City council votes to keep 8 units as development maximum on midblock lots

A motion before Edmonton city council to make eight-plexes illegal unless it's on a corner was defeated Tuesday. CTV News Edmonton's Jeremy Thompson reports.

Edmonton’s city council is standing pat on infill density.

Coun. Karen Principe’s motion to reduce the number of dwellings on midblock lots to six from eight was defeated 8-4 on Tuesday morning during city council’s regular meeting. The north-side Ward tastawiyiniwak councillor’s tandem motion seeking to increase the minimum midblock unit size to 90 square metres from 75 was also defeated.

Mayor Andrew Knack said Tuesday during a break from the meeting that close to two-thirds of all lots in the city already don’t allow for having a building with eight units built on them and that in several neighbourhoods where average lot sizes better accommodate eight-plexes, residents are seeking restrictive covenants to keep them from being developed.

He told reporters he thinks restrictive covenants, which restrict a community’s property rights, are “a very valid legal tool.”

“The challenge is that there’s always a variety of opinions,” Knack said, referencing a discussion last week in Laurier Heights, where “different blocks are choosing to restrict their property rights in different ways.”

“Even there, there isn’t unanimous agreement around whether it should be two (units), whether it should be four, whether it should be building height, whether it should be building width. At the end of the day, our role is to try to find rules that generally benefit and support the vast majority of what we’re hearing.”

The revamped zoning bylaw came into effect at the beginning of 2024 after a five-year process by the city to overhaul it. It was the first time Edmonton’s zoning rules had been broadly reviewed since 1961. The changes allowed developers to build larger and multi-unit buildings on most lots across the city.

After four days of public hearings in early July, city council passed several changes to the infill bylaw just before adjourning for a summer break, including a reduction of side entrances and length limitations for mid-block infill developments. They also determined that infills must also be further from property lines, have just two side entrances, and require the street-facing facade look more like a house with more windows and covered doorways.

Coun. Keren Tang, who voted against reducing the number of midblock units, said she wants to be able to provide as many housing choices as possible for development.

“We want more property rights and more choices (for property owners) about what to do with their properties,” Tang, who represents the southeast Ward Karhiio, told reporters. “It’s not necessarily about what type of person is going to live there. To me, choice is important, and that’s kind of why we’re doing this.”

Late Tuesday afternoon, city council voted to approve a motion by Knack to reduce the maximum exterior wall height to 9.5 metres from 10.5 metres. The change won’t be final until a public hearing in the spring.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Jeremy Thompson