On Monday, March 7th, City Council met and debated about the fate of secondary suites in Calgary. Given that the process is complicated, it is no wonder that the debate was extensive with several motions, referrals, and amendments. As such, we thought it would be helpful to have a quick guide to the decisions. We don’t want to rehash our position on suites; it is well documented through our past posts so please take a look or contact VCC if you’d like more on our views of the subject.

Before we dive right into the summary of decisions from the secondary suite debate, here are a couple things that we found helpful to know. Suites in Calgary are currently only allowed in certain neighborhoods as discretionary use. In other neighbourhoods they are not allowed at all or require a Land Use Amendment before starting the discretionary use process.

Discretionary use means that both a development permit and a building permit are required. Getting a development permit means going through a Community Association and neighbours before going to the city for approval.

Even though it is not currently an option for Calgarians, suites could be allowed through permitted use, which means that only a building permit is required. A building permit goes straight to the city for approval.

The term secondary suite refers to suites created in the home (such as a basement suite) or as a detached unit, often referred to as a garden suite.

Here is what will happen with secondary suites based on the March 7th vote:

- for neighbourhoods where secondary suites are allowed as a discretionary use, a bylaw amendment will be prepared to change suites in the home to permitted use .

- administration will investigate allowing secondary suites in all land use districts, specifically considering the development of a new enforcement approach to focus on suites that are unsafe or otherwise non-compliant. (Will be brought forward in December 2011 to the SPC on Land Use, Planning and Transportation Committee)

-recommendations for the Alberta Building Code.

-a report will be prepared on the cost of community by community consultation for rezoning in areas around transit and post-secondary schools to allow discretionary use suites.

Here is what will stay the same:

-detached forms of secondary suites will remain discretionary use in areas zoned for suites.

Here is what will not happen:

-further study by administration on the feasibility of a business license system to enforce owner-occupancy and other neighbourhood standards.

-a bylaw amendment to allow secondary suites, attached and detached, as discretionary use within a 2.5 km radius of Mount Royal University, SAIT, ACAD, Bow Valley College and the University of Calgary.

-a bylaw amendment to allow secondary suites, attached and detached, as discretionary use within 400M of an LRT station.