View over Toronto toward downtown. Photo by Michael Monastyrskyj.

A garden once thrived at the corner of 89th Street and 92nd Avenue in Edmonton. Every spring residents of the city’s Strathearn neighbourhood planted root vegetables in long rows and grew tomatoes out of old tires while rain barrels collected water. Every fall the community gathered to share in the bounty.

Last year the garden was uprooted. The lot the garden stood on was sold for almost $600,000. Immediately after the sale local developer Platinum Living tore up the earth and began construction on an eight-unit row house. These built-to-rent homes are set to hit the market this summer and if Platinum Living’s other builds are any indication, they are going to cost well over market averages.

Built at the whim of the landowner, without public debate or deliberation at city council, this development breezed through the approval process thanks to an extended campaign by law makers at all levels of government to deregulate municipal zoning.

For the last 18 months the federal government has been incentivizing city councils across the country to restructure their zoning bylaws. In exchange for federal dollars, cities are giving developers free reign to build multi-unit housing in almost any residential neighbourhood. Then-Housing Minister Sean Fraser described these efforts in rosy terms: “We have been working directly with communities across the country to dramatically change how homes are built […] to ensure that people have the homes they need at prices they can afford.” At a glance, it may be tempting to agree with Mr. Fraser that zoning reform represents a positive change.

It’s a fact that one type of home has dominated the urban landscape. Municipal bylaws across Canada have granted a near-monopoly to single-family detached housing in nearly all our major cities. In Toronto, over 60 percent of the city is zoned exclusively for single-family homes. In Edmonton and Calgary that number is closer to 70 percent. In Vancouver, single-family detached housing puts a roof over the head of 15 percent of the city’s population, while it gobbles up........

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