Winnipeg’s property committee approved a raft of changes to the city’s zoning rules on Thursday, making it easier to build duplexes and triplexes, among other amendments meant to increase density in mature neighbourhoods.
The changes are part of a total overhaul of the city’s land use regulations, part of an effort to speed up housing construction.
It marks the second time this year the city has introduced changes to its development policies. Earlier this year, the city exempted a number of minor construction projects from the need to obtain permits, including fences, decks, hot tubs and garages.
On Thursday, the committee held a public hearing before voting on the package of reforms, which largely implement changes city council has already directed city staff to make, through policies like the infill housing guidelines.
“This time … we’re going a little deeper in the zoning bylaw and we’re looking at townhomes, we’re looking at patios, and we’re looking at parking and public washrooms,” said committee chair Coun. Sherri Rollins (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry) in an interview.
The rapid zoning bylaw amendments will allow duplexes as a conditional use in mature neighbourhoods zoned as single-family residential, and triplexes in areas zoned as R2.
The city defines mature neighbourhoods as those built before 1950.
Detached secondary suites, commonly referred to as “granny” suites, will be permitted without a conditional use permit.
The city will also reduce the minimum number of parking stalls multifamily residential buildings must have, and eliminate parking minimums on some stretches of Portage Avenue and Pembina Highway.
It will also make it easier for restaurants and bars to build patios, and exempt public washrooms from downtown height minimums and permit them as accessory uses.
“We’re intending to do more to really rewrite the zoning bylaw for this time in Winnipeg’s history, a time where we’re experiencing a housing crisis, a time where multiple governments are really demanding that municipalities do more,” Rollins said.
The city agreed to make the changes in exchange for $122 million from the federal government’s Housing Accelerator Fund.
Mixed reactions from residents
Several people who came to the hearing spoke positively about the reforms.
“I support the changes, because they start opening up the opportunity to have more housing within our existing established neighbourhoods, which is exactly what we need,” said Brian Pincott.
Others, like Eric Loewen, worried about the impact some of the changes would have on the character of older neighbourhoods.
Later this year, the city will discuss further amendments to allow up to four units per lot citywide, and up to four storeys within 800 metres of a frequent transit route, as of right, meaning without the need for a public hearing.
“As a resident of River Heights, it’s a terrifying proposition that these massive structures can be placed anywhere in my block in River Heights … without restriction and without any opposition allowed from directly impacted neighbours,” Loewen told the committee.
“This is not streamlined, this is crushing any dissent.”
Coun. John Orlikow represents the River Heights-Fort Garry ward. He says he has heard from many residents who are “nervous” about the coming changes. In an interview, he would like to see the city apply the new rules to recently built neighbourhoods as well.
Coun. Brian Mayes (St. Vital) has been outspoken in his criticism of some of the proposed zoning reforms, but says he supports most of the changes the committee approved on Thursday.
“I continue to have concerns about what’s coming in the fall, but I think today it’s really staff trying to implement what we told them to do and it’ll be good,” he said in an interview.
Council still needs to approve the zoning changes.