Latest news with #JenniferRice
CBC
21-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Edmonton city council passes rezoning bylaw for priority growth areas
Social Sharing Edmonton city council passed a rezoning bylaw that aims to boost development in areas earmarked to grow quickly alongside the city's population. The bylaw impacts sections of the Wîhkwêntôwin and Garneau areas, 124th and 156th streets and Stony Plain Road. The changes come after many spoke out against them at a public hearing and an amendment to remove a portion in Garneau was voted down. The areas impacted were identified by city administration as priority growth areas — certain nodes and corridors in the redeveloping area that are expected to see the most growth short term, a city report said. The main bylaw was voted against by Couns. Karen Principe, Jennifer Rice and Tim Cartmell during first reading. But by third reading, all councillors voted to pass the bylaw. "The Priority Growth Area (PGA) rezoning will help implement the long-term vision of both the City Plan and District Plans and encourage more housing and business development in these important areas," the report said. The priority growth area rezoning bylaw would involve different rezonings, including a combination of mixed-use, large- and medium-scale residential, and small-medium scale transition residential zones. That would allow for medium- to large-scale housing and mixed-use development. The city chose five areas, which were identified as being connecting sections that would see some of the largest developments in Edmonton. Other factors range from access to transit, strong market demand, and the ability to explore proactive rezoning. The city said the final proposal was refined numerous times through two rounds of public engagement, which included in-person workshops, "chat with a planner" meetings, open houses and a city-wide survey. Mattew Boonstra spoke in favour of the bylaw. He said as someone in his 20s who went to the University of Alberta, he knows how important it is to build more housing in these areas. He remembers a lack of available apartment buildings when he went to school. "When I first moved by the university, just for context, I was with half a dozen roommates. We were crammed into home from the 1940s … it was falling apart." He said these growth areas are more than places for people to live, especially because they are along major public transportation routes. "There are places for people to gather, to work, and most importantly, places that we want lots of people to live, gather and work, because we are putting billions of dollars of our public money into these [transit] projects," Boonstra said. Kevin Taft, former MLA and organizer with Better Infill, was one of a number of people who voiced concern that land speculation for these rezoned lots will drive up prices and hinder affordability. "It's not clear that the public benefit of this mass rezoning is worth this cost. So I'm left wondering, why not just wait for land owners to apply for rezoning?" he said. Travis Pawlyk, branch manager of development services with the city, said that increases in prices are driven more by demand than zoning. "It was our contention that a broad based rezoning of all of the parcels within the city all at once would not fuel that speculative action." He added the zoning bylaw renewal has held up as Edmonton remains relatively affordable compared to the rest of Canada. Amendment voted down Jane Dawson lives in Garneau and said the area is already dense, with a variety of housing types. She asked that 81st Avenue be removed from the priority growth area. "There's a whole push for affordable housing, but this initiative does not do it. And paradoxically, it will make it more expensive to live in this area. So it's going in the wrong way." Coun. Michael Janz proposed an amendment to remove 28 parcels on the north side of 81st Avenue from the Garneau area after hearing community pushback. Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said that if Garneau isn't a priority growth area, he doesn't know what is. "Would you not see this as the ideal corridor for higher density?" he asked, citing the access to transit, amenities and the university. Coun. Aaron Paquette said the university area should have density comparable to a downtown — but at the same time communities need to feel heard and connected to decisions made on their behalf. "The issue there is that it kind of opens a can of worms. Lots of different communities can come in and then start saying like, well, what about us?" Paquette said. That amendment was narrowly defeated in a 5-7 vote. Coun. Janz, Paquette, Karen Principe, Jennifer Rice and Tim Cartmell voted in favour.
Indianapolis Star
22-04-2025
- Business
- Indianapolis Star
Fishers council approves rental caps as legislature moves to override action
The Fishers City Council unanimously passed a first-of-its kind ordinance that restricts the number of homes that can be rented in subdivisions, in a move to stop institutional investors from purchasing houses at inflated prices and making them rentals. The 9-0 vote came after real estate interest groups made a last-minute push to nullify the ordinance in the Indiana General Assembly. Lawmakers attached to an unrelated bill a provision that would prohibit cities from limiting rentals. The surprise addition to House Bill 1389, which was discussed in a conference committee Monday morning, would need lawmakers from both chambers to sign off on it before a vote. At a packed Fishers City Hall meeting, residents were allotted 30 minutes to speak about the rental cap, with more than half saying they favored it but a sizable number clapping for those who opposed it. Those in support said they'd seen their subdivisions degraded by investors who paid high prices for lower valued homes, rented them, and neglected their maintenance, 'My job is to sell homes to people who want to buy them in desirable locations in the community,' said Fishers Realtor Jennifer Rice. 'All these rentals make neighborhoods undesirable. You have to be in the field to see this.' Opponents said the ordinance illegally limited what homeowners could do with their hard-earned property. 'It is not your right to say if I move next year…I can't rent my home,' said Marti Brown, a Sandstone neighborhood resident. 'It is baloney. It is un-American.' The administration of Mayor Scott Fadness and council worked one and a half years on the plan to address the local and national trend of outside investors gobbling up homes. Fadness said the rental cap would help keep lower-priced houses in the market because those are the ones most often targeted by Wall Street investors. That will give first-time buyers, who are typically younger with less wealth, a chance to own a home in Fishers and build equity. The ordinance would also establish a registry for landlords to make them more responsive to renters or city complaints. Opponents said Fadness and the council's work is outdated because the surge in institutional investors has subsided: the last one sold to an outside firm in Fishers was January of 2023. They also said it could severely limit the number of rentals available in county that already has an huge shortage and needs them for a growing number of lower-wage service workers. 'As we have shown, market conditions have changed and institutional investors have sold more homes over the last two years than they have purchased," said Chris Pryor, chief advocacy officer for the Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors, at the meeting. 'This is a trend that is likely to continue.' MIBOR and the Indiana Association of Realtors opposed the rental caps while the One Zone Chamber of Commerce, covering Hamilton County, supported the ordinance and called it 'thoughtful and strategic approach to ensuring long-term neighborhood stability and housing market balance.' Fadness said the corporate buyers could be back in the future and called the measure forward looking. 'What it means for the long-term ability of young people is to build wealth,' he said at the meeting. 'We want a viable stock of housing for starter homes.' Most of the councilors, explaining their votes beforehand, said they have been swamped with calls from constituents in favor. Councilor Todd Zimmerman said the city was taking a bold stand in the face of monied outside interests. Other cities have addressed the problem in various ways but Fishers officials found none that have used rental caps. 'As a nation, if somebody doesn't take a stand who will?' Zimmerman asked.' At some point somebody has to take a stand when there is land being bought up by foreign and domestic entities who are taking way the livelihood and opportunity for people to build their wealth within their homes, within their families.' Fishers' 240 subdivisions have varying levels of rental rates, most lower than 10% but about 50 have rental rates much higher, some reaching 40%. But Vare said some of the city's numbers on high rental rates in misleading. For example, of the 17 Fishers neighborhoods exceeding 30% rentals, 11 are condo or townhome communities, including three that were recently built as for-sale units. While some homeowners associations set their own rental caps, others don't address it all and still others don't bother because covenant rules usually require unreachable voting majorities The ordinance has several exemptions for people who want to rent even though it would exceed neighborhood's cap, including having had the house on the market for at least six months. Other exemptions include: Job relocation Renting to family members or legal dependents Deployed military Selling the property will cause undue burden. The ordinance will take effect Jan. 1, 2026.
