HIGHRISE ANXIETY
Towering developments, city’s consultation process irking residents
Within the next year, the first major tower off the Whyte Avenue strip should begin to rise into the sky at 105 Street.
City council’s approval of the 16-storey Mezzo project came as a shock to many in the surrounding communities, not only for the change to the urban landscape it will bring, but also for the precedent it established.
Since that initial vote, councillors have also green-lighted Southpark on Whyte, an even bigger project next door that will feature two skyscrapers of up to 18 storeys.
Further east, along the new Valley Line LRT, developers are pushing for three residential towers at the Holyrood Gardens site, while at least one highrise is contemplated for the Bateman lands on 99 Street.
More such proposals could be on their way.
For many residents of Ward 8, this isn’t what they envisioned when they talked about building up the community.
“As a neighbourhood we want something new and exciting developed, but this is just a bit much,” said Kim Buehler of the South East Edmonton Seniors Association, located near the Holyrood Gardens site.
“But because the community is pushing back we get called NIMBYs,” she added, referring to the acronym Not In My Back Yard, a term used to deride people who oppose any kind of change.
Buehler and other community leaders say most ward residents are sophisticated enough to know the city can’t continue an expensive pattern of suburban sprawl.
They understand the new Valley Line LRT — along with a future LRT route planned for the Whyte Avenue area — requires residential development to make those transit projects worthwhile.
As such, residents are willing to accept higher-density housing, but there also comes a point when the scale of such projects becomes excessive, they say.
“And I think we are at that tipping point now,” said Maureen Duguay, president of the Strathcona Community League. “Why does density have to equal highrise?”
But beyond the projects themselves, Duguay and others note the height debate is intertwined with a broader controversy around how the city plans and approves developments.
“Our biggest concern has been the consultation process,” Duguay said. “We get very frustrated going against a big machine that has unlimited resources when we work with the city and developers.”
Of course, the demand to “fix” the consultation process in a way that satisfies everyone seems an impossibly tall order. And complaints aren’t always justified.
Nonetheless, all six candidates running in the ward say they have made civic engagement a leading part of their campaign after hearing legitimate beefs at the doorsteps.
Kirsten Goa, who worked in Premier Rachel Notley’s constituency office, said she would like a more robust consultation process that engages residents earlier in the process and features real conversations over surveys.
She said the city must also do a better job of challenging developers who claim they can’t make projects viable at a lower size.
Social studies teacher James Kosowan said people are angry that the city frequently seems to violate its own rules around transit and neighbourhood plans.
He said the development process is currently too top-down, in which the city and developers create plans in secret instead of allowing residents to help form the vision at the start.
Both Goa and Kosowan say three-term incumbent Ben Henderson deserves at least some blame for the frustration. They say he’s been slow to recognize issues bubbling in the community, which affect his ability to intervene. And while Henderson has personally opposed the highrise projects, he hasn’t been able to convince enough fellow councillors to vote with him, they say.
For his part, Henderson said he is also irritated at the city’s willingness to blow up its plans. That said, he believes a new public engagement strategy he helped develop has been making progress in some city departments.
As for his own performance, he said inflexible councillors have been a frustration — “more power to anyone who can get the rest of them” — but suggested he is still winning the long-term game.
“In many ways, I’m way more potent now as a councillor than I was when I was first elected.”
Eli Schrader, who has been using data software to compile input on constituents’ concerns, said the city needs to be much more transparent in how it makes development decisions.
Heather Workman, best known as the face-painter at the Strathcona Farmer’s Market, said council needs to find “a happy medium” with the high rises, but owes residents more opportunities to have their say.
Tow truck driver Rob Bernshaw said residents of Ward 8 feel council too often listen to just a select few voices rather than the people who elected them.
The civic election takes place Oct. 16.