Edmonton city council passes massive zoning overhaul after days of public hearings
CBC
A major revamp of Edmonton's zoning rules that will shape the city for decades has been approved by city council.
Council has passed the new zoning bylaw 11-2 Monday, with councillors Jennifer Rice and Karen Principe voting against.
The decision follows nearly 300 Edmontonians sharing their views at a public hearing last week — with just slightly more than half speaking against the bylaw.
It's the first major overhaul of the city zoning rules in decades.
The city is shrinking the number of zones from 46 to 24 in an effort to align more closely with The City Plan, a long-term outlook that imagines a more dense, environmentally-friendly urban space as the city grows toward a population of two million.
The bylaw allows for buildings of up to three storeys in all neighbourhoods, and encourages different types of development to be built more easily in all residential areas.
Council is now making multiple motions for subsequent work on the bylaw addressing many of the concerns raised during the hearing.
The motions are not an instant change to the new bylaw and would first require a report coming back to council and then a vote.
"This bylaw supports affordability. It makes it easier for affordable housing developers and seniors housing developers to build housing our community needs by reducing unnecessary red tape," Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said during the meeting Monday.
"It provides the opportunity for Edmontonians to attain different housing types for their needs across the city."
Rice told CBC that there are concerns Edmontonians have that are not yet addressed in the bylaw and that's why she voted no.
"I don't think for me at this moment I'm comfortable to say yes to this bylaw, but I do believe that our city needs a new bylaw," she said.
Critics of the bylaw cited a lack of regulation for developers and environmental issues among the top concerns. Others said the bylaw didn't do much to improve housing affordability, despite the desire from councillors for it to help that issue.
Kevin Taft, with the Coalition for Better Infill, said he felt like council bowed to the wants of developers.
When a U.S. company made its data centre pitch to some concerned Saint John residents late last year, he called the city an untapped “gold mine” for artificial intelligence projects.
Over the past seven years, when outgoing premier François Legault's government tabled a contentious bill, he would often justify it by saying it represented the will of the vast majority of Quebecers.
The union representing Manitoba's nurses is concerned a reduction in the number of nursing agencies the province works with could exacerbate staffing shortages during the transition period.
Developers convinced a Saskatoon city council committee Wednesday to give some more thought to proposed changes to a longstanding incentive to encourage infill.
A Regina real estate agent has been sanctioned by the Saskatchewan Real Estate Commission after he arranged to pay someone to tamper with other businesses' Google Business profiles.
Peter Bevan-Baker will not be running for re-election in the next provincial election, the Green Party of P.E.I. announced Thursday morning.
Businesses in Edmonton don’t have to recycle or compost — but that could soon change.
A day after two elderly Vancouver Island women told RCMP they had been scammed for thousands of dollars, a man walked into the detachment saying he took their money during his delivery work and was unsure if what he was doing was legal.
Schools across the Hamilton, Niagara, Burlington and Brantford areas are closed today after the area was hit with a winter storm overnight.
All school buses in Windsor and Essex County are cancelled on Thursday morning according to Windsor-Essex Student Transportation Services.
Newly released court documents in the case of Jack and Lilly Sullivan offer more details on the relationship between their mother and stepfather leading up to the children's disappearance more than eight months ago.
Another sawmill in northwestern Ontario is being shut down indefinitely.
Heavy snow throughout the Greater Toronto Area is forcing residents to rethink their Thursday morning schedules due to transit delays and a number of school closures.