BetterInfill
Hello BetterInfillers—
This Saturday BetterInfill is hosting a live discussion and QnA with Larry Beasley, Canada’s most renowned urban planner. Larry is a strong advocate of neighbourhood engagement in urban planning, believing that people have a right to a voice in how change is managed in their neighbourhoods. You may know of Larry from his webinars with us.
Larry will be projected live onto a screen and people in the room will have a chance to ask questions. What is reasonable to expect in neighbourhood planning? How can neighbours organize? What is neighbourhood-led planning? What works and what doesn’t? There’s no end to the topics.
Larry will field questions and share a lifetime of experience to take back to your neighbourhood.
There are about a dozen spaces still open. BetterInfill is covering the cost so there is no charge. Meet and linger in person with other concerned citizens.
The session is this Saturday, June 14, from 2-4 pm in the upper hall at Belgravia Community League, 116 Street and 74 Avenue.
Register by email to betterinfill@gmail.com. Space is limited.
THIS WILL BE AMAZING.
--The Team at BetterInfill
P.S. If you don’t think it’s time for people to regain a voice in what happens in their neighbourhoods, the photo below was recently taken in Crestwood by the man whose house is in the middle. If this can happen there, it can happen anywhere.
P.P.S. Please, no candidates for the upcoming election.
Hello Better Infill—
We begin with what may be the most important news concerning Edmonton’s infill since the zoning bylaw was passed. In February, BetterInfill received unrelated emails from three neighbourhoods asking if there was a multi-neighbourhood campaign to press for better ways to manage infill. In one neighbourhood 350 people signed a petition in a week; in another, 170 came to a meeting on infill. A third neighbourhood had set up its own website on infill.
BetterInfill hosted an initial meeting, where people from a handful of neighbourhoods met to share concerns and strategy. A week later a dozen neighbourhoods met. Ten days later people from more than twenty neighbourhoods came out, and Edmonton Neighbourhoods United was born.
More than thirty neighbourhoods are now connected, and the number is rising fast. Neighbourhoods are no longer prepared to be picked off one-by-one by city hall and developers.
Edmonton Neighbourhoods United (ENU) is supporting neighbourhoods that want to push back at zoning and infill policies and demand better. One of their first actions was to host a very informative webinar on the new infill bylaws with Jan Hardstaff. You’ll learn a lot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ9pilMgqLE
Visit ENU’s website at www.edmontonneighbourhoodsunited.com, get a lawn sign, consider becoming a neighbourhood leader, and PLEASE sign their petition.
Consider speaking at one or both of the following two city hall meetings.
On May 20 council will decide whether to proceed with another experiment in zoning: a mass rezoning of 1400 properties to higher density. The properties are in selected “priority growth areas”: Garneau; 124 Street corridor; Oliver; Stony Plain Road corridor; and 156 Street corridor.
Mass rezonings like this are not normal. Usually developers apply for rezonings, so why is council doing it for them in advance, 1400 times over? City administration claims this makes it easier for developers, but the Canadian Home Builders Association already ranks Edmonton as the easiest big city in Canada for developers.
Learn more at the city’s link: https://www.edmonton.ca/city_government/city_vision_and_strategic_plan/priority-growth-area-rezoning
See the maps of the areas being rezoned and the list of addresses here: https://www.edmonton.ca/sites/default/files/public-files/BL21128.pdf?cb=1747160824
Register to speak May 20 by calling the City Clerk’s Office (780-496-8178) or at this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfjK1JQOPRWVORUVKsSbRn3yLN5E9vcVLu3nifMO4N1ZfmgFg/viewform
On June 3, city administration is bringing a one-year review of the zoning bylaw to city council's urban planning committee. Every Edmontonian has the right to speak to this committee for five minutes.
You don’t have to be Shakespeare; just be yourself. Describe what you’re seeing in your neighbourhood. Is it what you want? How could it be better? Have you had any say in what’s happening? Explore www.BetterInfill.ca and www.EdmontonNeighbourhoodsUnited.ca for information that will help you prepare.
Here is a link to the city website to register to speak at the June 3 urban planning committee. The infill industry will be there pressing for even more concessions; councillors need to hear from neighbourhoods.
Finally, reaction to our special report Tough Questions for the EFCL has been strong. (Read the article at www.betterinfill.ca.) We’ve been especially gratified by comments from people with direct knowledge of the events we wrote about:
“Very well researched and written...It all needed to be said.”
“I loved the article.”
“[O]nce I started I couldn't quit reading it. It really demonstrates the transition of EFCL from being a critical partner of leagues to being a partner of the city.”
“My wish is for everyone affected by this zoning nightmare to carefully consider the facts...and take all necessary steps to reclaim the EFCL and restore its rightful role in empowering communities and citizens.”
It is time the taxpayers of Edmonton get what they want and not what city hall wants! From their beginning two years ago, people have repeatedly asked us why their community leagues have been absent from discussions on the new zoning bylaw and district plans, which bring the biggest changes to Edmonton’s neighbourhoods in a lifetime. Community leagues are the voice of citizens, and that voice has gone almost silent.
Check out www.betterinfill.ca, scroll down to important reads and click on view article to download the pdf. Make the EFCL (edmonton federation of community leagues) effective again! Reinstate their funding and make them independent from city hall again which would be one thing that would help a lot with corruption in city hall and would bring back power to the citizens in regards to zoning and many other issues of concern to Edmontonions.
Every community league in Edmonton should open their own group on focaLOCAL.com and get the ball rolling for change at the local level.
Most Edmontonians don't really understand what the the City's new District Plan Policyis all about. Thanks to Lorne Gunter who scoured the fine print and the volunteer group BetterInfill.ca residents who have been sharing infuriating glimpses into the new district plan’s shocking details. Better Infill thinks what is proposed in Edmonton’s district plans are far more radical than proposed changes in any other Canadian city.
What treally is being proposed in the City's new District Plan Policy and who is driving this massive change to Edmonton's landscape? Call your City Councillor to ask then how they voted and why? Contact Keren Tang for Ward Karhiio -780-496-8142 or keren.tang@edmonton.ca.