City council defeats proposed increase to secondary suite allowance

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A handful of residents spoke at the public hearing to share their concerns about the increase.

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“There is no pressing need to increase the cap to 20 per cent, especially when so much unused capacity remains. Furthermore, increasing the level of percentages would disproportionately impact certain subdivisions already near or at maximum limits,” said resident Dale Reid. “These areas experience significant pressure including increased traffic, parking shortages, and strain on local infrastructure and services. More secondary suites would only increase these issues and decrease the quality of life of residents in these neighbourhoods.”

Torben Andersen, another resident, explained that he supports the desire for more secondary suites, but only under the condition that they are distributed more evenly across the city, and that council first gets a more accurate understanding of how many illegal secondary suites are in operation.

“I think the City needs to look for other ways to distribute secondary suites more evenly across the city. I’m not sure that the City is using enough of the tools that it could use to influence market outcomes,” he said.

Resident Carson Jarvis echoed his concerns about the illegal secondary suites and their impact on the numbers presented.

Following a question from Councillor Dianne Wyntjes, City Manager Tara Lodewyk explained, the process for looking into illegal suites is complaint-driven and primarily occurs when they receive a report from the public.

The motion was defeated 6-2, with Councillors Bruce Buruma and Chad Krahn in favour, and the rest of council opposed.

Other items on the agenda included the following amendments to the Zoning Bylaw:

• to allow commercial use on the main floor of Residential High Density (R-H) zones;
• to rezone a portion of the Emerson neighbourhood from a Future Urban Development Zone (A-1) to Residential Narrow Lot Zone (R-N) and Residential High-Density Zone (R-H) to facilitate subdivision and development of the first phase of residential in the neighbourhood;
• and to rezone a portion of the Timber Ridge neighbourhood from A-1 to R-N, as well as Residential Low-Density Zone (R-L), and Parks and Recreation Zone (P-1) to facilitate subdivision and development of Phase 6B in the area.

All three amendments were unanimously supported by council.

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