The media is buzzing with stories of infill in the Edmonton area these days, whether it be changes to the capital cities strategy, or opposition to its subdivision policy. The city continues to evolve its strategy on infill development. For certain the city of Edmonton wants more infill development, as the cost of infrastructure and new developments put pressure on the city’s coffers. Over the last 28 years, I have been involved with infill development and have never witnessed so many infill builders nor so many changes in bylaws and regulations.
Overall, infill development is guided by the Edmonton’s Mature Neighbourhood Overlay (MNO). If you are considering building and your architect is not intimately familiar with the MNO then you need to get an architect who is – no ifs, ands, or buts, about it. Even someone like ourselves, that currently builds custom infill homes, has trouble staying on top of all the changes.
Consider that in the last couple of weeks the city has changed their requirements so that infill development will need to submit a landscaping plan and agree in writing to the construction site management.
The landscaping plan is in my opinion one of the better requirements. It encourages people to retain mature trees and landscaping wherever possible. In many cases I have seen fantastic, mature trees, that could have easily been retained, wiped away for no real good reason.
The construction site management plan requires the builder to agree to common sense practices that are already required by the city for a construction site. It just makes you, the builder/developer sign off that you are agreeing to them. This won’t prevent the oft cited excuse of “I wasn’t aware of that,” but it will mute it. The fact of the matter is, if you are building an infill home in the city, and you don’t seriously consider the impact on your neighbours, you will be hated and despised even before you live one day in your property.
Will there be unreasonable or frivolous complaints from neighbours who think any noise or disturbance to their serenity is unacceptable? Yes. But, there are good ways to handle these and your site management; cleanliness is one way, and there are many others.
Note: Liv Homes builds and consults on custom infill projects including assistance in lot aquisition
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