Edmonton grapples with luring families to live in city core

View of the back of condo where there is a patio area. The families chose to live in old neighbourhood rather than go to the suburbs. Strathcona Eco-House has family size units, outdoor access and green design and unique features at 106 St. and 78 Ave.

EDMONTON - From her front window, three-year-old Sophia can see the playground where she meets buddies in her older Edmonton neighbourhood.

With Whyte Avenue shops a few blocks away, her parents Daniel and Sonya rarely need to use a car and Daniel’s job as a nanotech researcher is just a 12-minute bike ride to the university campus.

While many young families head to the suburbs, the Salamons always wanted to live centrally in a walkable, older community.

The key was finding family friendly housing — no easy task these days as adult-only buildings and highrises with small apartments push their way into mature neighbourhoods.

The Salamons found the perfect spot in Eco-House, a 15-unit condo on 78th Avenue near a school. With a kid friendly design and green geo-thermal energy, this building is a rare specimen in older Edmonton.

If the city is serious, as it claims to be, about reviving older neighbourhoods and slowing urban sprawl, it has to find a way to get more family friendly housing for people like the Salamons in central Edmonton, says Bev Zubot, planning adviser with Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues.

There’s no time to lose, she says, given declining population in many of these older communities where highrises cater mostly to empty nesters and young professionals.

That’s why the EFCL is pushing the city to move past lofty talk about sustainable communities and into action.

“The mature neighbourhoods are perfect for families with all the parks, pools and schools,” she says. “All we have to do is get children back into them.”

“There’s pressure to get onto this now because once those adult-only buildings are there, it’s too late to turn it back. This is a huge issue.”

The Salamons knew they would have to make a trade off to stay central rather than go to the suburbs.

“We’ve chosen smaller size for better location,” says Daniel.

The family saves the cost of the long daily commute and “there’s a big time saving too,” he adds.

At Eco-House, the Salamons have a ground floor unit, one of seven with small front yards so children can scoot outside. Theirs is 1,200 square feet, with two bedrooms and a study. Larger units are 1,400 sq. ft.

The four-storey building is built around a courtyard with rubber-tire matting that provides a safe play space for kids and a great place for neighbours to get together.

The city’s municipal plan calls for 25 per cent of the city’s growth to occur in mature neighbourhoods, in an effort to slow down suburban sprawl.

Zubot says that plan to reduce suburban sprawl won’t work unless families are encouraged to move into older neighbourhoods and some schools must stay open to make that happen.

The city currently defines family friendly housing as two-bedroom suites on the first two floors of a highrise.

The EFCL took proposals to the city this summer for a broader definition. The federation hopes the city will come up with incentives to get housing with these enhanced family-friendly amenities built.

Townhouses or buildings the size of Eco House are ideal for families, but it’s time to get highrises to adapt too, says Zubot.

To entice families, EFCL wants to see more three-bedroom units, a common play space for kids on private land near the building, front doors on to the street where possible, good soundproofing and extra storage space in the units.

There must also be more than just a few token larger apartments in a highrise, Zubot says.“What family oriented person wants to buy into a building with a few bigger units tacked onto a place full of one bedroom apartment?”

The city will report back in March on whether it will accept any of those recommendations, modelled partly on Vancouver’s successful 1992 family housing guidelines.

Jeff Price, city director of development, says the city agrees with EFCL that healthy communities contain all age groups.

But it’s slow-going to bring back families, he says, given market demand for suburban housing.

The city, under its mature neighbourhood policy, now has a mandate to negotiate a minimum of 25 per cent family-oriented units in infill housing in older communities. But that guideline applies only to large residential projects which need direct city approval.

About 11 new major projects approved since 2008 have some element of family housing in older neighbourhoods, he says.

Some are row housing projects on the south side of the river in Belgravia.

That also includes several highrise projects, for instance, in old Glenora. Four towers (15 to 21 storeys) are proposed at 142 Street and Stony Plain Road, says Price. The developer will build 30 family units at the base of the towers and 70 two-bedroom units, out of total of 400. There are schools within walking distance of the project.

Another nearby highrise development proposed at Clifton Place (four towers) will have 30 family units out of 250.

As Price notes, the city can’t guarantee who will actually move into these units. That’s up to the market.

Moreover, the city has no plan to require family friendly housing in the standard zoning bylaw under which most apartments are built.

That would be interfering with market conditions, he said.

“Developers will build what the market is looking for,” says Price.

Most developers aren’t convinced the market is there for families in older central communities, given the plentiful supply of cheaper housing in the suburbs.