Photo by Curtis Galbraith.

By Curtis Galbraith

City Hall

Council approves bylaw changes for secondary suites, but removes garden suites idea

Jun 18, 2024 | 6:00 AM

City council has given final approval to Land Use Bylaw changes governing secondary suites.

Before approval was given at Monday’s meeting, council voted to remove a provision that would allow backyard suites, also known as garden suites. These would be stand-alone structures in a yard.

Mayor Jackie Clayton says council decided it wasn’t quite ready to approve this idea.

“Council explored the opportunity. It was a great piece of information for council to consider. At the end of the day, they were looking for more traditional secondary suites, being basement suites, duplexes, etcetera.”

Council also approved having administration gather more information on backyard suites and report back to a future committee meeting.

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Clayton says council isn’t saying no, just saying no for right now.

“It’s a great opportunity to explore. We know that people are always looking for opportunities. We know that the rental rates in our community leave us with less than one per cent vacancy.”

“We know that some people buy houses and can afford that house quite easily. We also know that a great number of people need that second income by having a basement suite or a secondary suite in their building.”

The new bylaw also requires at least one parking stall for a one or two bedroom secondary suite, ups the limit to allow eight suites within a 30 metre radius, and removes lot width requirement and size restrictions for secondary suites.

Council also approved changes to its Development Incentives and Grants program, including the addition of secondary suites and duplexes.

Mayor Jackie Clayton says council needed to do something after Grande Prairie was left out of an announcement on federal housing money, adding this should go well with incentives from Aquatera and the no GST idea for apartment buildings from the federal government.

“You add those to the conversations allowing potentially more secondary suites in certain areas of our community, as well as removing of development and building fees, you add those all up and now we become, hopefully, a little more appealing to those who are looking to build multi-family (housing) in our community.”

Council also approved folding $197,000 from its Economic Recovery Fund into this incentives program, giving it a total of just under $1.4 million.

Council approved setting aside half of that for a Municipal Fee Rebate Program. A committee had recommended that amount be $1 million.