Council OKs broad new rules for secondary suites

City council approved sweeping new regulations for secondary suites in Edmonton Monday, breaking with its tradition of only allowing two units per single family lot.

The bylaw will now let anyone build a duplex plus two rental suites on one single-family lot in many mature and new neighbourhoods. Homeowners can now also add a suite to homes on small lots, or in a row-house unit. The suites can’t be larger than the main dwelling.

That means up to four households can exist now where one household was before and offers more rental options in quiet residential neighbourhoods.

That’s key for people on fixed incomes who don’t want to live in an apartment, or have a sensitivity to the many scents you could be exposed to there, said Hannah Noerenberg, who owns and rents a duplex in Edmonton and spoke at a public hearing Monday.

“Nothing against apartments, but we just need other choices.”

Council unanimously approved the changes. They take effect immediately.

The suites each need a dedicated parking spot, a separate entrance and a heating and ventilation system separate from the main unit. They must be rented, not sold.

Planners don’t think it will lead to a major increase in density for those neighbourhoods. Many more Edmonton residents are choosing to live alone, said senior planner Anne Stevenson. That means adding a secondary suite simply brings the population back up to two or three people per house.

Epcor officials studied water usage to confirm that trend, she said. Homes with secondary suites use only one-third more water than the average home.

They’re not generally housing large families.

Coun. Bev Esslinger said she hopes this will encourage more people to make their existing suites legal, taking advantage of a new amnesty program. “It will have minimal impact on neighbourhoods.”

This is something that can be done in any part of the city, she said.

“This is what allowed me to purchase my first house,” added Coun. Ben Henderson, admitting he didn’t know if it was a legal suite in those years or not. “It made it affordable for me and it made it affordable for the people I shared a house with.”

At the public hearing Monday, several developers spoke in support of the changes. Advocates for garage suites asked council to also allow them on one original lot, increasing the potential density to six. But representatives of the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues said the current changes go too far. They wanted council to make secondary suites in rowhousing a discretionary use, requiring site-specific approval from a city development officer, worried there would not be enough amenity space for two families.

As approved, the changes will have the biggest impact on areas zoned RF3, or small scale infill, where duplex homes are a permitted use. But this fall, council will look at extending that right to areas zoned RF1, which is the most common zone for single-family homes.

Stevenson said any row-house suites will likely be in new builds since retrofitting a suite into that small a space is likely cost prohibitive.

As well, city officials expect market demand will be fairly low, she said. Based on uptake over the last 10 years, she expects Monday’s changes will create 500 new legal suites in duplex homes, 600 in row-houses and about 550 in homes on small lots.