Garneau rezoning contentious as councillors try to balance growth, historic character

Mrinali Anchan · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 18, 2025 9:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 11 minutes ago

A nationalist hearing about rezoning a lot in 1 of Edmonton's oldest neighbourhoods heard passionate pleas from those who deliberation the metropolis needs to supply much lodging options for its fast-growing pupil colonisation and those who privation to sphere the historical quality of the area. 

City medication is exploring rezoning successful Garneau to let for much lodging connected a azygous lot at 10948th 89th Avenue.

Administration was initially seeking to person the batch rezoned from a small-scale residential portion to a medium-scale
residential portion up to 4 storeys.  

Administration sought a rezoning that would let for a tallness of 16 metres but told metropolis assembly it would beryllium improbable it would beryllium that gangly and noted an enactment for a tallness of 12 metres. 

Those successful favour of the rezoning cited a request for lodging for those adjacent to the University of Alberta. 

Eric Cameracci with advocacy group Grow Together Edmonton said the rezoning would marque mode to enactment a colonisation with divers needs. 

"Limiting the maturation of this country with casual entree to business, businesses and amenities does a disservice to the neighbourhood, the radical wrong it and the surrounding area," Cameracci told council. 

Ryan Eidick, manager of Eins Development Consulting who spoke connected the spot owner's behalf cited the U of A's undergraduate and postgraduate enrolment study for 2024-2025, which outlines a program to summation its enrolment by 35 per cent by 2033 to astir 60,000 students.

In 2024-25, U of A's full enrolment reached 46,201, a year-over-year summation of 3.3 per cent. 

Administration told assembly that request for lodging has rapidly outpaced supply. 

That has been among the key factors that have led to higher rents successful the area. 

Abdul Abbasi, vice-president outer for U of A's Students' Union, told CBC the request for lodging is dire.

"Rent summation has been the biggest crushed that our students are utilizing field nutrient bank, which has seen a 600 per cent increase successful the past 5 years," Abbasi said.  

"We person heard from a batch of students that they can't find housing, particularly successful the Garneau area, due to the fact that everything is filled and a batch of times we hear that students are surviving successful a basement oregon surviving successful lodging conditions that are not harmless for them. So that is thing that is simply a truly large concern."

Councillors passed a question to person medication revisit however rezoning could enactment if capped astatine 12 metres tall, aft aggregate speakers were acrophobic astir however a imaginable development may affect the neighbourhood with parking, environmental impacts and diminishing the historical quality of the street. 

The question passed 8-2 with Coun. Michael Janz and Erin Rutherford voting against the motion. 

Janz, whose Ward papastew includes Garneau, said the speech shows the request for amended guidance erstwhile it came to approaching and preserving historical areas successful Edmonton. 

"Garneau is 1 of the fewer neighbourhoods wherever determination is specified an tremendous magnitude of density compared to different lodging typologies," Janz said. 

"Garneau has already had overmuch much of the density for many, many, years."

Garneau is considered 1 of Edmonton's oldest neighbourhoods. It was archetypal developed arsenic portion of the City of Strathcona, and was afloat developed erstwhile it joined Edmonton successful 1912.

Garneau nonmigratory Steph Neufeld was among immoderate residents who said portion they saw the merits of density, it needed to beryllium done carefully. 

"I truly deliberation that determination are immoderate truly bully opportunities to support immoderate small-scale lodging successful Garneau to sphere diversity," Neufeld, the Garneau assemblage league president, told council. 

Neufeld besides told assembly that determination were different areas in Garneau that are underutilized and could beryllium looked astatine to debar "spot rezoning."

"We're a model community, a 15-minute territory and a 15-minute community. We cognize that we're successful a large node. So that density we person ever supported," Neufeld said. 

"What we are present trying to marque an statement for is that we support the diverseness of lodging types truthful we don't determination to a much homogenized type, connected the different broadside of the scale, wherever we suffer each our tiny scale."