Edmontonians are engaged in a common, contentious debate: how should a city grow?

Urban housing policies should be guided by neighbourhood demographics and available amenitiesYou can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account.Edmonton is the right city in Canada to ask an uncomfortable question: Should growth be pushed inward or outward? Alberta’s capital has land, space and one of the most affordable housing markets among Canada’s largest cities. Yet it also has a downtown struggling to recover post-pandemic, transit ridership that needs density to survive and neighbourhoods where residents fear being overwhelmed by redevelopment.Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Edmonton’s infill-versus-greenfield debate is not just about housing. It is about what kind of city it wants to become and who it wants to build for. Interestingly, many growing cities in Canada face the same infill-outfill trade-off.Get the latest headlines, breaking news and columns.By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.The next issue of Top Stories will soon be in your inbox.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againInterested in more newsletters? Browse here.This week has been particularly contentious in Edmonton, where the urban planning committee held two-day public hearings concerning the city’s zoning regulations. Earlier, the city had amended its bylaws to allow midblock construction of multiplexes with up to eight units. Many residents of low-density neighbourhoods were upset, and they made zoning regulations a central issue in last year’s municipal elections.Calgary had adopted a similar blanket rezoning, allowing up to four residential units on a single parcel without requiring a land-use redesignation. Many council hopefuls running in Calgary’s recent election pledged to repeal the blanket rezoning if they won.While cities debate where to build, the federal government has also inserted itself into municipal policymaking by offering millions of dollars in additional funding through its Housing Accelerator Fund to promote infill development. A recent city report in Calgary warned that repealing the infill bylaws could cost the city hundreds of millions in federal grants.Opposition to infill development in Edmonton, especially when adding an eight-plex to neighbourhoods of mostly single-family homes, should be handled with empathy. Residents affected by changes to their streets and neighbourhoods often have genuine concerns about parking, traffic, shadowing from buildings and maintaining neighbourhood character. However, current market data does not clearly indicate that multiplex development is a significant, city-wide problem.Adil Kodian, executive vice president of Rohit Group, believes the discussion needs to distinguish between localized impacts and broader housing policy objectives. “There is likely value in refining policy to ensure that eight-plex developments are introduced thoughtfully, taking into account parking constraints, shadowing and traffic flow,” he says. “But there is no evidence at this stage that this is a massive municipality-wide issue.”In response to resident pushback, Edmonton’s urban planning committee in the city of Edmonton proposed amendments to reduce the maximum number of midblock units from eight to six and to increase the minimum unit size. The intent is to gently densify midblocks in primarily low-rise residential neighbourhoods, addressing residents’ concerns about increased congestion, on-street parking and increased demand for other social services, such as schools and libraries.The planning committee intends to keep the maximum height at 10 metres to facilitate three-storey buildings. This remains a concern for many residents, who fear the structures may block sunlight and invade their privacy.The motivation for infill development is to make effective use of existing infrastructure, especially public transit, and to leverage unused capacity in other hard infrastructure, including water mains and sewers. Pushing development to the outer suburbs, resulting in greenfield development, requires installing new hard and soft infrastructure services.Since most infill developments include smaller units, such as condominiums or apartments, many believe that they provide smaller households — especially single-person ones, among the fastest-growing groups in Canada — with an opportunity to live in established neighbourhoods.While smaller units are lower in price than larger low-rise single-family dwellings, infill units, on a per-square-foot basis, will still be more expensive than greenfield developments due to much higher land costs in established neighbourhoods.Infill projects, given the smaller land parcels, are likely to attract smaller builders who may develop one or a few sites at a time. Most builders of this size won’t benefit from economies of scale in procurement, warehousing, labour and more. Given the decline in residential construction productivity in Canada over the years, partly because of the very large number of small builders, large-scale adoption of infill developments may exacerbate productivity challenges.Urban housing policies should be guided by neighbourhood demographics and available amenities. The demand for smaller rental units or condos will vary based on the needs of smaller households, while larger families will primarily seek single-family homes. Decisions about where to build housing and what size it should be are influenced not just by population projections but also by household size, composition and individual living preferences.Intensification along transit corridors and near commercial nodes will help leverage large investments in transit and other infrastructure. Midblock intensification can follow once lessons are learned from infilling around nodes and corridors.Ultimately, increasing density in infill areas may be necessary to sustain long-term housing affordability for smaller households. The focus should be on careful calibration, not necessarily on reversal, to ensure responsible growth within communities.Murtaza Haider is the executive director of the Cities Institute at the University of Alberta and the Radhe Krishna Gupta Executive Chair in Cities and Communities at the Alberta School of Business. Stephen Moranis is a former president of the Toronto Real Estate Board and an industry veteran providing strategic market insights.Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. 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