cityofEdmonton

UPDATES | The latest project updates to keep you in-the-know

Heritage Places Strategy

The City's new Heritage Places Strategy will reimagine how we identify, commemorate, and preserve the places that matter most to Edmontonians. 

Until November 30, visit engaged.edmonton.ca/heritage-places-strategy to share your feedback on the draft Guiding Principles and Pillars as part of the project's second phase of engagement. Your input will help refine the Principles and Pillars and inform full draft of the strategy. The full draft strategy will be shared in early 2026 as part of the final phase of engagement. 

Transportation

We’re reviewing traffic flow in the Belgravia neighbourhood to better understand the challenges people may experience moving through the area.

There are several ways to get involved and share your experiences:

• Provide feedback directly on the Engaged Edmonton webpage between November 24 and December 21
• Participate in the Online Q&A session on December 10 at 7 pm.
• Sign up for a walking tour or a Chat with a Planner session

Visit engaged.edmonton.ca/belgraviatrafficreview to learn more and participate.

Feedback will be used, along with technical and policy considerations, to help assess potential short- and long-term neighbourhood traffic and shortcutting improvement measures which will be brought to City Council's Urban Planning Committee for information. Further Committee direction and funding would be required to implement any future improvement measures.

Edmonton Urban Design Awards The Polykar Manufacturing Facility won the People's Choice Award

Edmonton has some amazing architecture, parks and art and the Edmonton Urban Design Awards celebrate the best our city has to offer. Now in its 20th year, the EUDA takes place every two years and hands out honours to architects, landscape architects, planners, designers, artists and up-and-coming students of those fields.

The 2025 Edmonton Urban Design Awards were handed out November 30. See the full listing of the award winners and learn more about their projects. Visit edmonton.ca/urbandesignawards.

Waste Services

The City is currently engaging with the non-residential sector, also known as the Industrial, Commercial and Institutional (ICI) sector. The goal is to gather input on proposed future actions that could advance waste reduction and diversion in this sector.

In Edmonton, about 70 per cent of waste generated comes from non-residential sources, such as businesses and institutions. Up to 80 per cent of that waste could be reduced or diverted from landfill through approaches like reuse and salvage, recycling and composting. This presents both a significant challenge and a major opportunity. 

If your business or organization (like a grocery store, restaurant, food processor, developer or demolition company) generates non-residential waste, specifically food scraps, surplus edible food, construction waste or demolition materials, we want to hear from you. 

Your feedback will help to further shape waste reduction and diversion actions into recommendations that will be presented to City Council as part of the first ICI waste roadmap. 

For more information, to take part in a survey or to register for a digital engagement session, visit edmonton.ca/nonresidentialwaste

 Growth Analysis

The 2024 Approved Net New Dwellings Report and Redeveloping Area Infill Report are now available at edmonton.ca/growthanalysis.   

These reports examine building permits issued for net new homes in Edmonton and provide analysis on Edmonton’s residential growth patterns. The reports show that areas of the Southwest, Ellerslie, and West Henday districts experienced significant new home growth. 

Residential growth since 2021 generally aligns with the vision described in The City Plan, which anticipated that the most significant growth would occur in the developing area (outside the Anthony Henday and north of 41 Avenue SW) for the first several years following the Plan’s adoption in 2020. Growth is expected to shift to a greater proportion of net new homes in the redeveloping area (roughly inside the Anthony Henday) as the city moves towards a population of 1.5 million and new land development policies, initiatives and regulations take full effect.

Read the annual reports or check out the ongoing, regularly updated residential building permits dashboard to learn more about the types of new housing and growth happening in your neighbourhood.

Valley Line West LRT

Elevated guideway along 87 Avenue near West Edmonton Mall

Major construction on the Valley Line West LRT project will soon begin to wind down for the season, although some work will continue through the winter months.

Significant progress was made on the project this year, with the main focus being the 2025 accelerated roadwork plan. Road and trackwork were completed at several major intersections along the VLW alignment. This work was all completed on or ahead of schedule.

This year also marked the completion of the elevated guideway structure along 87 Avenue and the arrival of the first Light Rail Vehicle. To stay informed on Valley Line West construction through the winter, sign up for the City's newsletter and Marigold Infrastructure Partners' construction notices.

Bike lanes along 103 Avenue at 109 Street

To accommodate Valley Line West LRT construction, the bike lanes on 102 Avenue have been temporarily relocated to 103 Avenue.

In early November, protected bike lanes opened along 103 Avenue between 103 Street and Railtown Park Trail (110 Street). The bike lanes along 102 Avenue are now closed and drainage work is underway. The 103 Avenue bike lanes are integrated into the larger downtown cycle network, including bike signals, signs and pavement markings. To access 103 Avenue, cyclists can use the existing north-south bike infrastructure along Railtown Park Trail, 106 Street or 103 Street.

The 103 Avenue bike lanes are expected to be in place until the end of 2027. As part of the Valley Line West project, new, permanent bike lanes will be built on 102 Avenue. More information can be found here.

Hello BetterInfillers—

A 72-page report buried deep in an online library reveals city hall knew there was widespread public concern about the new zoning bylaw months before council passed it. The problem for city councillors: they may have never seen it.

The great strength of BetterInfill is the huge number of talented and committed people it has brought together. It was one of these people who tipped us off about the report.

Here is the story…

“Buried Report Raises Disturbing Questions”

Timely release of 2023 report might have changed fate of zoning bylaw.

The very people the city had engaged, gave the city failing grades for engagement.

A report buried deep in a City of Edmonton online “document library” raises disturbing questions. The report, dated May 2023, is titled Sentiment Analysis Report: Zoning Bylaw Renewal Initiative Engagement, Phase 3. Its purpose was to “identify how Edmontonians felt about the changes proposed through the draft Zoning Bylaw.” In 20 of 32 themes analyzed, those feelings were negative. It appears the report was not presented to council meetings and hearings on the zoning bylaw.

An independent community researcher recently identified the 72-page report through a freedom of information request to city hall. It had been quietly posted to a city website with such low profile that its existence was unknown even to people who follow city hall closely. If it had been released when it was first prepared, the fate of Edmonton’s zoning bylaw might have been very different.

In the Sentiment Analysis Report, city staff examined 32 themes that emerged from public engagement for the final phase of the zoning bylaw. Listed in the table of contents by alphabetic order, the themes range from “Accessibility” to “Vehicle Access and Parking.” The report provided a brief discussion and summary of public comments on each theme, complete with a bar of green, yellow, and red showing the percentage of comments that show positive, neutral, or negative sentiments. The report said this “provides a snapshot of how people feel about each theme.”

For example, here is the bar on the theme of Accessibility, showing substantially more negative public sentiment than positive about the zoning bylaw’s inadequacy in addressing wheelchair access, barrier-free design, and usability:

Public sentiment was more negative than positive for 20 of the 32 themes, a clear majority.

Public engagement rated decidedly negative. The most important theme is “Public Engagement” because it cuts to the legitimacy of the entire zoning bylaw exercise. As the bar below shows, negative sentiments about engagement outnumber positive sentiments by a wide margin. “The majority of comments,” said the report, “noted concerns or dissatisfaction with the engagement to date.”

This negative rating was remarkable because it came from people who were deliberately engaged by the city, including various developer and real estate groups; MacEwan University; the public school board; and the federation of community leagues. The very people the city had engaged, gave the city failing grades for engagement.

At least those people knew about the zoning bylaw; most Edmontonians did not. The same month the public engagement for the sentiment analysis was done, May 2023, nationally recognized pollster Pollara found that 62% of Edmontonians had never heard of the zoning bylaw and only three percent knew any details. (See link at end of this article.)

Long before the zoning bylaw was presented to council, city administration described it as part of the largest overhaul of land use in Edmonton in sixty years, intended to fundamentally change the nature of the city. Change on this scale requires genuine public support. The zoning bylaw has never received genuine public support because it never had genuine public engagement.

Comprehension. Reinforcing the poor grades for public engagement are the even worse sentiments about “Comprehension.” The report defines comprehension as “…the clarity and ease of interpreting the proposed Zoning Bylaw regulations,” including word choice, definitions, and intent. Fewer than one quarter of sentiments were positive and almost 60% were negative.

Given the relatively high expertise of many of the people engaged, it’s deeply concerning the zoning bylaw caused such confusion. For ordinary citizens trying to understand the impact of the bylaw on their homes and neighbourhoods, the bylaw would be largely incomprehensible.

Did councillors ever see the report? The Sentiment Analysis Report means Edmonton city councillors voted for the zoning bylaw when the city’s own report showed widespread negative public sentiment. Only councillors Karen Principe and Jennifer Rice voted against the bylaw.

The question is, did councillors ever see the report? It wasn’t listed among reports presented by administration to council’s urban planning committee when it debated the bylaw in June 2023. Neither was it listed among reports presented to council at the final public hearing in October 2023.

According to the city’s document library, the report was posted online sometime in October 2023. It’s not clear whether it was posted before, during, or after the public hearings held that month on the bylaw. In any case, its existence remained virtually unknown to the public.

The questions get troubling. Why wasn’t the Sentiment Analysis Report included in the material presented to urban planning committee, council, and the public? Was it selectively circulated to some people and held back from others? Were some senior city staff so committed to the zoning bylaw they refused to share the report, knowing the public concerns it could raise? Were any city policies concerning public release of information violated, or was this simply a slip in the wheels of city bureaucracy?

What this means. The many Edmontonians who raised concerns at hearings were dismissed by city council and administration. Unfortunately for them, and for Edmonton, one of the most important bylaws in a lifetime was passed under a veil of misinformation and concealment.

City hall had a choice: it could have presented the Sentiment Analysis Report Phase 3 to council and the public, admitted there were too many concerns, and gone back to the public to rework the bylaw. That was the responsible option. Instead, the decision was made to manipulate the process, which fed public cynicism, mistrust, and anger, tarnishing both the bylaw and the municipal government in general. The challenge for the next council will be to rebuild trust through open and honest public engagement.

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

More detail and background:

The most commented themes. The themes in the Sentiment Report Phase 3 receiving the most positive comments, which may reflect the heavy weighting of the infill industry in the engagement process, were these:

•Landscaping (122 comments): Positives exceed negatives by 21.2%.

•Building Design (110 comments): Positives exceed negatives by 4.3%.

•Setbacks (89 comments): Positives exceed negatives by 21.7%.

•Building Height and Scale (72 comments): Positives exceed negatives by 2.1%.

The themes receiving the most negative comments were these:

•Public Engagement (118 comments): Negatives exceed positives by 19%.

•Comprehension, including clarity and ease of interpreting the bylaw (102 comments): Negatives exceed positives by 35.2%.

•Neighbourhood Character and Heritage (70 comments): Negatives exceed positives by 6.9%.

•Implementation, Process, and Technology (65 comments): Negatives exceed positives by 31.5%.

Who was engaged? The Sentiment Report said the city “heard from a wide variety of stakeholders,” including “residents” and various business and community groups. It also listed 6 “specialized stakeholders” with which it had “regular check-in meetings and presentations.” Four of the 6 were development industry groups; one represented business improvement areas; and one was the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues (EFCL). In 2022, the EFCL had gone through an internal upheaval and signed a new funding agreement with the city, and in January 2023 presented a letter to council offering its support for the proposed zoning bylaw.

The engagement also included “a few ‘Chat with Planner’ meetings” with MacEwan University; unnamed development industry representatives; property owners and residents; and the Edmonton Public School Board.

Links to documents.

🡪The full Sentiment Analysis Report Phase 3 is available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UFWWSQ3rqJik4Y0258jVCiDzSYpP4v4C/view?ts=68c4a2f4

🡪The detailed results of the May 2023 poll are here: https://ecb17698-a1aa-4ef0-9566-4951bfca0922.usrfiles.com/ugd/ecb176_9ec09e2961404932b1187c0f4ba0423a.pdf

Edmonton Insight Community is a safe, online space for you to share your insights with the City of Edmonton. The information gathered will provide detailed demographic information and help carry out useful research that can help us inform the planning and delivery of City services and programs. To answer the questions will take It will only take about 5 minutes.

The remains of Northland's Coliseum which was closed in 2017 is viewed in a number of different ways. The Edmonton Coliseum serves to remind hockey fans of the Oilers teams that won five Stanley Cups. Neighbouring residents and others consider the Coliseum as an eyesore and local politicians consider it as an albatross that is a liability represents a tax liability and barrier to redeveloping the 200 acres of land into a neighbourhood with residential, commercial and retail spaces.

Work is underway to determine what is needed to demolish the 50-year-old building, and it’s expected to take at least another two years before the building is demolished. 

City of Edmonton budget debates start next week and yesterday Mayor Sohi posted in a letter to city council on his website. The letter contained a list of amendments that he says will lower the 2025 tax rate by 2% while adding funds in other areas. The mayor hopes to whittle down the tax increase to below six per cent for 2025, make the city’s budget process more transparent and revamp the way budget process.

In addition to being a pitch for upcoming budget discussions, I wonder if it's also part of Mayor Sohi's 2025 reelection pitch.

The recent snowfall and drop in temperature are sure signs that winter has arrived. Coinciding with winter's arrival, the city is activating its winter safety response plan for the homeless population that looking for more places to shelter from the cold.  This year there are enough safe shelter spaces for vulnerable Edmontonians and a free shuttle bus will take people needing a ride to the homeless shelters.

The city will activate its extreme weather response policy that opens access to city spaces, additional shelter spaces, supports to connect to services and expanded shelter shuttle bus service when temperatures dip below – 20 C for three consecutive days.

It's been over a year since the City of Edmonton introduced the single-use item reduction bylaw and reaction has been mixed. Now the City is asking residents to share their thoughts in a survey that could bring about change. The survey is open on the city’s website (below) until November 19 to residents and business owners. It only takes a few minutes to respond to the survey and will help the City decide on the future of the bylaw.

I'm not one who is ready and waiting for the first snowfall there are some who are, including city workers at various levels. Mark Beare, director of infrastructure operations, said teams last year were somewhat reactive when the snow was late in coming. To counter that teams will be more proactive with primary snow and ice clearing responsibility and a secondary redeployment activity if it's a milder winter.

The snow removal budget for the 2024-25 season is $66 million which will cover a staff of about 600 members who will be out working 24-7 as soon as the snow starts.

Go to the City of Edmonton's website (below) for more information on winter travel.

Summer time presents a challenge to families because children want something to do and the Green Shacks offer just that. The frontline workers and volunteers work to offer games, sports, crafts, music, drama, free concerts and performances. The Green Shacks will be at about 250 sites and will operate half-days, rain or shine, with hours 10:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. or 2:30-5:30 p.m. Monday to Friday, except holidays. Full-day programming will be offered at 24 sites.

Follow the links on both sites for more information and location dates.

Have fun. kids!??

Epcor has come calling again after it first planned to begin billing City properties, private golf courses and private cemeteries that have not been paying for stormwater services. On Monday Epcor told City Council these charges will provide Epcor with millions of dollars of additional revenue. Some of these property owners may get a big surprise from their next Epcor billing.

After listening to "elevator" and and "other" music in public settings a hearty "Bravo" to the Winspear Centre and City for bringing music played by master musicians of the Edmonton Symphony to LRT patrons waiting for a train or people just listening. Its a pilot program that I hope is extended for the LRT and hopefully in other public places where music is played.

? ENJOY ?

Maclab Development Group purchased Mill Woods Town Centre and has proposed the building of two 22 story towers near the Mill Woods LRT Station and the Mill Woods Transit Centre. The City is asking the public for input on the city’s website until Feb. 25.