A homeowner in one of Edmonton’s developing neighbourhoods gives his home new life by rezoning to develop multi-unit housing.

The owner of a single detached house in Edmonton’s Chappelle neighbourhood hired Situate in 2022 to determine whether he could convert the house into three or four rental units. Situate conducted a Zoning Analysis and advised the client that he would have to rezone the property to the RF3 (small scale infill development) zone in order to develop the additional units.

Situate managed the application to the City, which involved conducting neighbour outreach. Outreach included sending custom notices to the neighbours and creating a project webpage to share information and to answer commonly asked questions.

Some of the challenges of the project were that rezoning to the RF3 zone is uncommon in Edmonton’s developing neighbourhoods, and the type of adaptive reuse proposed by the client is a relatively new concept in the city. The application generated some opposition from neighbours who were concerned about traffic impacts and changes to the single detached nature of the neighbourhood. The Ward Councillor was also opposed to the rezoning because of the concerns she heard from the neighbours.

Situate designed presentations for the City Council public hearing that directly responded to community concerns and demonstrated that the rezoning would have minimal impacts. Several City Councillors stated that they believed the rezoning would be a benefit to the community, and was an innovative approach to increasing density.

Situate’s rezoning application was approved by Edmonton City Council on August 30, 2022 (see Item 3.8 in the meeting minutes). As a result, the client will be able to downsize, and repurpose his house to allow a variety of people and families to live near a number of amenities in the Chappelle neighbourhood.