Saskatoon council passes Housing Accelerator Fund zoning changes

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Saskatoon city council on Friday passed a contentious package of zoning and land use changes set as conditions for the city to receive $41 million in federal cash to help address the city’s tight housing stock and promote affordable housing.

Mayor Charlie Clark said the discussion around Saskatoon’s participation in the federal Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) has been “one of the biggest tests” he’s seen in the 18 years since he first joined the council as a city councillor.

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He lamented that the HAF issue seemed to pit homeowners against people in need of housing but insisted “we are not going to get a better deal if we say no” and warned against “flushing $40 million down the drain” as he urged his council colleagues to support the changes.

Ward 6 Coun. Cynthia Block opposed HAF in the process leading up to Thursday’s vote, despite being a longtime booster of promoting infill development.

Block said prior to voting that she had changed her position in light of what she viewed as significant risks of rejecting the deal with the feds; these included potentially losing the HAF money, $35 million of which is to be used to subsidize local organizations building affordable housing units, and the possibility of jeopardizing federal contributions on future infrastructure and transit projects.

“People deserve to have a home, they deserve to have a roof over their heads,” Block said, adding she worried efforts to renegotiate could force Saskatoon to make even larger concessions on zoning in exchange for the federal money.

Ward 5 Coun. Randy Donauer, Ward 10 Coun. Zach Jeffries, Ward 1 Coun. Darren Hill and Ward 9 Coun. Bev Dubois opposed the changes.

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“If the federal government has money for affordable housing and homelessness, they should send it,” Donauer said, criticizing Ottawa’s approach tying the funds to the city’s willingness to make zoning concessions to promote higher-density properties.

Dubois said before her vote that “it didn’t sit right” with her to be “held ransom” by the federal government. She added she believes the feds would be willing to renegotiate with Saskatoon, while stating “new folks being allowed into our country” by the federal government were contributing to the housing shortage.

Ward 4 Coun. Troy Davies was absent for Friday’s vote. He had left Thursday’s session to attend his daughter’s high school graduation; rules for public hearings forbid council members from voting unless they can be briefed within 10 minutes on any portions they missed.

Council came into the second day of HAF hearings on Friday with many questions for city staff, having spent Thursday in a nearly 12-hour session devoted to hearing from some 49 speakers, including individual residents and representatives from the development industry, landlords, and community groups.

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Lesley Anderson, the city’s director of planning and development, fielded the bulk of Friday’s questions from council members; city manager Jeff Jorgenson handled a few inquiries alongside the city’s solicitor and government relations officer.

Many of the council questions surrounded the exact nature of the changes the city would agree to under HAF.

Changes required for the federal money include allowing fourplexes to be built on all residential lots. Buildings up to six storeys will be allowed within 250 metres of identified transit corridors, and buildings up to four storeys are to be allowed within 800 metres of the corridors, but only on properties located on higher-traffic arterial and collector streets.

Council heard the federal government sought to impose a blanket policy of allowing four storeys within the entire 800-metre zone around transit corridors; taller buildings within 250 metres with more limited four-storey development were compromises negotiated by city staff.

Mayor Charlie Clark joined in answering questions about the negotiations between city staff and the feds.

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Such arrangements are typically worked out between city staff and their counterparts in the federal bureaucracy. Council heard the HAF talks were “abnormal,” with federal Housing Minister Sean Fraser’s office contacting the mayor’s office directly, while city officials were negotiating with a team from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

Clark noted Saskatoon’s negotiating position “started to fall away” as other Prairie cities like Winnipeg and Regina struck HAF-related deals permitting taller buildings near transit.

Clark shared a message received this week from Fraser’s office indicating a June 30 deadline to pass the changes was firm. Rejecting the proposal would then require the city to put forward a plan to comply with its HAF commitments or lose the money.

Council also heard an extension to Sept. 30 could be possible, but that anything beyond this risked Saskatoon being “out of the pool” for the funds.

Beyond the potential of losing the HAF money, council learned federal officials have indicated future infrastructure and transit funds will be tied to the city allowing higher-density housing.

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With a federal election approaching, council questioned city staff on housing plans articulated by the Conservative Opposition.

Council heard the Conservatives haven’t specified zoning changes, but have announced their intention to also link cities’ infrastructure funding to improved rates of homebuilding and density should they form government.

The questioning for city officials also included efforts to address inquiries raised frequently by members of the public. These included concerns around infrastructure capacity and who would pay for things like sewer upgrades that could be needed with higher-density infill.

Council heard infill under the new guidelines is not expected to occur fast enough to over-tax sewer, water and other infrastructure. Jorgenson noted all these systems are regularly evaluated and upgrades are performed as capacity needs grow.

Costs of these upgrades are currently spread among all city ratepayers. There are mechanisms to require infill developers to pay for upgrades in some situations if they are subdividing lots.

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Council heard further that HAF would not prevent the city from imposing an infill development levy should such projects come to unduly burden city infrastructure. Anderson indicated the city retains power under the development permitting process to deny building permits to projects in situations where there is not sufficient infrastructure capacity.

Council heard there will also still be regulations such as  those requiring “step-backs” – tiering of higher levels on buildings so four or six-storey structures don’t loom quite as large over neighbours.

A few speakers took opportunities as council moved through five votes required to finalize the changes. While council had heard Thursday from a fairly even split of supporters and those opposed to the HAF deal, Friday’s handful of speakers all implored council not to proceed.

“This shouldn’t happen at all that you can literally rip people’s neighbourhoods right out from underneath them,” Heather Ryan said, while relaying her concerns for the Greystone Heights neighbourhood.

Patricia Warwick, a former city solicitor who resigned in 2019 after a career with the city that began in 1994, told council she and her husband were among the city’s many residents who had invested “basically our life savings” into properties in Saskatoon, while accusing council of ceding control of local planning to Ottawa.

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“Here you are making the biggest zoning change in the history of Saskatoon for 40 million bucks because ‘there’s nothing else we can do.’ Of course there’s something you can do:  You can say no and come up with your own plan.”.

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