Crestwood residents fear 8-plex ‘sandwiches’ being fast-tracked before provincial deadline

People living in Edmonton’s Crestwood neighbourhood fear a huge infill development may be coming to their community.

It comes after numerous permits were submitted to the City of Edmonton to build new eightplexes in the established, desirable west-end neighbourhood near the North Saskatchewan River Valley.

It’s become a conversation some Crestwood residents say they’re having all too often: the prospect of another infill development near their single-family homes.

“This is something that is destroying neighbourhoods. It’s pitting neighbours against each other, creating a horrible cause-and-effect,” said Crestwood resident Terry Paranych, who is real estate agent and developer.

Paranych has experience with redeveloping properties in established neighbourhoods — he’s developing single-family residential infill for 20 years and says respecting the existing look and feel of an area is important to him.

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Earlier this year, he bought a lot slated to become an eightplex in the McQueen neighbourhood and instead is putting up a new, single-family home.

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“This style of infill does not fit in the middle of residential neighbourhood,” he said of large eightplexes.

“These kinds of developments — sure, on a corner lot on a busy road, an arterial road, leading into a community — to put four or six units, that makes sense. But to put them in the middle of the block… this is just an ideological play by a very undisciplined and poor city council.”

2023 zoning bylaw changes paved the way for housing redevelopment across much of Edmonton, in an effort to increase density, affordability, and manage population growth.

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Proponents of infill argue cities need to adapt to growing populations, and multiplexes offer a way to make existing neighbourhoods denser without adding to sprawl by building out into agricultural land.

Residents of established communities who are opposed have expressed concerns about property values, lack of parking, predatory developers, quality of builds, housing affordability and the neighbourhood’s look and feel changing.

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When it comes to real estate, Crestwood is a highly sought-after area where it isn’t uncommon for mid-century, single-family homes to sell for more than $1 million. It’s the seventh-most expensive neighbourhood in Edmonton, according to Honestdoor, with homes and condos selling 127 per cent above the Edmonton average.

A few areas in the historic Crestwood community have undergone some major changes in recent years, with older homes being knocked down and new ones — sometimes twice the size — going up.

When the province stepped in to the city’s infill debate last month, residents were relieved.

“We thought, wonderful, now we’re going to have the opportunity to work with the city, and the city working with the province. It’s not something that we wanted to have happen; we tried on numerous occasions, sitting down with the mayor and our councillors,” said community member Nancy Sorensen.

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On Oct. 8, the provincial government ordered the City of Edmonton to revert to the previous parameters for housing types, density and height, and to restore minimum on-site parking requirements in place before 2020.

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Edmonton city council was given three months, until Jan. 22, 2027, to comply.

The city said given the province’s directive and its service level timelines, it was expected (dependent on volume) that any complete applications received by Nov. 8 for development within the RS zone impacted by the changes would be able to be reviewed — put simply, make it before the cutoff to rollback the zoning rules.

But now, community members fear both builders and the city are racing against that clock — trying to approve multi-unit developments under the current rules before January, when the zoning bylaw goes back to what it used to be.

“The province had stepped in and mandated to go back to (before) the 2023 bylaws, and now we end up in this situation where we feel that these permits are being expedited,” said Crestwood resident Evan Wood.

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Crestwood residents say multiple permits were submitted to the city before the Nov. 8 deadline.

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One could see two homes on 143 Street near 97 Avenue becoming ‘eightplex sandwiches’ — single-family homes dwarfed by much larger multi-unit builds on either side of it.

Residents point to an existing sandwich example a few streets over that became a point of contention during the infill debate.

“Eight units anywhere on this block, we feel is unacceptable and just not practical for this area,” Wood said.

Area city councillor Reed Clarke says he’s been in touch with community members over this development.

“I totally get their concerns and those mid-block large unit developments, I’ve always had an issue with. I think I’ve been pretty clear on that since the beginning,” said Clarke.

The ward Nakota Isga councillor says no permits have been approved on the street in question so far and said city administration assured him no permits are being fast-tracked.

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“That timeline is not being sped up, was the understanding I got,” Clarke said.

“It’s still a pretty detailed process. I think even if they wanted to speed up, they need more resources and time — and those two things they don’t really have.”

While nothing is confirmed yet, residents say they will take action to prevent more ‘eightplex sandwiches’ if necessary.

“We’re hopeful that we can go down the appeal route, and get some sort of favourable result for us,” Wood said.