Zone In Issue #25

WHAT HAPPENED AT THE LAST #YEG PUBLIC HEARING

The April 24 public hearing had a total of sixteen applications (twenty three agenda items), including ten infill applications.

Of the ten infill applications, Council approved seven applications with no debate: four applications to allow for row housing, an application to preserve the historic Orange Hall, an application to allow for an institutional use, and Situate’s application in Strathearn to rezone two lots to the RA8 medium rise apartment zone. 🎉  🙌

A row housing rezoning application in Riverdale had a couple of people speak in opposition but passed unanimously. There were some Councillor questions on a Griesbach application to rezone a large site from a direct control zone to the RA8g zone (Griesbach’s equivalent of the RA8 zone), which then also passed unanimously.

The application that dominated the discussion was in McKernan… Read on.👇

INTERESTING

The McKernan application was to rezone several lots at 76 Avenue and 114 Street from the RF3 row housing zone to a custom direct control (DC2) zone to allow for 113 dwellings. The custom zone is similar to the RA8 medium rise apartment zone, only with slightly less height and slightly more floor area ratio. The City’s report stated that the proposal “replaces the previous proposal to rezone the properties to Medium Rise Apartment Zone (RA8) to better conform with the commercial use requirements of the McKernan-Belgravia Area Redevelopment Plan and to address certain concerns on impacts to adjacent properties.”

In addition to the usual concerns about traffic, there was also a lot of discussion at Council about alignment with the neighbourhood plan as well as climate change and climate resilience; concern was raised that the building would shade the solar panels on a nearby house. The trade-off was ultimately deemed appropriate, as the application was approved by Council. However, Councillor Janz, the ward Councillor, voted against it citing concerns about traffic, pick-up and drop-off, and the need for more three and four bedroom units.

MEMORABLE QUOTES 💬

🕓 The Times Are A-Changin 
“I recognize that […] we’re struggling with ARPs [Area Redevelopment Plans] that are fairly current in the last ten years that were built in conjunction with the communities, and now we’re starting to look at changes that go a little beyond what had been set out in those plans, and there is tension that exists because the community […] and the city staff frankly spent a lot of time and effort building those plans and now we’re looking to make some modifications. And I think the City Plan does set out a new vision for the city and it recognizes that we do have to make some adjustments.” Andrew Knack, Councillor

🏢 City-Scaled Solutions to Climate Change
” there’s tension between addressing climate change through individual action and systems change […] I deeply appreciate individuals […] who step up and decide to make choices to support climate resilience […] those choices are incredibly important […]; what developments like the one in front of us provide is an opportunity for people to live more sustainably without needing to change their mindset, but just because it’s an attractive and convenient option […]; buildings like this I think help us get to city-scaled solutions to climate change.” Anne Stevenson, Councillor

WHAT’S UP AT PUBLIC HEARING NEXT WEEK

The May 15 public hearing agenda has a total of twelve applications (eighteen agenda items), including six infill applications.

Of the six infill applications, two are small scale rezonings to allow for row housing, one is Situate’s application, and the other three are pretty interesting too👇.

WHAT SITUATE’S TAKING TO COUNCIL

This time around our application is to rezone a site on 99 Street close to Whyte Avenue in Strathcona from a custom direct control zone to the RA8 medium rise apartment zone (we’re pretty big fans of that zone if you hadn’t noticed—here’s why).

WHAT WE’RE WATCHING 🍿

👉 An application in Inglewood proposes to rezone a large site from the US (urban services) zone to the RF3 (small scale infill development) zone to allow for up to 17 units of row housing.

The site is vacant and previously functioned as open space next to an Edmonton Catholic School site. In 2015 the school board declared the entire site surplus land and put it up for sale. The previous landowners (who purchased the site from the school board) attempted to rezone the site to the RF5 (row housing) zone in 2020 and to the RF3 zone in 2021, without success. After the 2021 application, Council (the previous Council), asked Administration to negotiate with the landowner to purchase the site; however, the negotiation was unsuccessful and someone else acquired the land. The new landowner is now bringing the RF3 application back to Council. This item was postponed from the March 13 and April 3 public hearings and is sure to be an interesting watch.

👉 An application in Strathcona proposes to allow for a rooftop addition and patio on top of the existing rear annex of the historic Crawford Block on Gateway Boulevard. This requires rezoning from the current direct control zone to a new direct control zone.

👉 An application in Belvedere put forward by the City of Edmonton proposes to rezone about five blocks on Fort Road from the current direct control zone to the standard CB2 commercial business zone to allow for commercial and service uses.

Watch it live on Edmonton City Council’s YouTube channel; the action starts at 9:30 am on Monday, May 15.

NEWS FROM SITUATE

NEWS FROM THE CITY

The last round of engagement on the City of Edmonton’s draft new zoning bylaw is taking place now until May 31. Check out the public engagement page (and if after that you have tons of questions… give us a call).

SOME GOOD READS

A Strong Towns take on NIMBYs, YIMBYs, and upzoning: Upzoning Might Not Lower Housing Costs. Do It Anyway.

READER FEEDBACK

Hey, thanks for reading this far! We send this newsletter in the hopes of making it easier and more fun to understand (1) what’s going on at #yeg city council public hearings on land development and (2) zoning, infill, and the land (re)development process in general. If there’s a topic you’d like to read about let us know and we’ll do our best to write about it!

DISCLAIMER

Zone In is created by Situate Inc. and is for informational purposes only. The content in Zone In is not to be construed as planning, zoning, real estate or any other professional strategy or advice.