Bid to ease limits on secondary suites fails again

Calgary homeowners may be prohibited from rebuilding several legal basement suites that were destroyed in last month’s flood, council heard Monday.

The revelation came during a dramatic council debate on whether council should erase zoning prohibitions on suites in many Calgary housing districts. The long-standing push from the mayor and inner-city aldermen failed in the latest bid, despite trying to base the move on an emerging rental housing crisis after the flood — in a likely preview a hot election debate in several wards this fall.

Flood waters knocked out several rental apartment buildings for lengthy periods and destroyed unknown numbers of secondary suites in such old neighbourhoods as Mission, Sunnyside and Bowness, putting further pressure on Calgary’s rental vacancy rate, which was at 1.3 per cent in April, its lowest level since 2006.

Many of those destroyed suites would be banned if being developed anew, but the city has allowed them to exist because they predate 1970 when zoning rules banning basement or backyard apartments in new areas were introduced.

But law states if homes must be “structurally” rebuilt, they won’t be grandfathered from modern landuse rules, senior planning lawyer Jill Floen told council Monday.

“And some council members view this as acceptable?” a frustrated Ald. Druh Farrell asked after hearing Floen’s comments.

She said some of her Sunnyside constituents will be couch surfing for indeterminate periods, and she’s eager to help ease the crisis that will grow when students return to postsecondary school this fall.

“I know of people who’ve lost everything, don’t have replacements and are still paying rent,” she said.

The proposal brought forward Monday by Alds. John Mar and GianCarlo Carra — both of whom represent flood-hit areas — was voted down 9-6, similar to past votes.

Ald. Ray Jones and others charged that colleagues were trying to use the flood in a few communities as an excuse to bring forward citywide change without consulting neighbourhoods. Ald. Gord Lowe, a longtime suite reform skeptic who’s retiring this fall, pointed out the city hasn’t yet determined a number or even an estimate for how many basement suites or apartments were wiped out by the flood.

Council has instead urged city planners to offer more insight on the rental crunch at next Monday’s council meeting.