Edmonton's heritage Garneau district confronts upzoning

Globe and Mail

21 hours ago

Increasing density to meet a growing demand for housing in well-served, well-connected central areas, often precedes the preservation of complementary attributes that make dense urban environments a desirable place to live, including a sense of place, or the emotional connection between people and place. Preserving mature trees and heritage buildings, for instance, stands at odds with the demands of a real estate market on steroids.
This situation is currently at play in Edmonton.
To bolster the number of Edmontonians living in 15-minute neighbourhoods, city hall recently approved the rezoning of five priority growth areas to allow for higher densities in the city's major activity nodes.
'Priority growth areas are about enhancing these areas, and giving more people opportunities to access existing amenities,' says Lisa Drury, a senior planner at the City of Edmonton, noting that increasing housing choice is 'a key part of the rezoning process.'
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One of these priority growth areas is Garneau, one of Edmonton's oldest neighbourhoods, whose central location, ample access to transportation options and proximity to the University of Alberta, make it an ideal candidate for densification.
But Garneau is not lacking in density, nor in housing diversity, and some residents worry that the zoning changes introduced by city hall could disrupt the balance supporting the neighbourhood's livability, as well as its long-term desirability.
In a public hearing last month, Elizabeth Finn, a Garneau resident, shared her concerns with city council. 'I'm not adverse to increasing density, what I am concerned about is that, in the name of increasing density and decreasing bureaucracy, Garneau is going to lose its uniqueness and charm, what makes everyone want to live there.'
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Ms. Finn first moved to Garneau in 2018, when she was a student at the University of Alberta. The area's walkability, lush tree-lined streets and a wide variety of services and amenities, including the iconic Whyte Avenue, popular for shopping, dining, and nightlife, quickly captured Ms. Finn's heart.
After renting an apartment in a high-rise tower on Whyte Avenue (also known as 82nd Avenue), four years ago, Ms. Finn and her husband found their dream home just one block away: a 2½-storey foursquare built in 1915.
The couple purchased the 2,000-square-foot property for less than $430,000, a bargain by today's standards. This year's tax assessment pegs the value of the century-old dwelling at $600,500.
Ms. Finn's home isn't an outlier. Edmonton's record population growth has caused house prices and rental rates to climb.
In the past four years, the median resale price for detached homes has increased by more than 20 per cent, the Realtors Association of Edmonton reports. Over the same period, low vacancy rates drove rents up by roughly 20 per cent, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation data shows.
To relieve some of the pressure on the city's housing market, the new zoning implemented in Garneau allows for mixed-use towers as tall as 21-storeys along two arterial roads, 82nd Avenue and 109th Street, and accommodates mid-rise buildings between six and eight storeys on adjacent areas, accounting for the impact of taller structures on low-rise properties.
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Recognizing the significance of heritage buildings in Garneau, city planners incorporated transition zones of lower heights on neighbouring sites. For example, the parcels next to the William Buster residence on 81st Avenue, are zoned to allow for a maximum height of three storeys on one side, and six storeys on the other.
City administrators encourage homeowners to list their property in the city's heritage inventory, a first step to historical designation, and to lifetime protection from demolition.
If a new building is designated, however, the zoning already adjudicated to adjacent properties would remain unchanged. This puts Ms. Finn in a difficult position.
Although she wishes to list her home in the heritage inventory, Ms. Finn is hesitant to pursue municipal designation because the north side of her street, 81st Avenue, is now zoned to accommodate six-storey buildings.
'We would be enveloped by apartment buildings,' Ms. Finn says, pointing at the existing towers rising behind her backyard, on Whyte Avenue. 'Our ability to resell the house would be very limited.'
After council's decision, Garneau's resident association retained a consultant to amend the upgraded zoning and protect older properties. But the attractiveness of Garneau doesn't rely solely on heritage buildings.
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Garneau embodies the kind of dense neighbourhood urbanists yearn for. Within a 15-minute walk, an array of uses, building heights and architectural styles converge to create a vibrant milieu that captivates residents and visitors alike. 'We love neighbourhoods that connect us to a story about place, that make us feel like we're part of something bigger,' says Neal LaMontagne, a city planning lecturer at the University of Alberta.
Because Garneau was established in the pre-war period, before car-dependent subdivisions filled with cookie-cutter homes came to dominate Canadian cities, it displays features that can be difficult to replicate.
'The fact that it's an older neighbourhood lends itself to a more human scale, to human-centred urbanism,' Mr. LaMontagne says. 'It also means it's adapted over time, so it has a complexity that is rare in newer neighbourhoods.'
Despite its historic character, Garneau isn't frozen in time. One reason this neighbourhood continues to thrive is its eclectic mix of old and new buildings. Almost half of existing dwellings were built after 1980, and in the last 15 years, more than 600 apartments have been completed.
For Mr. LaMontagne, the city's focus on meeting a minimum density of 250 residents or jobs per hectare in major nodes, as established by Edmonton's City Plan, diverts from the importance of maintaining some of the physical qualities that sustain Garneau's desirability.
'Our oldest neighbourhoods are our most central neighbourhoods, so planners have to make sure that they're not exclusive,' he says. 'But how do we do that in a way that you're including people in something that's really desirable? How do you keep those qualities? Our planning tools in Alberta aren't nuanced enough to fit that complexity.'