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New Zoning Bylaw

cliffapotamus

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So current Zoning Bylaw 12800 is being renewed (a big process, which i understand is due to be complete in 2022) and THERE ARE ALL KINDS OF COOL THINGS HAPPENING which i think would well warrant its own thread. Here's the City page, and the page for the intiatives/work areas so far. Also, a fun PDF of history of zoning on Edmonton. I'm sure this is edited/leaving out some cool/key stuff, but it's interesting to know that our current Zoning Bylaw is basically the latest rehash of 90 years of chaotic zoning choices.
 
I'm really not sure where to put this?
Just found it extremely interesting and really great work by Felipe Canavera.
I would be curious to see a similar zoning map compassion, plus an additional map illustrating categories like "missing middle, midrise, skyscraper, etc.
Edmonton building Heights

The link provided in the Tweet (takes some time to load) is a more complex web app.
 
Don't know where to post this... but I got an email from the U of A related to my program that they are hosting a panel discussion on zoning bylaw renewal initiatives. 3 of the planners will be there.

You can ask questions or whatever you may have.

The meeting takes place at 1:00 pm tomorrow sept 29. You can register here


The email told me that everyone is welcome to attend so I posted the link here. I thought that some of you may be interested.
 
Here's some cool highlights from the Urban Planning Committee Report 3 - Approaches and Structure of the New Zoning Bylaw.
Timeframe One.PNG

Rezoning One.PNG

Rezoning Two.PNG

Rezoning Three.PNG


Rezoning Four.PNG

I just want to emphasize that this would take us from 46 standard zones down to 15, and from 127 land uses down to 20!

Conditional Uses.PNG

GBA.PNG

Residential One.PNG
Options One.PNG
Options Two.PNG

They are also tailoring this renewal to help address climate change.
Climate One.PNG
 
yeesssssssss. thank you for sharing, it's hard to keep up with all the little announcements and documents involved with this new Zoning bylaw.
Something struck me about Edmonton's zoning while i was studying in Calgary, working on projects with Land Use Bylaw 1P2007. Edmonton's bylaw 12800 is a choatic and disorganized mess, hard to navigate on your own, with misleading titles (ie RF1 Single Family Dwelling, which allows for up to 4 units (2 primary, 2 secondary) on every site) and other oddities, but it actually allows for a lot of diverse infill and densification. from what i see, the large lists of permitted uses we have in most zones, as well as things like the Main Streets Overlay, make Edmonton (awkwardly) well-poised to be a leader in Urban infill, if our market can keep up.
i think the new Zoning Bylaw is going to be huge. I really hope it gets the attention it deserves, and the right developers/industry leaders notice and choose to invest. Part of the reason I want to stay in Edmonton is so i get to see these things play out. We have a bright future!

The Calgary document is dreadful btw, at least if you're trying to do small-scale infill. extremely limited permitted uses, discretionary bonuses that only apply to large sites and projects, and a bizarre abhorrence towards incorporating ground-level retail in residential projects unless it's a tower. I really wished I could design under our zoning when i was in school lol!
 
I haven't had time to look at it but there's an early release of the new zoning bylaws out now.

There's a bunch of attachments if you click on April 12's urban planning committee on the Calendar.
Proposed zones
Admin report


The RF1-4 zones are being changed to this:
View attachment 387634
Augh there is a thread for the new Zoning Bylaw somewhere but I can't find it, even with the search function.
THANK YOU FOR SHARING THIS! I HAD NO IDEA THIS WAS OUT ALREADY! YOUR SHARE WAS SUPER HELPFUL!!!!!!! I thought it was still months out from being released, this made my day lol.
gotta admit, the residential zones seem a bit tame, there's good language about mixed use, but without seeing the actual text it's hard to see how this will play out.
Kinda sad to see the Main Streets Overlay go. it was such a cool idea, especially how it was used around LRT platforms, current and future. A great way of the City putting its money where its mouth is, rewarding densification along corridors and near stations via clear, legally stable avenues. I hope the rezonings in these areas that come with the new Bylaw don't scale back uses/building size or reduce the amount of land zoned for intensive redevelopment versus what we have now. We need to make sure the New Zoning Bylaw, particularly during approvals and the subsequent rezoning process, isn't used as a vehicle to reduce redevelopment opportunities in nimby neighbourhoods.
 
At a glance, I don't like that RS1 exists as they've described it, and I'm worried it will end up overused thus neutralizing half the benefit of this whole endeavor.
RS2 should be the floor (at minimum). But on RS2 I don't like "small businesses in specified locations". It's better than nothing but it removes organic growth and flexibility if you only allow accessory commercial units in a few lucky areas! It's an inane restriction if the business types and size are already going to be restricted, which they will be.
Their prior releases also indicated that the small apartments in small-scale zones would be only allowed on a minimum lot size that is larger than the most single lots in mature neighbourhoods. I don't know yet if that's still the case, but I'm worried that it is.

Also why does RS3 need to exist? Why isn't "row housing" part of RS2? We're going right back down the same path that led to the heavily segmented zoning we have now.

The difference between NMU and GMU seems pretty arbitrary.
I didn't go through the rest yet since I'm most focused on how the changes will affect low density residential areas, and associated commercial corridors.
 
Augh there is a thread for the new Zoning Bylaw somewhere but I can't find it, even with the search function.
I couldn't find it either, until I looked through my own post history lol. I moved the posts over now.
 
It came to the Urban Planning Committee yesterday, here's the package, and here's a list of the proposed zones. I wonder what most single detached homes would be upzoned into; RS1 or RS2?
I actually spoke out at the committee yesterday, and expressed my concerns about RS1, and also about the limitations on ACUs [Accessory commercial units] under RS2.
Not all of council was there, but I did manage to get both Ashley Salvador and Aaron Paquette to question the renewal team on their justifications for RS1 - something they didn't seem able to do clearly and instead fell back a bit like "it's not final and we're still working things out" . Though it did sound like the intentionally of RS1 is only in greenfield developments, and not for existing developed areas. I'm not totally clear on why that would be useful.

My concern with ACUs was they seem to want them "limited to specified areas", EG: Nodes.
Etc etc this limits the flexibility of existing landowners to try and start a businesses, it's basically the difference between; are we allowing ACUs for the benefit of the neighbourhood to have a trendy café? or for the benefit of individuals to try and start their own business with low risk? This seemed to resonate well with Aaron, and know Ashley already wants ACUs to be much more available.

So all in all I consider it a win, since I managed to get a couple councilors to directly question the bylaw team on both the validity and purpose of even having RS1 and of why we would limit ACUs to "nodes".
Obviously nothing final came from the meet yesterday, but it was good to see them put the pressure on a bit. ;)
 
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Engagement is open until December 18. There's no survey,* but you can look through the draft bylaw and provide comments, and also provide feedback about the usability of their new website for the zoning bylaw. You can also make an appointment to have a conversation with a planner. I won't link any of the specific pages since I don't know if that would let everyone provide unique responses.

All three small scale zones now allow limited commercial opportunities, but there is a big caveat:

3.3. Food and Drink Services, Indoor Sales and Services, and Offices
3.3.1. These Uses are only permitted on a lot Abutting a Site in a non-residential Zone that permits Commercial Uses at the time of a Development Permit application.

*There is one survey: Feedback for the usability of the new website itself can be provided through a google survey.
 
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