neighbouring homes that’s the problem, not whether the massive wall immediately next door, almost to their home’s property line, contains an eight-plex or a six-plex.

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That’s how stubborn the current council majority is about what Edmontonians want, and how obsessed they and administration are with cramming as many extra residents as possible into mature neighbourhoods.

The vote Tuesday was nothing but a naked attempt by the “progressive” majority to save their political skins in this fall’s municipal election.

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The eight-plex bylaw has caused huge pushback from owners of existing homes in quiet, single-family neighbourhoods. It is the No. 1 topic council candidates are hearing on doorsteps and at community league meetings.

Undoubtedly, the angry voter uprising has every member of council who originally voted for the changes (and all but two of them did) worried about their re-elections this fall. They should be worried. It is a scheme to grow a more densely populated Edmonton that is destructive of neighbourhood and community culture, and at the same time supremely arrogant.

It says, “We (the “progressive” majority on council and the administration) know better than regular Edmontonians how this city should evolve. And with our superior intelligence, we feel entitled to force change on the rest of you, whether you want it or not.”

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Edmonton doesn’t belong to its citizens, but rather to council and the administration.

The proposed change is supposed to come back to the full council in time for a public hearing on June 30. But the term “hearing” is a misnomer.

There has been tremendous opposition to this change since before council passed it and they have wilfully not heard a thing.

The proposed change from eight units per lot to six is nothing more than a bone tossed by council to an angry electorate to try to quiet their distemper.

The councillors who initially voted for the bylaw include Mayor Amarjeet Sohi, mayoral candidates Andrew Knack and Tim Cartmell and every other member of the current council, except Jennifer Rice and Karen Principe. (Rice was also the only member of the planning committee to turn down the switch from eight units to six because she believes it doesn’t reduce the maximum number of units far enough.)

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I’m guessing the majority on council are laughing at voters behind their backs thinking that maybe — just maybe — we’re dumb enough to buy this meaningless change and re-elect them so they can continue their destructive ways for our city.

The change doesn’t address the lack of parking for these new mega-units. Developers will still be excused from providing off-street stalls, so cars will be parked all over residential streets, potentially even blocking emergency vehicles.

The council majority and administration assure everyone though that parking won’t be a problem because most of the new residents will be taking transit and won’t own cars.

In this city? And this climate?

That kind of blinkered, delusional thinking is not going to be cured by a public hearing. It can only be treated with a strong dose of electoral defeat.

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