Back alleys may be harder to maintain, but supporters say alleys are key to opening the door on a variety of housing types currently missing from St. Albert’s real estate market.
Though the LUB neither requires, nor prohibits the creation of back lanes, the city’s engineering department has traditionally not allowed for them. According to a hand-out compiled by Mayor Nolan Crouse and distributed during last Wednesday’s special council meeting, a back alley has not been built in St. Albert for over three decades.
The mayor wants to keep it that way – giving notice of motion for the creation of a policy that would forbid their use.
But back alleys could allow a number of new housing products to hit the market, and are more compatible with St. Albert’s values than council seems to think, says Sue Monson, regional manager for Melcor and chair of the St. Albert Urban Development Institute.
“I don’t believe that every home should have a back alley, but I do believe that they can offer something important to a neighbourhood, she said. “The pros and cons of back alleys can offset the pros and cons of front garages.”
The single detached home with the front attached garage, traditionally seen in St. Albert, makes boulevards less pedestrian-friendly and limits the number of trees, as well as on-street parking.
“In exchange for some nicer boulevards, ample parking, cute little front porches and no garages, you get a back alley that might be dirty or difficult to maintain,” she explained.
But ultimately, the prevalence of single-family homes in St. Albert is that it makes the community unaffordable for certain demographics. (The median price for new single family homes for the year of 2015 was $698,000.)
“St. Albert is missing a big sector of the home buying market,” said Monson.
The current lack of multi-family housing and low- to mid-priced homes, like townhouses, duplexes and zero-lot-line homes, drives up rents and condo prices and pushes people to live elsewhere, said Monson.
Research from the Urban Development Institute-Edmonton Region shows that every $10,000 added to the price of an entry-level home makes it unaffordable to 5,700 Edmonton area residents.
Changing the land use bylaw to allow for more housing types won’t necessarily bring down the cost of a new home said Monson – other factors such as offsite levies and engineering standards play into the listing price – but it is the simplest way of addressing St. Albert’s affordability issues.
“We’re trying to offer as many options as we can, so that if you are considering owning a home you’ll be able to find something that fits your economic bracket,” she said. “Right now, that’s very hard to do.”
On Monday morning, Monson took city staff on a tour of Edmonton to show them examples of different housing types.
One of the stops was in Rosenthal, a new neighbourhood in the west of the city, which incorporates a variety of products, such as apartment-style condos, seniors living, single family homes, duplexes and zero-lot-line properties.
This type of planning can play positively into another of council’s concerns, said Monson: community building.
With a range of housing options a person could live within the same community for their entire lives if they wished – something that isn’t always possible in St. Albert.
