Edmonton City Council
1 Sir Winston Churchill Square
Edmonton AB, T5J 2R7
November 21, 2021
Dear Mayor and Council,
RE: Edmonton 2022 Budget; Infill Issues and Opportunities
The Infill Development in Edmonton Association (IDEA) looks forward to working with you over the next four years to drive change toward people-centred communities. IDEA is proud to have been an active collaborator with the City on a number of infill-related projects over the past many years, including the Builder Education Program and Expedited Infill Pilot, as well as the Infill Cost Share Program. We look forward to continuing to work together as we collectively implement the ambitious objectives of City Plan.
ABOUT IDEA
The Infill Development in Edmonton Association (IDEA) was founded in 2013 with a mission to promote and advocate for high-quality infill development within Edmonton. Our vision is for Edmonton’s existing neighbourhoods to flourish as complete communities with diverse housing and healthy lifestyle choices. Our diverse and growing membership is made up of builders, developers, planners, architects, engineers and suppliers, in addition to dedicated community members. We are a nonprofit, non-partisan, volunteer-driven organization supported by one full time employee.
THE BUDGET
The 2022 budget presents a huge opportunity to align fiscal priorities with City Plan. Many City Plan objectives will be largely implemented through infill and urban redevelopment, including the intensification of nodes and corridors. However, the primary mechanism of intensification--medium scale development--remains challenging for a variety of reasons. As City building partners, we request that you keep the following matters in mind as you deliberate the budget.
Water Infrastructure
At project inception, infrastructure upgrade costs are often unknown and unpredictable.
Infrastructure in mature neighbourhoods is outdated, and upgrades for individual projects can range from tens of thousands of dollars to millions. These infrastructure upgrades often provide benefits to the broader community, but the cost is shouldered solely by the new residents.
The City needs a mechanism to holistically and systematically deal with infrastructure upgrade needs across the City in order to achieve the type of densification envisioned in City Plan. The Infill Cost Share Program is an important step in the right direction, but it is limited in funding and scope.
Waste Collection
Most infill sites are small sites; City Plan calls for mixed use development in nodes and corridors. The complicating factor is that the city mandatorily collects residential waste but does not collect commercial waste. This means that commercial/residential mixed use developments must accommodate separate bins and separate service for the collection of residential and commercial waste, resulting in unnecessarily complicated site planning and site servicing. We need to update the Waste Strategy in order to allow for flexible solutions for waste collection, which may include acquiring smaller waste collection vehicles, as the current system has an undue impact on small and medium sized infill sites.
3. Fees
Tree Permits: IDEA firmly supports tree protection. We believe that tree protection should be accomplished through a tree protection bylaw and through public education, rather than a new and unwieldy permitting process. However, the city has demonstrated its preference to have a permit. As a result, we request that the city attach no new fees to this permit. Tree protection is a partnership: industry already pays to protect city trees; the city should cover the fee for its desired permit. We do not support new permit fees.
Land Development Application fees: The proposed 2022 fee increases for land development applications are substantial, as City Administration has acknowledged. As opposed to a flat fee increase, we request your consideration of fee increases scaled to minimize the impact on small and medium sized infill projects, which are typically located on small sites in mature areas and face numerous other financial challenges.
Thank you for the opportunity to highlight some of our priorities for this budget; we look forward to working closely with you in the future as we build our city together.
Please feel welcome to contact IDEA any time at mariah@infilledmonton.com or at 780-951-6926.
Sincerely,
Chelsey Jersak
President
Infill Development in Edmonton Association
This letter was sent to Edmonton’s Honourable Mayor and City Council - Nov 21, 2021