New year, new zoning: Edmonton's urban planning overhaul will come into effect Monday
CBC
On New Year's Day, Edmonton will look much the same from the ground, but its map will have radically changed.
Edmonton city council approved a complete zoning overhaul in October after days of contentious public hearings. Nearly 300 Edmontonians shared their views, with about half speaking against it.
That new zoning bylaw comes into effect Jan. 1.
As of Monday, all properties in Edmonton have been rezoned from previous zones to their closest equivalents under the new bylaw.
The impacts on your neighbourhood will depend on where you live. The city has put an interactive map online to help residents navigate the rezoning.
Zoning sets the rules for where new buildings should go, what types of buildings they can be and what types of businesses and activities can happen on a property. As the city says, it determines "what can be built where."
The new bylaw shrinks 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 new zones make it easier for developers to build larger infill properties in many neighbourhoods, forgoing the time and cost of rezoning.
A neighbourhood now dominated by single-detached homes could see other types of housing sprout up more easily. There are six new zones specifically for residential (outside rural areas).
Each indicates the maximum number of storeys allowed in that zone:
Many neighbourhood overlays — an additional layer of regulations — have also been retired in the new bylaw. Of the 10 that existed in the previous bylaw, only two (Floodplain Protection and North Saskatchewan River Valley and River System Protection) continue to exist while a third (Airport Protection) has been added.
This zoning flexibility also means there may be one less avenue for residents to oppose a project.
If a development permit application meets the regulations in the zoning bylaw, it is considered a permitted use (there are now more of them) and a development permit must be issued.
The development appeal process remains in place through the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board.
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