Secondary suites have been on the agenda at City Hall for some time now and on Monday councillors spent several hours debating changes to the regulations.

On Monday morning, an amendment to the Land Use Bylaw was proposed that would alter the requirement for secondary suites and backyard suites in low density areas.

The amendments are meant to simplify the application process for those who live in districts where suites can be legally developed and the changes include standardizing parcel width, depth and area requirements and increasing the maximum floor area for secondary and backyard suites.

“There was a rule that restricted the size of a basement suite to a certain size even though the basement was bigger, so you had to build a fake wall. So we are getting rid of that rule,” said Mayor Naheed Nenshi.

The amendments do not include provisions for adding suites to areas where they are currently not allowed.

Some opponents say they think so many small changes over time could mean that the suites will basically be approved without a full debate and public consultation.

“The secondary suite issue has come to council, I lost count after 40 times, and to me this is like putting lipstick on a pig, it keeps coming back, the same thing,” said Councillor Sean Chu.

“This is definitely a quiet way of going about it. They went through the process in June 2015 where they were up front about the changes, they got a lot of push-back on that, realized that they weren’t willing to make any compromises and so it’s a strategic approach for sure and probably they just wanted to minimize the exposure to this and get it done,” said Kevin Phillips from Wildwood Community Association.

Phillips says he thinks secondary suites should be an election issue.

“Absolutely, it’s affecting people’s lives,” said Phillips. “When you have a neighbour’s garage and it’s two stories and it looks into your backyard and you don’t feel comfortable going out in your backyard anymore that really affects your value of your quality of life and your quality of life in your own home, so it’s a very direct impact on people.”

Nenshi says he's getting tired of debating secondary suites but says he won't change his mind and that it's time his opponents changed theirs.

“Every other city in the country has done this. We seem to have this as a bete noir, it’s difficult for us to get through this situation but really council has to show some leadership and quite frankly those opposed to secondary suites are the ones who have to show leadership here,” said the mayor.

Council has debated secondary suites over 40 times, in one form or another, since Nenshi was first elected and little progress in streamlining the approval process has been made.

Currently, there are about 32,000 homes in Calgary with secondary suites

For more information on regulations for secondary suites, click HERE.