Secondary Suites Submission Deadline

Secondary Suites Submission Deadline

Critical Deadlines and How you can Provide Input: 

12:00 pm on Monday, March 5th – submit letters to City of Calgary via PublicSubmissions@calgary.ca.
9:30 am on Monday, March 12th – Public Hearing at City Council – everyone is welcome to attend

BACKGROUND

Secondary Suites Briefing for Residents

The City of Calgary is looking at implementing secondary suites as a discretionary use in primarily single detached home communities like Hounsfield Heights-Briar Hill (R-1, R-C1 and R-C1L districts).

On March 12th, Council will be looking at several separate pieces of work about secondary suites. They are as follows:
1. Land Use Bylaw (LUB) amendments that add Secondary Suite and Backyard Suite as discretionary uses in the R-1, R-C1 and R-C1L districts.
2. Develop a policy to guide Administration’s discretion when reviewing Development Permits for suites.
3. Reinstate application fees for suites.
4. Changes to the Suite Registry Program requiring mandatory registration.
5. Develop implementation plans for an illegal suite amnesty, registry fees, rebate program, application guidebook, and guidelines on advertising and engagement.

What is a Secondary Suite?

In the context of this project, a secondary suite can be either a basement suite or a laneway suite. A basement suite is a separate dwelling inside a single detached house with separate cooking, sleeping and bathroom facilities. A laneway suite is a self-contained living space on the same property as a single-detached house, and is often accessed from the back alley or laneway.

What does this mean for Residents?

The proposed changes would mean all stand-alone houses could potentially apply for a secondary suite or backyard/laneway housing with only a development permit.

These proposed changes include both basement suites, and backyard or laneway suites.

  • Current zoning (R-1, R-C1 and R-C1L) will remain but relaxations allowing suites could be granted to property owners
  • Secondary suites decisions will be made by Administration through a development permit application and can be appealed by neighbours directly affected through the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board (SDAB).
  • A policy that would guide Administration’s discretion when reviewing suite applications is also being debated at the March 12 meeting.
  • There will be fees to both register a suite and to appeal a suite application.
  • The existing suite registry would be made mandatory. This means that all legal suites would have stickers and would be listed online. All legal suites would have applied for the proper permits and have passed inspection.
  • There is no plan to monitor the legal suites once registered. Illegal suites will also be addressed through a complaints based system.
  • The Community Association encourages residents to decide for themselves if secondary suites are a good fit for their neighbourhood

If you would like to have your say, we would suggest the following:

1.Contact your Councillor
Getting in touch with your Councillor directly is a good opportunity to let them know about your thoughts ahead of the public hearing and help to inform their thoughts on the process. The City of Calgary has a webpage that allows you to easily send a message to your Councillor.

2.Submit a Letter to Council
Even if you’re unable to speak at Council on March 12th, you can submit a letter that will be circulated to Council ahead of time. Submissions must be received by noon on March 5th. Read through this document for information about how to submit your letter.

3.Speak at Council’s Public Hearing on March 12
City Council will hold a Public Hearing in the Council Chambers at the Calgary Municipal Building (800 Macleod Trail S.E.,) on Monday March 12, 2018 commencing at 9:30 a.m. Read through this document for tips on how to present to Council.

Considerations for your Letter or Presentation

Whether you support or oppose the proposed changes, you will be expected to focus your comments on the aspects of the changes themselves, on planning rationale, and on process.
Here are some examples of planning rationale:

Compatibility with the neighbourhood (how well would it “fit” into its surroundings)

  • The relationship to the surrounding buildings and the streetscape
  • Impact on the privacy of the neighbours (e.g. over viewing)
  • Driveway access, parking, and traffic concerns
  • Landscaping, including the retention of mature vegetation
  • Safety concerns / Privacy

There are some matters that will not be considered as they are not considered part of a planning rationale:

  • The characteristics of people (e.g., renter vs. owner); comments must address the land uses, not the land users.
  • The economic benefits or losses (increasing tax revenue to The City or surrounding property values, etc.)

FURTHER INFORMATION:

The City of Calgary report to Council fully outlining all of the proposed changes available can be found here:

http://www.calgary.ca/PDA/pd/Documents/Residential-Building-and-Development/C2017-1249%20Secondary%20Suite%20Process%20Reform.pdf

In that this document is both lengthy and somewhat difficult to understand, the FCC has created a helpful interpretation that can be found here:

https://calgarycommunities.com/secondary-suite-report/

Letter to Calgary home owners

Download letter

 

Important Sears Plume Update!

Important Sears Plume Update!

Alberta Environment and Parks has issued an Environmental Protection Order to Sears Canada Inc. and  Concord North Hill GP Ltd. for the Sears Plume

Documents

Enviromental Protection Order

David Swann’s letter
Druh Farrell’s letter
ARO Enviromental Services: Historical Summary

ARO Environmental Services: Review and Letter Response

CBC article

Link to all documents

 

Secondary Suites – Important information regarding changes to current R-C1 zoning

Secondary Suites – Important information regarding changes to current R-C1 zoning

Update: The City of Calgary has now made the report to Council fully outlining all of the proposed changes available for review.  It can be found here:

http://www.calgary.ca/PDA/pd/Documents/Residential-Building-and-Development/C2017-1249%20Secondary%20Suite%20Process%20Reform.pdf

In that this document is both lengthy and somewhat difficult to understand, the FCC has created a helpful interpretation that can be found here:

https://calgarycommunities.com/secondary-suite-report/

Letter to Calgary home owners

Download letter

At this point in time, the HHBH Community Association has not formally taken a position on the proposed land use changes. The City’s current approach to Secondary Suite Reform has made it abundantly clear that it is most interested in hearing from individual residents directly rather than from Community Associations on behalf of their residents.  For example, consider that in the letter sent to all affected land owners encouraged them to contact council directly or present at the public meeting – it mentioned nothing of communities or community associations.

As such, rather than a group of community ‘representatives’ getting together and spending time and energy collaborating on a position that would probably not end up representing the actual position of any particular resident, it is more effective for each member of the community interested in doing so to individually let our elected officials know her/his position on the matter.

To further that objective, our Community Association is committed to:

  1. i) ensuring that our residents are aware of the Secondary Suite Reform initiative going before council, especially considering the short timelines involved and that the city is not employing the methods of public consultation that it typically uses for proposed changes of this nature
  2. ii) providing our residents with access to as much detailed information about the Secondary Suite Reform initiative as possible

iii) encouraging our residents to formulate their own position on the initiative and communicate that position to our elected officials either in writing or in person

What is a Discretionary Development Permit (DP)?

All DPs are either Permitted or Discretionary.  A Discretionary DP:

Is processed through the City of Calgary Planning Department rather than requiring a Council hearing,
requires that a notice is posted for two weeks on the property with information about what is planned, who to contact for more details and deadlines for Community Association and neighbours’ comments

may be appealed (i.e. at the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board)

What is the Motion being voted on March 12th?

The Motion has three key components:

Secondary suites would move to a discretionary use in R-1, R-C1 and R-1L districts;
A mandatory Secondary Suite Registry;
Reinstatement of fees for secondary suite applications.

It is important to note that while this is being presented as a complete package, Council will vote on each piece separately:  they can choose to adopt all or parts or none of the pieces.

What does the current Motion mean?

If passed, all R-C1 properties will allow for suites with only a discretionary Development Permit.

What do you think could help to mitigate some of the commonly-expressed concerns around secondary suites?  The following items are not part of the Motion, but may be worth considering.  If you think any of these are important or have other suggestions, you need to let your Councillor and Community Association know.

Garage and laneway houses will be allowed as part of this Motion under the current proposal.  Should this change be limited to basement suites which are fully contained within a house?  A garage or laneway house could be much more intrusive for close neighbors.
Is a mandatory registration crucial (i.e.  All suites must be registered, otherwise they are considered illegal)?
What about renewable licensing (similar to a home-based business since a suite is generally income generating):  should a license be required when the property is sold or redeveloped?  Should a suite inspection occur at that time to ensure suite safety so that no tenant resides in a suite that does not meet building codes?
Should there be penalties for non-registered or non-licenced suites?
Should fees for secondary suite applications and development permits be reinstated? (Since August 2015, fees have been waived.)
Is it important that all suites have adequate parking?
Should there be a provision so that suites cannot be used as short-term rentals (i.e. Airbnb)?
Should there be increased city bylaw enforcement resources to ensure all suites meet property standards for maintenance and upkeep? Should there be penalties for not meeting bylaws in regards to aspects such as maintenance and upkeep standards?

What can you do?

Submit feedback or concerns to your Councillor, your Community Association and to all Councillors (since all will be voting on this Motion).  Unless they hear from you, they will not know what you think about this proposed Secondary Suite change.

You can call 403-268-5311 or visit www.calgary.ca/suitereform for more information.

Letters concerning these bylaw amendments must be received by the City Clerk no later than 12:00 p.m. (noon), March 5, 2018, in order to be included in the Agenda of Council.

Any person who wishes to address Council in person on this matter on March 12, 2018 may do so for a maximum of five minutes.  On the Hearing date, anyone present can speak:  you do not have to apply ahead of time.

If you have any feedback on this or any issue affecting the HH-BH community, or would like to become more actively involved in planning and development issues related to HH-BH, please send an email with your contact information to Jeff Marsh, our director of strategic planning, at strategic.planning@hh-bh.ca

Addresses:

Hounsfield Heights-Briar Hill Community Association: admin@hh-bh.ca 

Councillor Druh Farrell: calgary.ca/citycouncil/ward-7/Pages/WardDefault.aspx

All Councillors:  if you send out a mail to councillorweb@calgary.ca, it will be forwarded to all councillors

Mayor Nenshi:  themayor@calgary.ca

Public Submissions for the Council Hearing:  PublicSubmissions@calgary.ca