I was able to catch the discussion around the information item from the Municipal Planning Commission regarding garden/granny/garage suites (PDF file) at City Council this evening (February 8, 2010).

Despite the conclusions of some, community consultation over the process has indicated “broad support” for the idea of garden/granny suites, though many of those in support want to see additional clarification of the governing guidelines.

Two speakers presented on the issue (a gentleman I did not catch the name of and Mark Bobins, president Nutana Comm. Assoc.). Mark Bobins in particular put forward a good argument in favour of garden suites but with the caveat that the City undertake a broader development of an urban densification/infill policy. Mr. Bobins went further to suggest that the policy include provisions that ensure any garden suites are designed to conform with the ‘character’ of existing neighbourhoods.

In questioning the administration, Councillor Penner raised concerns that the administration would move ahead with demonstration suites before conducting further consultation and policy development. His concerns were alleviated with the admission that more consultation would indeed be undertaken and that the building of the proposed demonstration suites was not yet decided given the costs involved.

Councillor Paulsen raised concerns regarding the idea of building demonstration suites without actually hooking them up to city services, she suggested that a demonstration would be better if it was actually permanent. She raised additional concern about the policy around parking and wants to ensure that it is fully under control before tensions arise.

Councillor Clark re-iterated the concerns raised by Mr. Bobins around the need to better explore how the city could regulate the design and character of the garden suites.

The Municipal Planning Commission representative made some excellent points regarding garden suites. First and foremost, he dispelled the notion that garden/granny suites would create a glut of construction the day after they were made legal. It was indicated that unsolicited proposals (five to date, mainly from builders) were pegging construction costs at approximately $100,000, not a small amount of change. Additionally, any suites (if given the go ahead) would be regulated on number of occupants and other regulations currently used for secondary suites. In regards to design guidelines, he was not certain that the City has the capacity to regulate architecture (colour, shape, materials used, etc…), though there might be some leeway to control concerns around height, size, etc… through the discretionary use process (discretionary use meaning that each and every garden suite proposal would have to come before council).