City councillor proposes plan for secondary suites

Reforms intended to streamline city’s process of approving suite applications

Secondary-suite reform is back on the agenda at city hall, this time with four suggested tweaks including introducing fines for landlords who advertise their non-registered suites for rent.

Ward 10 councillor and mayoral candidate Andre Chabot has brought forward a four-part plan, scheduled to be debated by council next week, that he believes will bring more illegal suites into compliance and cut down on the hours city council spends hearing suite applications.

Chabot’s ‘Reforming the Secondary Suite Process’ notice of motion calls for secondary suites listed for rent to be registered with the city’s existing suite registry program (with a fine schedule developed for those who don’t comply), a limit of one secondary suite application per citizen per year, and a bylaw amendment to differentiate between basement suites and garage or laneway suites in a backyard.

The motion also asks bureaucrats to develop a list of potential zones suitable for secondary-suite designation (for example, innercity areas near LRT stations), and to then create a system in which a certain percentage of area residents could petition to allow suites in that specific area. It’s similar to the existing system used to establish residential parking zones.

“If even any aspect of these (are passed by council), it would be beneficial to citizens,” said Chabot.

“At the end of the day, I’m just trying to make it better for secondary suites and minimize the waste of time that is occurring at council.”

Elected officials have squandered countless hours debating dozens of secondary-suite applications since the last unsuccessful effort to fix a system unheard of for a city of Calgary’s size.

Calgary remains one of the few municipalities in Canada that requires 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.

A year ago, elected officials narrowly rejected a pitch from Coun. Shane Keating to end the painstaking process with a detailed sevenpart plan that included locationbased regulation and a mandatory suite registration.

Keating said while he has some questions about what Chabot is proposing, he’s willing to support anything that moves the messy issue forward. “This one encompasses bits and pieces of (my) old plan that should have been adopted had (council) had a mentality of compromise,” Keating said.

“I’m open to any change that may make a difference. (Chabot’s motion) is a small step.”

At the same meeting in which Keating’s proposal failed in an 8-7 vote last July, council defeated a suggestion from Chabot to put the matter to voters with a suite related plebiscite question at the 2017 municipal election.

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.

A recent study paid for by councillors Brian Pincott and Druh Farrell found 83 per cent of the 265 secondary-suite applications that came before council between 2014 and 2016 were approved, and there was no rhyme or reason behind the 45 rejections.

Mayor Naheed Nenshi, who has so far failed on his 2010 mayoral campaign promise to legalize secondary suites, often wades into the hot-button topic after monthly public hearing meetings.

“It’s fair to say that council is at the height of its frustration with our terribly broken system,” he told reporters after council debated several secondary-suite applications July 3.

“It’s very clear that council is not willing to take my leadership on this and would prefer an idea to come from council members, which is fine, that’s their prerogative.”