City mulls ways to promote growth in key areas

Plans are about `building our city the way we say we want to build it': councillor

Edmonton is looking at ways to help the city grow, including tax incentives for developers and prioritizing future budgets on investing in targeted areas.

On Tuesday, councillors reviewed staff's work on a program meant to regulate and encourage development in a way that matches with the more broad goals in Edmonton's municipal plan.

A points system to evaluate future budget items, pitches for capital projects in nodes and corridors, and creating a “substantial completion standard” that limits development in new subdivisions until the nearby area is more complete, are part of this work.

Coun. Anne Stevenson said the plans, cumulatively called the growth management framework, are about “building our city the way we say we want to build it.”

“In the past, (when) we've done these big planning projects ... the vision we've laid out hasn't percolated down into our everyday processes and decisions,” she said. “(It's about) more intentional choices in where we're investing as a city.”

She's excited to see city staff's progress on the file, which amounts to “small shifts that have huge outcomes.”

For instance, she's interested in requiring areas to be more fully built before expanding.

“A big challenge for Edmonton has been that in the past, we've had a lot of partially complete neighbourhoods, so we're not getting the full property tax revenue in those areas, but we're having to provide 100 per cent of the services,” she said. “When you have a whole bunch of sort of 50-per-cent completed neighbourhoods that need 100-per-cent of services, that creates a really big imbalance in the tax base.”

Stevenson also wants to be sure “affordability” is kept in mind.

“We want to be sure that we're managing growth effectively, but not interfering in a way that leads to a huge increase in costs,” she said.

Coun. Michael Janz also said affordability needs to be protected and kept in mind while the plans are developed.

“The last thing we want to do is a massive wealth transfer to land owners who were fortunate enough to buy lots and speculate on them for a number of years around target areas,” he said.

Building more publicly owned housing also needs to be a priority as the city grows, he said.

“As long as we keep feeding housing affordability to private enterprise, we're not going to have a true conversation about affordability until we have more public options, especially for low-income Edmontonians and mid-income Edmontonians.”

Janz is also interested in the possibility of inclusionary zoning practices, which may require developers to contribute cash or amenities like affordable housing. Council is expected to review options for this in November.

Meantime, councillors also discussed potential rules to preserve trees on private property.

Options council will look at in the future are a bylaw for dealing with private trees, approaching tree removal through zoning changes, focusing on better communication about existing rules, and creating incentives to protect them. City managers recommended incentives and communication instead of creating new rules.

Provincial changes in 2018 opened the door to allowing cities to create laws preserving the environment.

We want to be sure that we're managing growth effectively, but not interfering in a way that leads to a huge increase in costs.