Over the past year the EPCOR, the City of Edmonton, IDEA and other industry groups have been participating in working groups tasked with updating the City of Edmonton Design and Construction Standards to align with the zones in the new zoning bylaw. IDEA would like to thank IDEA board members, Jason Cunha and Joshua Schmaltz for their involvement in this initiative. Addenda to the standards have been published to the epcor.com website (January 2, 2024) to reflect updates to Volume 3 (Drainage) and Volume 4 (Water). Please refer to the addenda at the links below:
City of Edmonton Design and Construction Standards Volume 3 – Drainage
Volume 3-02: Stormwater Management and Design Manual:
Volume 3-03: Design Guidelines
City of Edmonton Design and Construction Standards Volume 4 - Water
These updates are the product of work between EPCOR, the development industry and the City of Edmonton. Throughout 2023, EPCOR hosted a series of consultation sessions and technical working groups with our industry partners. These engagement sessions included industry associations, consulting firms, industry business leaders and City of Edmonton planners, Fire Rescue Services, and climate adaptation professionals. The sessions focused on how best to modernize the design standards and approval processes for water consumption and sewer generation, fire flow requirements, stormwater, and green infrastructure implementation.
Through these consultation efforts, it was identified that a two-pronged approach would best meet the diverse needs of the development community. The first approach was an update of the design standards based on the new zones, recognizing that this would still be conservative, but could be updated to reflect modern water conservation and building materials, and on-site stormwater management opportunities. This approach supports developers that want to move quickly through the approval process and reduce engineering design costs.
The second approach is a new process where the developer can engage with EPCOR earlier in their planning and work collaboratively through the design assumptions for the specific requirements of the development they are proposing. This process can, for example, include discussions on where best to orient buildings with higher water consumption or higher fire flow requirements to maximize the use of existing capacity for infill developments, or reduce pipe requirements in greenfield developments.
For developments that wish to pursue the second collaborative approach to planning water and drainage infrastructure, please reach out to boundaryconditions@epcor.com early in the development process. Green infrastructure, planning for high water consuming industries,
Moving Forward
These addenda are to be followed for planning all NEW developments and associated hydraulic network analyses, neighbourhood design reports, and other water infrastructure planning instruments.
For inquiries related to how these addenda may affect EXISTING area and neighbourhood level planning, please contact One Water Planning at boundaryconditions@epcor.com. In cases where updates to plans are required, EPCOR will work with the developer to reduce the amount of additional analysis. This is especially important in cases where a lift station, pump station,booster station or reservoir is planned.
Keep an eye on IDEA’s website for more infrastructure resources from EPCOR to support your 2024 development projects!