Secondary suite fix expected to come before council in December

Six weeks after four new members were elected to Calgary’s city council, elected officials say another stab at secondary suite reform is imminent.

And unlike many failed attempts in past to fix a system seen as timeconsuming, embarrassing and bizarre, some on council believe the looming reform will be approved.

“I’m absolutely certain that you will see a notice of motion in the next few weeks concerning secondary suites,” Mayor Naheed Nenshi told reporters on Wednesday.

The mayor said he was “super duper magically optimistic” the upcoming notice of motion could receive enough votes to pass because there are new players around the table.

“Everyone has realized that we spent 20 per cent of our time in 2016 on this issue. I think cooler heads have prevailed and people are really looking for a solution,” he said.

Rookie Ward 5 Coun. George Chahal, whose masters thesis looked at planning in ethnic diversity and affordable housing, said Calgarians will have to wait and see what will be included on the looming notice of motion.

“Reform is desperately needed,” Chahal said. “We need to reduce red tape. Council has to stop dealing with this on a case-to-case issue. ... We have a job to do. That job is to make it easy, efficient and affordable for Calgarians to get their suites approved.”

Elected officials have squandered hours debating dozens of secondary suite applications since the last effort — made by former Ward 10 councillor-turned mayoral candidate Andre Chabot in July — to fix a system unheard of for a city of Calgary’s size.

Calgary remains one of the few municipalities in Canada that requires most property owners who want to legally put a stove in their basement (or a backyard dwelling) to make a case for a zoning change at city council, where elected officials deliberate and vote on each individual application.

It’s common for the monthly public hearing meetings to take hours and include tears, pleas and intimate personal details revealed by citizens seeking a legal secondary suite.

In 2016, elected officials narrowly rejected a pitch from Ward 12 Coun. Shane Keating to end the painstaking process with a detailed seven-part plan that included location-based regulation and a mandatory suite registration.

A 2011 attempt to legalize secondary suites citywide and a 2015 proposal to allow secondary suites in four inner-city wards also failed to gain support at council.

“I’m trying to point out over and over and over again that, if you’re going to solve this issue, it’s going to be a compromise,” Keating said Wednesday.

During budget deliberations on Wednesday, council heard that it costs the city $5,000 per secondary suite application, including $1,500 for signage and advertising.