We all love Edmonton and want to live in a financially prosperous community that can support strong public services and provide housing choices for all ages, wages, and stages of life.
The neighbourhoods that were build forty years ago, are likely going to look different forty years from now, especially as our city rapidly approaches a population of two million.
Edmonton is being recognized all around the world as a great place to live, work, and raise a family. Our population is booming and we continue to attract more and more people every year. If we want to maintain our affordability advantage, we have to continue to build for the future.
Report after report shows the top issues Canadians are facing is the housing and affordability crisis. As Edmonton wrestles with decades of unsustainable urban sprawl, building in, not out, has become an imperative. While almost all of us would agree with those sentiments in general, when change comes to our local neighbourhood, our block, or the property next door, it can naturally be raw and emotional.
But we know cities change, our families change, and communities change. What is your next home going to be? Or your children’s? Where will you live when you can no longer traverse stairs?
Edmonton has been on an infill journey for decades to legalize more housing choices in more redeveloping areas to meet the changing needs of our population while improving the use of municipal infrastructure. A number of small tweaks, such as allowing row housing, laneway housing, or lot splitting can contribute significantly to more housing choices.
While one individual infill unit may not be affordable on its own, there are major benefits on a systemic level, especially when you factor in transportation time and cost savings from location efficiency. Adding more housing options in desirable locations can have an outsized affordability impact.
For a deeper dive into how infill improves the financial prosperity of your city, I encourage you to watch this video from the talk we hosted last year with Chuck Marohn from Strongtowns: Building a strong town.
I wrote about our housing challenges more broadly including public, co-ops, and non-market housing at https://www.michaeljanz.ca/housing If you have other questions, please reach out anytime at [email protected]