City council will be wading back into the controversial secondary suite issue next month with the hope to smooth out some of the rules regarding rental properties in Calgary.

The city is planning to update the Land Use Bylaw with the goal to streamline the development of secondary and backyard suites.

Officials say that under the current regulations, land owners would need to request permission from the city to change the designation of their land use district before building a secondary suite.

Under the new bylaw, land owners would skip the step of asking for permission.

“Property owners would have the ability to develop a suite without City Council approval, but would still work with Planning and Development staff at The City of Calgary to obtain Development and Building Permits,” said Lisa Kahn, growth strategies coordinator with the City of Calgary in a release.

These changes are expected to affect approximately 170,000 land owners in Calgary.

Council is also seeking to make it a requirement that all existing and new suites are part of Calgary’s Suite Registry Program; a system that allows renters to look into the details of the property they are renting to make sure that it meets all safety standards.

The city says letters have been sent out about the details of the proposal as well as the upcoming hearing next month.

Land owners who are considering attending are invited to provide written submissions before March 5 so that they can present them at the council meeting on March 12.

In December, council voted in favour of a change to the secondary suite process that did away with a requirement for land owners to present their case to develop a unit directly to council.

Instead, those applications have been passed on to city administrators and neighbours opposed to the suites are given a period of time to submit their thoughts on the development.

Previously, all secondary suite applications were debated individually during council meetings, with the land owner presenting their case and answering questions from all opposed to the suite.

The process ended up consuming a lot of time during meetings, council said.

Further details on the proposed changes to the secondary suites bylaw are available on the city’s website.