A new land use bylaw for residential districts in St. Albert could be delayed by several months, but that doesn’t worry local developers.
Administration had requested July 11 that council approve strategies outlined by a private consultant’s report and request that draft bylaw amendments come before council some time in the third quarter.
Instead council postponed the matter to an as-yet-undetermined future date, either for discussion at a formal council meeting or a less-formal standing committee of the whole meeting. Due to council’s summer break, the next regular meeting is August 22 and the next committee meeting isn’t until September.
Several local developers who were present at the meeting said the delay isn’t of particular concern to them, as none of the changes would affect the 2016 construction cycle regardless.
If the delay carries into next year it could potentially affect construction in 2017, but at this point there’s little concern about that.
“It’s more important to get it done right than get it done quickly,” said Jason Fjeldheim, vice-president of Melcor Developments and a board member of the Urban Development Institute.
The report, prepared by consultants with Stantec for the city following community engagement, includes five overall strategies: support the development of a broader spectrum of housing types, provide amendments to lot size and building location, support specific districts that would support more efficient land use, provide opportunities for design and innovation and aligning the amendments with specific Capital Region Board requirements.
Several councillors took issue not with the strategies themselves, but with the 24 specific recommended actions included as part of those strategies, indicating their desire to change specific action items.
For example, Coun. Wes Brodhead said he was concerned about an action item calling for the city to provide infill development opportunities in specific areas.
“Infill is always controversial at the best of times,” he said. “I wanted to highlight it because … that one little action causes a significant amount of grief.”
Many of the strategies and specific recommendations have to do with increasing density in the city, including variations on required lot sizes, and expanding definitions of residential zones to allow more housing options.
Interim city manager Chris Jardine told council the options were to debate all those changes that evening – a process that could take quite some time – or bring them back for discussion at a later date.
“Council has to decide if they’re comfortable with those 24 actions or not,” he said.
Once council does approve the strategies and the specific action items within them, a second round of public consultations is expected to take place, before a public hearing and debate on the amendments to the land use bylaw are confirmed.
