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Calgary cool to suite changes

Alberta's largest city won't have vastly relaxed rules for secondary suites. Calgary city council voted in March only to study the issue more and do more to accommodate new suites in neighbourhoods where they are already permitted.

Alberta's largest city won't have vastly relaxed rules for secondary suites.

Calgary city council voted in March only to study the issue more and do more to accommodate new suites in neighbourhoods where they are already permitted.

It had been considering relaxing rules to make it far easier to accommodate permitted suites in single-family neighbourhoods around post-secondary schools and close to LRT stations.

The idea was championed by Mayor Naheed Nenshi to accommodate growth and a changing city, but the mayor, elected partly by a groundswell of young voter support back in October 2010, failed to convince the majority of council members that the time was right to hike densities through secondary suites.

"I deliberately said, as did some of my colleagues, 'Let's go for the touchdown.' Our council today decided they'd rather go for the first down," Nenshi said following the vote.

The reforms favoured by Nenshi had strong support with some groups, including the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, which supports the principle of suites in all residential neighbourhoods.


from Western Investor June 2011