Calgary city council voted 10-5 in favour of streamlining the secondary suite process Monday night.
It means people will no longer need to come to city council to plead their case for a secondary suite because the applications will be handled by city administration.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi called the vote a tremendous step forward.
“I am so very happy today that council has voted with an overwhelming majority to fix this process,” says Nenshi. “It’s saying to all of the people who live in secondary suites that we believe in you, that we believe that you deserve a little bit of dignity, a little bit of safety and every single citizen deserves to live in safe place.”
This is the third time in the last 17 months council has tried to restructure the process.
The new system will still give neighbours the chance to oppose secondary suites because after an application is filed it would be advertised and people in the area would be given time to come forward before it’s approved.
Calgary is one of the last cities in Canada to streamline the secondary suite process.
So far in 2017, council has heard 182 applications.
It’s expected the bylaw will take effect early in 2018.
