LDA21-0484 Central McDougall RA7 Rezoning

Engagement has concluded

***This engagement has concluded and a What We Heard Report will be made available here when completed.***

Thank you for participating in engagement activities for this rezoning application.

This page is to help you find out more information about the proposed rezoning and tell us what you think. Please review the information on this page and share your thoughts on the proposed rezoning and plan amendment before the end of the day on February 21, 2022.

We will use any feedback that you share to ensure our review of the application considers local context, and will be summarized in our report to City Council so they are aware of public opinion before making a decision at Public Hearing.

This application is for a standard zone and the applicant is not required to provide detailed drawings at this time. If the rezoning is approved by City Council, the next step is to submit an application for a Development Permit, including detailed building plans.


Proposed Rezoning Details

The City has received an application to rezone the property at 11018 108 Street NW in the northwest corner of the Central McDougall Neighbourhood from
(RF1) Single Detached Residential Zone to (RA7) Low Rise Apartment Zone.

If approved, the proposed RA7 Zone would allow for the development of a low-rise apartment with a maximum height of 16.0 metres (approximately 4 storeys) with limited commercial opportunities at ground level, such as, but not limited to, child care services, general retail stores, and specialty food services. The applicant intends to build a residential apartment building with no commercial component.

The Mature Neighbourhood Overlay (MNO) currently applies to the property. This limits building height to 8.9 metres (approximately 2 ½ storeys) and requires that the front setback is generally consistent with adjacent properties. The MNO will not apply to the proposed RA7 Zone.

The rezoning area contains one, approximately 697 square meter (7,502 ft2) parcel that is currently occupied by a single detached home. It’s located within one block of 109 Street NW and 111 Avenue NW and is within walking distance to John A. McDougall school and the Kingsway/Royal Alex LRT station.

The property’s existing RF1 Zone allows for the redevelopment of a new single detached house and other forms of small-scale housing such as secondary suites, garden suites, semi-detached housing, and duplex housing. View a comparison of key development regulations between the current RF1 Zone and proposed RA7 Zone.


Proposed Plan Amendment Details 

The Central McDougall/Queen Mary Park Area Redevelopment Plan (ARP) is in effect for this area. The plan states that only 8 per cent of the remaining neighbourhood housing units are single detached or duplex housing. It further identifies the subject site as forming part of the “Neighbourhood Core”, an area intended to protect the remaining single housing stock.

The application includes proposed changes to the ARP to amend current policies that do not support development of this intensity at this location. The following amendment to the ARP is proposed: revise Map 5 to reflect the proposed rezoning of the site from RF1 to RA7.

Zoning regulates what types of buildings are allowed on a site (eg. residential or commercial) and the basic size and shape of those buildings. It does not control who can live or work in the buildings or whether the property is rented or owned. Please see sidebar for more information on what factors are considered when processing rezoning applications and how feedback will be used.

***This engagement has concluded and a What We Heard Report will be made available here when completed.***

Thank you for participating in engagement activities for this rezoning application.

This page is to help you find out more information about the proposed rezoning and tell us what you think. Please review the information on this page and share your thoughts on the proposed rezoning and plan amendment before the end of the day on February 21, 2022.

We will use any feedback that you share to ensure our review of the application considers local context, and will be summarized in our report to City Council so they are aware of public opinion before making a decision at Public Hearing.

This application is for a standard zone and the applicant is not required to provide detailed drawings at this time. If the rezoning is approved by City Council, the next step is to submit an application for a Development Permit, including detailed building plans.


Proposed Rezoning Details

The City has received an application to rezone the property at 11018 108 Street NW in the northwest corner of the Central McDougall Neighbourhood from
(RF1) Single Detached Residential Zone to (RA7) Low Rise Apartment Zone.

If approved, the proposed RA7 Zone would allow for the development of a low-rise apartment with a maximum height of 16.0 metres (approximately 4 storeys) with limited commercial opportunities at ground level, such as, but not limited to, child care services, general retail stores, and specialty food services. The applicant intends to build a residential apartment building with no commercial component.

The Mature Neighbourhood Overlay (MNO) currently applies to the property. This limits building height to 8.9 metres (approximately 2 ½ storeys) and requires that the front setback is generally consistent with adjacent properties. The MNO will not apply to the proposed RA7 Zone.

The rezoning area contains one, approximately 697 square meter (7,502 ft2) parcel that is currently occupied by a single detached home. It’s located within one block of 109 Street NW and 111 Avenue NW and is within walking distance to John A. McDougall school and the Kingsway/Royal Alex LRT station.

The property’s existing RF1 Zone allows for the redevelopment of a new single detached house and other forms of small-scale housing such as secondary suites, garden suites, semi-detached housing, and duplex housing. View a comparison of key development regulations between the current RF1 Zone and proposed RA7 Zone.


Proposed Plan Amendment Details 

The Central McDougall/Queen Mary Park Area Redevelopment Plan (ARP) is in effect for this area. The plan states that only 8 per cent of the remaining neighbourhood housing units are single detached or duplex housing. It further identifies the subject site as forming part of the “Neighbourhood Core”, an area intended to protect the remaining single housing stock.

The application includes proposed changes to the ARP to amend current policies that do not support development of this intensity at this location. The following amendment to the ARP is proposed: revise Map 5 to reflect the proposed rezoning of the site from RF1 to RA7.

Zoning regulates what types of buildings are allowed on a site (eg. residential or commercial) and the basic size and shape of those buildings. It does not control who can live or work in the buildings or whether the property is rented or owned. Please see sidebar for more information on what factors are considered when processing rezoning applications and how feedback will be used.

Tell Us What You Think Of The Application

Please let us know what you like and what could be better about this application. What should Council know as they decide whether or not to approve the rezoning? Other people that visit this part of the site will be able to see your comments.

Please note you must be registered on Engaged Edmonton in order to provide feedback.  However, only your username will be displayed publicly, all other information is kept confidential.  We use this information to distinguish between feedback received from the neighbouring/local area residents and other interested stakeholders.  All comments go through a moderation process, and may take up to 1-2 hours to publicly appear on the website.

If you are unable to provide feedback on this site, you may also provide feedback to the Project Planner directly via the contact information under the "who's listening" section of the page.   Please refrain from commenting on the site, and providing a duplicate comment to the planner.  It is not necessary to do both in order for feedback to be captured.

Engagement has concluded

CLOSED: This discussion has concluded.

This sounds like it supports the city plan and would improve urban density in a core area neighbourhood. If shot down, redisents of the neighbourhood should have to pay a "refusal to densify" tax levy to make up for the lost tax revenue due to the nimbyism.

Abud about 2 years ago

We strongly oppose this application. We moved into this community with the express intention to settle down, start our small family and contribute to the charm of this community. However if this property is allowed to rezone by amending the ARP, this effectively signals the end of the neighbourhood core. The ARP was intended to preserve the remaining stock of detached homes and the neighbourhood core. At what percentage of detached homes would still be considered a neighbourhood core? The current 8% or 5%? If this property is allowed to rezone, it might as well be 0% due to the amendment and precedent this would cause for similar future developments.

Apartments are important, however shoehorning one into this unsuitable space would be impractical and would look odd and this community is already saturated by apartment buildings and over time they seem to take away from the quality and sustainability of the neighbourhood. This reason, along with other negatives another apartment building would bring really is a step towards the degradation and not improvement of the community.

Please maintain our community. With a growing Edmonton, Central McDougall's neighbourhood core can be a vibrant community for families.

Cara M about 2 years ago

We do not support this rezoning. I have young family and I would prefer this location to be as a single detached residential zone.

nigar_khan about 2 years ago

We do NOT support is development! My family and I have lived in this community for over 15 years and are astounded and the lack of support from city planning to make Central McDougall a sustainable safe community. This development is another inappropriate proposal for the community and has the potential to further create undesirable issues. City planning has failed in creating sustainable safe communities in downtown Edmonton and must remember that these communities are not dumping grounds for all the cities challenges and the whims of opportunist developers that leave the communities with issues to be dealt with.

irene Washylk about 2 years ago

I totally oppose this application to change the zoning of this property.

Ron Sadoay about 2 years ago

The ARP is clear less than 8% of the housing stock is family housing. Further, there is a caveat on the remaining residential lots meaning all development is limited to one single family home. The community is open to work with the city and caveat holder to adapt the caveat to build family friendly missing middle housing including row housing and skinny homes on the neighborhood core to add more ground oriented family housing near our elementary school. RA7 is an apartment zone and 95% of the units in our community are already apartment units which we don’t need more of, especially at the expense of family oriented houses. Approving this application would not pass a good governance test, it does not help our community become a more mixed demographic and mixed income community that can support its local businesses or a sustainable and connected community where people can be born, have a family, and grow old because it lacks the correct mix of Housing to do so. More apartments in this location don’t help maintain school viability. Further there is an abundance of land zone’s for apartment high rises in the ICE district. In addition, apartment development in the ARP Neighborhood Core agravates our incredibly high transience rate. 85% off residence leave within 5 years. This is startling compared to the city average or any healthy community in Edmonton. High transiency is associated with lower community safety and connectedness and higher crime and disorder, key attributes of quality of life. Due to the city rezoning large swaths of Central McDougall and Queen Mary Park to “rental zones” in the 1970’s the community has seen dramatically higher crime rates than the city average 4x those of Oliver, 5x Westmount, 8x Glenora. Obviously this has a significant cost to the city to manage and a negative impact on residents physically, financially and emotionally. Property values have declined from the 1970’s when they were ~10% above city average to now when apartments are 53% ($105,000 vs $196,000) below city average and single detached are 25% ($359,000 vs $478,000) below average. Clearly the over concentration of apartments has not served Central McDougall and should not be further considered in the neighborhood core. Adding further concentration of housing already in abundance at the expense of family housing is not a net benefit to our neighborhood or the city.

Michael Brown about 2 years ago