City may loosen rules for garden and garage suites

Saskatoon city hall is moving toward more flexible rules for building garden and garage suites after consulting with builders and developers.

The city first introduced rules that would allow the building of legal garden and garage suites, also known as granny suites, in 2014, but only 20 applications have been received. Only nine of these have proceeded to the permit stage.

City of Saskatoon administration entered into discussions with industry representatives to address the slow pace of development despite the reported interest of hundreds of homeowners.

Coun. Hilary Gough said some of the regulations imposed on secondary suites, such as those ensuring proper drainage, are more onerous than those required for much larger developments with much greater impact.

“That’s a concern for me,” Gough said at Monday’s meeting of city council’s planning, development and community services committee.

Provisions to allow garden and garage suites were adopted as part of the city’s push for greater infill development.

The suites were seen as a way to increase infill without a huge effect on neighbourhoods.

A group of 10 industry representatives submitted a report to the city in March 2017 outlining some of the issues that are hindering progress for those who want to build secondary suites.

A city report appears to address some of the technical issues cited by the industry group to make design more flexible and to possibly reduce the cost of building.

But the city has rejected a key request to abandon the requirement that the city administration review and approve each so-called discretionary use application.

Garden and garage suites are permitted throughout the city in low-density residential districts, but some of the restrictions differ in Saskatoon’s older neighbourhoods.

Any changes to current rules would be reviewed by the city’s municipal planning commission before being considered by city council at a public hearing.