LET'S SEIZE OPPORTUNITY TO BUILD A BETTER CITY

Edmonton at pivotal fork in the road, Susan Keating and Kalen Anderson say.

In 2023, urban issues dominated local headlines. The Valley Line Southeast opened after a three-year delay. Edmonton's new zoning bylaw passed 11-2 and attracted nearly 300 people to a fiveday public hearing. Migration to Alberta surged, with 31,371 from international origins and 13,926 from other provinces. And of course, macro factors such as inflation, rising interest rates and labour shortages were top-of-mind. Above all, housing was in the hot seat.

This year is shaping up to be no different. Since January, Edmontonians, council and administration have had to grapple with a series of intricate conversations from encampments to power-supply threats to water shortages. And recently, the declaration of a housing and homelessness emergency.

These debates have consistently placed Edmonton in the national spotlight.

How we address these urban issues are often critiqued by other municipalities, and in some cases, adopted as the best practice. In the worstcase scenario, our decisions might be regarded as “what not to do.”

What will we do with all this attention? Our hope is that we are able to build an inclusive metro region with a strong central city that welcomes the world, to attract talent and investment, and to shape spaces that meet the needs of current and future residents. That we are seen as a city with a focused plan and a steadfast commitment from all sectors to stay the course. A city that invites ideas, scrutiny and compassion. A city that refines its practices when they no longer serve its goals. A city that compromises on solutions and listens to the needs of residents.

With two years left in our current council's tenure, we are at an important fork in the road. What steps do we take? Where do we best aim our collective energy and efforts? Here are some thoughts on what city building can look like in 2024.

Focus on strategies that matter most now: There are almost 200 policy directions in the City Plan, and the intention is for these to influence urban growth and change over a roughly 40-year span. Which ones do we want to place our attention on in the short term to make the biggest positive effect today?

In 2023, there were hundreds of reports, policy initiatives and programs for council, administration and the community at large to review. This trend is shaping up to look much the same in 2024. How are these efforts being monitored and evaluated, and are they the most important actions to be accomplished today, or should they be set aside for future consideration?

We have an opportunity to collectively mobilize around strategic areas of focus, and the success that we achieve through those concentrated efforts can become catalysts for our community. For example, we can and should be doubling down on efforts to make downtown a safe, livable and attractive residential community, as well as a thriving business hub and tax-base stabilizer.

Similarly, we should be planning for population expansion in new neighbourhoods within an alreadytight housing market. At the same time, we cannot leave migration to Edmonton to wishful thinking. We must collectively work toward attracting our share of it, by proactively promoting the reasons to live and work here.

Accelerate commercial, industrial development: Increasing non-residential investment is critical to meeting the goals of Edmonton's Economic Action Plan — including the additional 520,000 jobs that will be required as we grow to a city of two million.

Achieving this vision requires that Edmonton has the necessary land to meet the needs of non-residential development. We are committed to supporting action that promotes growth in these areas so our city can remain competitive, diversify its tax base and enable private-sector growth.

We encourage city administration to annually report on its progress so we can ensure we are able to adjust the plan as required. Limited serviced and connected land supply, as well as a relatively high tax and complex regulatory environment, in Edmonton is driving up costs and further pushing new growth into the region. While this might be fine from a wider metropolitan perspective, it certainly does not help Edmonton's bottom line as a municipality.

Address the housing crisis by bolstering affordability: Canadian cities ranked the issue of housing supply as their No. 1 priority last year. We are the last major Canadian city that offers affordable home ownership and rental accommodations that currently fit within Canada Mortgage Housing Corp.'s definition of housing affordability, which is a maximum of 30 per cent of net household income going to shelter.

Our focus, as an industry, is on maintaining this strategic and pragmatic advantage, which is precarious. Increased costs imposed by governments on the price of new home construction erode affordability significantly for homebuyers and renters, thereby increasing pressure down along the affordability continuum.

Even marginal increases in costs can price out a significant number of potential homebuyers. For every $10,000 added to the cost of an entry-level home ( benchmarked at $400,000), 7,951 households within the Edmonton metropolitan region are priced out of the housing market. When this increases to $50,000, an estimated 36,998 will be priced out. According to the city's own description of core housing need, these households would then be added to the expanding group of households requiring some form of government subsidization for housing.

Curb policy and red tape: Earlier in 2023, we stood with council and administration to punctuate national news — that Edmonton took the top spot among Canada's major cities with regards to approval timelines, government charges and planning features.

This is a regulatory advantage. Over the past decade, the real estate development industry and the city have worked together to foster a healthy housing market, a great quality of life and address development uncertainty and barriers.

As the city advances new planning strategies, it will be important to discuss the effects of these additional policy layers to costs to Edmonton homebuyers and renters, and the unnecessary regulatory complexity it may add to our already streamlined and nationally lauded development processes.

As is the case with non-residential development, land for new communities in Edmonton has been constrained. Planning for new communities is unnecessarily being restricted, which is counter to the demand for housing. Artificial barriers to growth ultimately add to the cost of all homes. These additional policy layers need to be reconsidered and removed.

Successful city building requires the efforts of many: We are only as strong as the contributions of everyone. Our industry includes real estate developers, planners, architects and engineers who are highly engaged and want to contribute. But there are many other organizations that play an important role, too, from community leagues to post-secondary institutions.

We need a full ecosystem of city builders to be working at their maximum potential for the good of our city and region. And it is important that we clarify what we all do, so we can leverage one another's strengths. When we come together and bring forward our ideas and perspectives, we can build an affordable, competitive and inclusive city that's poised to grow and prepared to lead.