Secondary suite changes get go-ahead
Hearing on long-debated issue attracts crowd at City Hall Monday
City council finally approved changes to Calgary’s onerous secondary suite approval process following years of debate and a marathon public hearing at city hall Monday.
Council voted 9-6 to take approvals for secondary suites out of council’s hands and make them a discretionary use across the city.
The decision followed a day-long public hearing of council that saw more than 100 Calgarians speak to the issue.
“I see this as a very, very positive step forward,” Nenshi said ahead of the vote Monday, which made good on a campaign promise he discussed in 2010.
“We can celebrate a victory for people who often do not have a voice in the community and I think that is incredibly important.”
Nenshi said a decision on the perennial secondary suite question was long overdue.
“We’ve had 14 years of public discussion on this; we’ve had people die in basement fires in unsafe suites while we continue to dither,” Nenshi said, pointing out that every other city in Canada, except Burnaby, B.C., has a simplified process for dealing with applications.
“Today is not a day to talk about renters versus homeowners; today is not a day to talk about bad experiences that folks have had or good experiences folks have had with renters on their street,” Nenshi said.
"(It) has nothing to do with being in favour or opposed to secondary suites on my street; it has everything to do with what is the right process.”
Council chose to add secondary suites and backyard suites as a discretionary use in the remaining neighbourhoods where such suites are currently not allowed.
The change means homeowners could apply for a development permit at a city counter rather than apply for a land use amendment through council.
Suite owners will also be required to have their unit inspected, approved and listed on a mandatory suite registry.
While the proposal was characterized by the mayor and some councillors as little more than making the process more efficient, some members of the public argued passionately against the proposed change.
“Those of us who live in (these) communities chose them for one reason and that was to have a single-family dwelling,” said Canyon Meadows resident Yvonne Burland at the hearing.
“Those communities that are not zoned for secondary suites should not even have the options of having them.”
Some speakers at Monday’s hearing ignored the mayor’s warning to avoid personal complaints and shared anecdotes about parking shortages and overflowing garbage bins.
One Calgarian speculated that renters on her block were involved in drugs and prostitution and another shared fears about “potential added crime” and “uncertainty of the quality of people moving in.”
“I’ll remind everyone, we’re not here to talk about individual properties,” Nenshi exhorted at one point.
Defenders of secondary suites told council that the units help to leverage existing housing stock to provide more affordable homes for students, seniors and young families.
Jeremy Barretto, with Calgarians for Secondary Suites, urged council to simplify the approval process.
“The issue we’re trying to solve is the plethora of illegal suites. More red tape and more costs will only lead to one thing: more illegal suites,” Barretto said. “We should make this process as affordable and as simple for Calgarians as possible.”
About 20 per cent of council’s time has been occupied in reviewing secondary suite applications in recent years.
The reformed process, if approved, would shift the burden to administration where planners would make decisions on applications based on criteria such as parking and whether or not there is sufficient amenity space.
A notice would still be posted to solicit comments from adjacent properties and neighbours would be able to appeal decisions to the Calgary Subdivision and Development Appeal Board.
Councillors also heard some suggested tweaks Monday to the proposed bylaw changes. Several Calgarians urged the City to consider backyard and lane-way suites separately from basement suites; other proposals included greater enforcement and fines for illegal suites.
Nenshi said he believes estimates for the number of illegal suites in the city, currently around 16,000, are likely far short of the actual number.
And while some Calgarians at the hearing called on the City to shut down illegal suites altogether, Nenshi dismissed that idea: “Even if I could wave a magic wand and kick 35,000 people out on the street out of illegal suites today, that would not be a very good outcome, because where would they go?”