Make your voice heard to shape the future of Garneau
Foundational change is coming to Garneau and if you don’t let your voice be heard often and loudly our community will endure a lot of unnecessary growing pains in the years to come.
The community league supports density and has welcomed thoughtful, well planned development that adds to Garneau. As such Garneau is a textbook example of a 15-minute district: It’s a complete community, where all daily needs can be met within walking distance. Much of this is possible because of its density.
District Planning
The City of Edmonton’s District Policy and Plans are going to third and final reading in the fall of 2024. If approved at this reading, the Policy and 14 plans will come into effect immediately.
At District Plan public hearing earlier this year we requested that the City keep small-scale residential (RS) zoning in North and South Garneau and add provisions for family housing, but our input has fallen on deaf ears. Your community league planning team will continue to push our councillor to represent your views and keep one third of Garneau as small-scale family oriented housing and amend the Scona District Plan at third reading.
Priority Growth Area Rezoning
The City is considering District Planning a done deal and already planning to rezone large parts of Garneau to medium and high density lots. This includes all of North Garneau (north of 87 Ave) which is currently almost entirely single-family heritage houses. South Garneau’s small scale family houses are also under threat and are planned to be rezoned to 5-8 stories.
The Community League’s Position
Making all of Garneau a major node is a blunt tool. We believe it is too blunt. This is particularly true as the proposed rezoning alignment would remove almost all the remaining RS zoning in Garneau and rezone it to medium or high density, effectively eliminating the missing middle. In doing this Garneau would have its already small proportion (33%) of small-scale, ground-oriented, family-friendly housing and heritage character reduced to less than 20%.
Moreover the entire North Garneau area, where there are many heritage homes and infills, would disappear entirely. Leaving less than 20% of the land base in small-scale heritage area and having half of that on the southern edge of the Garneau effectively leaves 90% of Garneau zoned 5 stories or higher. Council allowing this would inadvertently jeopardize key components of what makes Garneau so special, welcoming and diverse.
Our suggested changes to the District Plan
Maintain small-scale, ground-oriented, family-friendly housing on approximately 33% of Garneau’s land base and across the neighbourhood. This is reasonable and still allows significant densification in underutilized areas of Garneau.
Expand heritage protections for small-scale residential areas.
These changes could be accomplished in the following way:
In the District Plan 3rd Reading:
Create a new Subarea for small-scale, ground-oriented, family-friendly housing on 33% of Garneau’s land base currently zoned Heritage Area and RS (Small Scale Residential)
Proposed regulations include the following:
Dwellings to have a minimum average of 2 bedrooms
50% of dwellings to have access to private or semi-private outdoor amenity area with direct overlook from the dwelling
All ground-oriented dwellings, including multi-unit and cluster housing, adjacent to a street, have individual main entrances facing a street
Maximum height of three stories or 10.6 meters (as per the current Small Scale Residential zoning)
Architectural controls to reflect the historic character of the neighbourhood
Mature tree protection
Proposed Community League Rezoning: Maintain Heritage Area and remove boarding house as a use, add North Garneau as RS or Heritage Area, and keep South Garneau as RS. This would allow increased density by allowing the missing middle with the new RS zoning and encourage buildout of the 109 Street corridor and under developed areas in East Garneau.
Our suggested changes to Priority Growth Area Rezoning
We have overlaid our proposed changes on top of the City's bright green proposed rezoning areas. Garneau is great because of its diversity of housing types. Without these changes, the areas in pink could become 5-8 stories (or more)!
And now it’s your turn to shape your community! Community Leagues no longer have standing and our collective voice doesn’t have more clout. That’s why we need each of you to share with administration, council, and through Engaged Edmonton what you want to see in Garneau in the next 50 years.
Call to Action!
Email Michael Janz at michael.janz@edmonton.ca and City Council at council@edmonton.ca
Comment at Engaged Edmonton! It only takes a few minutes to register.
Attend the City’s Drop in Workshop on Thursday, August 15 from 5:30-8:30 pm at University of Alberta Van Vliet Complex 1-662, 8831-116 Street NW.
