Cables in Edmonton row house driveway have neighbours scratching heads

An Edmonton city councillor says updated development rules should prevent a repeat of an awkward parking situation at a string of new row houses in the city’s Canora neighbourhood.

Two metal guy wires are mounted in the middle of the fourplex driveway at 152 Street and 105 Avenue, partially blocking two doors of a four-car garage. The wires have drawn the ire of nearby residents, who say they’re an aesthetic problem and safety concern.

While the row houses are currently up for sale, Epcor this week said there is now a work order placed for the wires to be moved. A spokesperson for the city said it would take “approximately 10 to 14” weeks to complete the design and construction work to move the lines.

Karl Holba, who takes his son to daycare in the area, said he drove past the property for several months before noticing the wires.

“I looked over and saw that and I’m like, ‘Are you kidding?’ ” he said. “Just mind blown that could get passed. Somebody’s going to hit it.”

He also wondered where the residents would pile snow on the lot.

‘I saw the bad examples’

“My first reaction was, ‘Oh, this certainly looks a little off,’ ” said Ward 1 Coun. Andrew Knack when a resident showed him photos of the driveway.

But he said new development permit rules should prevent a similar scenario. In October 2015, Edmonton city council approved a “huge list” of new permitting regulations for infill housing, such as a requirement that developers address “street furniture” like power poles in their plans.

“So before they get the permit they have to submit those plans with all the street furniture on it so the city can say, ‘Oh, you’ve got a power pole here, let’s figure out how we sort that out,’ ” he said.

“In many cases the city will make it a condition of the development permit for them to address the locations of the street furniture,” he said.

The Canora row-house garages were built before the new rules came into effect.

The city also brought in development completion permits to catch issues after construction.

Knack added that in the Canora case, Epcor and the developer came to an agreement in June to shift the anchors.

“Even though that one was done before the rules … changed, where the city would have identified that in advance, this is a case where the developer was in fact doing their due diligence and working with Epcor to come to a resolution.”

The city has been pushing for denser infill housing in traditionally single-family neighbourhoods since 2008. That year, council first approved a 10-year development plan calling on the city to “encourage” 25 per cent of new growth in mature neighbourhoods. The new development has encountered pushback from residents in some areas.

“I think it would have been safe to say even four, five years ago, the rules were far more loose,” Knack said. “Because (infill) has become more prominent, council over the course of this last four years has made so many changes based off all of that feedback.

“I live in a mature community, and I saw the bad examples,” he added. “I think a lot of the changes that have been made were made to help ensure things like that don’t happen going forward.”

First posted: Saturday, August 26, 2017 09:18 AM MDT | Updated: Saturday, August 26, 2017 09:31 AM MDT

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