Calgary will consider an 18-month freeze on secondary suite closure orders, although city planners, lawyers and the councillor who pitched the freeze don’t agree on what “amnesty” or “relaxation” mean.
Inspectors order the closure of a few hundred basement and backyard suites every year because the homes are in zones where suites aren’t allowed — many of them in Coun. Andre Chabot’s east-end ward.
His motion at council Monday proposed giving all suite owners 18 months to bring legal or illegal suites into compliance, followed by a period of more aggressive enforcement against those who aren’t playing by the rules.
The proposal comes amid renewed efforts by the planning department and a minority of councillors to end the many regulatory hurdles faced by homeowners who want to create safe affordable housing units during Calgary’s persistent rental crunch.
Rollin Stanley, the city’s planning general manager, said Calgary can sometimes look the other way when there are zoning violations, but not when there are safety code problems.
“If we know there’s an unsafe suite, we take action. We have to,” he said.
Stanley also reasoned that Calgary already offers an amnesty of sorts by waiving the rezoning fees for homeowners who want to create basement dwellings in no-suite districts.
Evan Woolley and Druh Farrell, both inner-city councillors who want suite zoning citywide (while Chabot doesn’t), said they were worried tougher action would leave many suite tenants homeless.
A study of the city’s legal options on lesser enforcement of existing rules will come to a future session of council’s suite enforcement committee, which Chabot sits on.
By Jason Markusoff, Calgary Herald
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