April 25, 2022
City Council
City of Edmonton
1 Sir Winston Churchill Square
Edmonton AB, T5J 2R7
RE: April 26, 2022, Urban Planning Committee
6.1 Infill Roadmap Initiative - 2022 Update
6.2 Infill Compliance Team Annual Report
To Urban Planning Committee, Mayor and City Council:
The Infill Development in Edmonton Association (IDEA) is an educational and advocacy nonprofit, non-partisan association that represents over 180 city builders and city shapers. Our purpose is to drive change toward people-centred communities within Edmonton’s mature neighbourhoods. The vast majority of our members are small and local businesses, passionate about executing Council’s City Plan goals.
Infill and urban redevelopment helps Edmonton achieve City building goals by creating more attainable housing options in core areas, reusing critical infrastructure, and reducing the high financial, environmental and social costs of long commutes in single-passenger vehicles.
6.1 Infill Roadmap Initiative
In 2014 Edmonton recognized the citywide benefit of infill for our city and undertook its first infill roadmap, focused on low-density residential infill. In 2018 we as a City took steps forward again to reduce barriers and create processes and systems that benefited all stakeholders of infill development, this time focused on small to medium-sized residential development.
Fast forward to today, and we’re certainly seeing the roadmap outcomes in action on the ground, with some mature neighbourhoods receiving an influx of new residents, supporting schools as well as local shops and services. However, there is still so much work to be done.
Every week new and significant site-specific and citywide issues arise for medium-scale residential, mixed-use and local commercial projects. These barriers mainly revolve around infrastructure and servicing issues, a legacy of the fact that for 100 years we built a suburban, car-oriented city. If we do not address these barriers we will not achieve our energy transition targets nor our density goals.
In the post-roadmap era, we ask that you double down on your support for infill and urban redevelopment by prioritizing a holistic infill infrastructure and servicing strategy in the upcoming municipal budget and in your day-to-day decision making.
6.2 Infill Compliance Team Annual Report
In 2019 IDEA, in partnership with the City of Edmonton, created and deployed the first installment of the Builder Education Program. To date the program has been delivered five times. This program was designed to be a win-win-win scenario for the community, industry and the City. This program is a five day education certification program that includes courses on Design 101, Development Permits, Building Permits, Infill Best Practices for Construction, and Communication and Community Relations. Successful participants qualify for expedited permits for certain Class A, small scale infill projects.
The Builder Education Program supports the community by having more educated builders in their neighbourhoods, the infill industry by reducing permit timelines by more than 50%, and creating certainty in the process. The program also supports the City by improving the quality of applications and increasing the number of complete applications. Since 2019 over 60 companies have gone through the Builder Education Program and complaints have decreased by over 50%.
IDEA is supportive of increasing education and having more staff for inspections, enforcement and compliance. Infill and urban redevelopment has increased and will continue to increase, and with it, so should our educational resources. We are moving in the right direction.
Thank you to Administration for their hard work over the past decade to bring us to this point.
Thank you for your time. If you have any questions please contact IDEA via Mariah Samji at mariah@infilledmonton.com or 780-951-6926.
Sincerely,
Letter sent to Edmonton City Council, Deputy City Manager of Urban Planning and Economy and the Administration Team