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Lorne Gunter: Edmonton infill even worse with advent of rooms for rent

Council clings to the idea that no matter how unpopular these mid-block developments are, they are necessary so our city doesn’t increase its “footprint.”

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This makes infill even worse, if that’s possible.

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Turns out at least some of the eight-plexes the city is so obsessed with shoving into the middle of residential blocks are being used as flop houses where single rooms are rented by the week, by the day, even by the hour.

Imagine such a development next door to your home.

You’ve lived in your home 40 years, kept it neat and attractive. Your neighbours have done the same.

Now a couple who lived next door for decades have downsized or moved into assisted living. A developer bought their house and got rubber-stamp approval for an eight-plex from a zealous city administration.

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That’s bad enough — you’re going to be staring at a giant, monolithic wall on one side of your property. There will be at least a dozen additional cars choking your front street, not to mention the comings and going of eight more singles, couples or families.

It might be even worse than that.

After reports of infills being used as rooming houses and short-term rentals (such as Airbnb) were aired by Global News, neighbours of an eight-plex going up in the southside neighbourhood of McKernan told of touring the monstrosity while it was under construction and discovering not eight units by 21 rooms, each with their own sinks and toilets and separate number-pad locks.

Having to put up with these people next door is almost certainly the exact opposite of how you envisioned enjoying your property. A nice, sunny afternoon on your deck can now be witnessed by everyone living on the second and third floor of the eight-plex.

Not to mention how it has brought down the value of your property.

And the policy is being forced on you by a city council and administration that won’t listen to your concerns or even think through the consequences of their decisions.

It was obvious right from the start some of these eight-plexes were going to be used for short-term rentals.

A developer buys an expensive lot, builds an eight-plex on it, then discover no one wants to buy or rent there, especially at inflated prices and where there is no room for their cars.

But the developers have to recoup their investment somehow, so they start letting their rooms for four-bits (metaphorically) like the old Roger Miller song, King of the Road.

Council clings to the idea that no matter how unpopular these mid-block developments are, they are necessary so our city doesn’t increase its “footprint” as it grows to perhaps two million residents.

There is also an element of social engineering in their thinking. The lefty majority on council believe it’s unjust that some people can live in more posh neighbourhoods, so they are pushing for construction of smaller, more-affordable units in ritzy addresses to erase the inequality.

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But renters quickly realize they can rent much larger units elsewhere for the same price and bypass the infills.

Which leaves the developers with few options but to turn their developments into flop houses and what used to be called houses of ill repute.

Mayor Andrew Knack told Postmedia hourly rentals are not acceptable and that the city is moving to amend regulations around lodging houses.

“That’s not an appropriate use of a space like that,” he said of ultra-short rentals. “We know our administration is already doing enforcement on that.”

Administration is due back with a new policy on short-term rentals of infills by late June. But talk about locking the barn door after the horse is gone.

Council should have seen this is a natural consequence of its rush to infill, but it didn’t and still doesn’t.

At what point does council fess up to the disaster it’s created and stop?

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