TIME TO CALL IT LIKE IT IS

Hello BetterInfillers—

The unintended consequences of the sweeping changes imposed by the 2020 City Plan and the subsequent zoning bylaw keep rolling over Edmonton’s neighbourhoods.

That eight-plex being built beside you? Those “rowhouses” planned down the block? Under the city’s de-regulated zoning bylaw, you can’t assume they’ll be rented as apartments. It’s quite possible they’ll be rented by the bedroom, becoming, in effect, lodging houses.

On March 3, Global News ran a story about rooms in new infills being rented by the day and even the hour. These infills were described as seven- or eight-unit buildings, and neighbours were surprised to learn they had up to 32 bedrooms.

With the help of community members, Global reporter Sarah Ryan found unregulated online advertising for these infills in at least two neighbourhoods. The ad began with this: “Are you looking for a room ($35 to $65/night) short term stay in Edmonton, no contract and flexible days/nights, or hourly stays…”. The landlord offered to take cash. (See full text below.)

When interviewed by Global News, councillor Michael Janz said, “That’s a business bylaw issue…owners need to be held accountable.” But accountability doesn’t seem to be coming from city hall. Community members took the issue there months ago and nothing changed. Shortly after Global aired its story the landlord took the ad down.

It’s difficult to see this as just a “business bylaw issue.” After all, it’s the new zoning bylaw under which construction of these buildings is approved. As Rhonda Bell of McKernan told Global News, “When it walks like a duck and moves like a duck and quacks like a duck — at some point people have to call it a duck.”

It’s time to start calling some of these infills what they are --lodging houses-- and treating them accordingly. These aren’t providing homes for families. Lodging houses have a role, but they pose particular issues for fire safety, health, and social impacts, and there are no managers on site. When rooms are rented by the hour and paid for with cash, city hall shouldn’t pretend these are good for the community.

Lodging houses, whether approved or not, are going up in various neighbourhoods. In September, a developer applied for a lodging house in Belgravia, asking for a total of 28 sleeping units on a fifty-foot lot. Under the zoning bylaw, a sleeping unit can have up to two people. A single-family home had stood on the lot, which was in the middle of a block where several new homes had been built, including next door. The new zoning bylaw meant neighbours had no say about the application.

To their credit, the city’s development officer turned down the application because the maximum number of sleeping units allowed for a lodging house under RS zoning is eight.

But here’s the catch: the building was already built. It had been completed in 2024, the first year of the new zoning bylaw. Tenants say they rent by the room and share bathrooms, kitchens, and living areas, which sounds like a de facto lodging house.

Neighbours are left with a series of questions:

🡪 How was a building with more than twenty-five bedrooms, with shared kitchens and bathrooms, allowed to be built when lodging houses are restricted to a maximum of eight sleeping units with two people each?

🡪 Was the building built in accordance with the plans submitted to the city?

🡪What is happening at the location now? Is it being run as an illegal lodging house? Are city inspectors visiting the site to enforce bylaws?

Infill like this is happening for a reason. Edmonton was built around neighbourhoods, but the 2020 City Plan eliminated neighbourhoods from the planning process. It was part of the blanket zoning, one-size-fits-all, de-regulate infill mindset of the times, and Edmonton took it to an extreme in Canada. As a result, at city hall it doesn’t much matter what happens next door, or on your block, or in your neighbourhood, because that’s not part of the plan.

And yet, what the city allows to happen next door makes all the difference.

--from the team at BetterInfill

See the full Global News story here: https://globalnews.ca/news/11715263/edmonton-infills-rooming-house/

Double click on the image below to get the full text of the ad referred to in the Global News story.