Poll finds Calgarians are almost evenly split on secondary suites

Mirroring the debate that’s vexed and polarized city council, Calgarians appear nearly evenly divided on allowing the widespread sanctioning of secondary suites.

In a Mainstreet Research poll, 43 per cent of respondents are in favour of city council changing zoning rules to allow secondary or basement suites in all areas of Calgary, while 42 per cent are opposed.

Another 15 per cent were undecided in the survey conducted Sept. 28 for Postmedia.

And the younger the respondent, the more amenable they are to rezoning, according to the survey of 1,000 people.

None of those results are surprising, said Aria Burrell, vicepresident external with the Students Association of Mount Royal University (SAMRU).

The availability of secondary suites for students is a prominent concern, he added.

“Across the city, it would benefit students and many others. Certainly, students are affected by the availability of these suites,” said Burrell.

“To ask people to see if they support such an enormous change, it’s not surprising it’s so split.”

City council has wrestled repeatedly with the issue of extensive approval of the suites, efforts that have proven inconclusive and led back to lawmakers expending huge amounts of time laboriously reviewing applications individually during public meetings.

Opposition to blanket approval has centred on concerns over parking problems, proliferation, enforcement and property values.

Mayor Naheed Nenshi has said the failure to craft a new bylaw on the suites has been his greatest frustration.

Burrell said the poll’s clear division shows the issue shouldn’t immediately be decided one way or the other.

“We’re advocating for a change in the process, to remove it from city council to a more administrative function but we’re not specifically advocating for a change to zoning requirements, but rather for a review,” he said.

The survey illustrates the complexity of the problem, said mayoral candidate Andre Chabot, who has opposed blanket approval of the suites as a city councillor.

“It tells me there’s a lot of people interested in retaining the singlefamily residential character of their neighbourhood, and lots of others looking for some kind of mortgage helper to assist them to buy into out-of-control cost of housing,” he said.

“It’s a reason why council has struggled with all the notices of motion that I’ve brought forward trying to resolve the issue — at the end of the day, there are still some things that can be done and things that require changes to the municipal government act.”

A wholesale rezoning, he said, would result in more illegal than lawful suites.

But if elected mayor, Chabot said he’d pursue the issue again involving motions that were previously championed.

“Ultimately, it’ll come back with something the public can weigh into and provide additional guidance to council,” he said.

Chabot’s campaign rival, Bill Smith, said he’s just as undecided on secondary suites as the 43-42 split but said it’ll be a topic revisited by council.

“It’s going to take a lot more conversation to get there,” he said, blaming Nenshi for the continued waste of council time in dealing with applications.

“We have a mayor who can’t work collaboratively to find a solution.”

The poll conducted on automated cellphone and land lines has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points 19 times out of 20.

A lot of people (are) interested in retaining the single-family ... character of their neighbourhood, and lots of others looking for some kind of mortgage helper.