March 21, 2022
City of Edmonton
1 Sir Winston Churchill Square
Edmonton AB, T5J 2R7
RE: March 25, 2022 Utility Committee Item 6.2, Multi-Unit Strategy - Alternative Business Model
To Members of Utility Committee:
The Infill Development in Edmonton Association (IDEA) is an educational and advocacy nonprofit, non-partisan association that represents over 180 city builders and city shapers. Our purpose is to drive change toward people-centred communities within Edmonton’s mature neighbourhoods. The vast majority of our members are small and local businesses, passionate about executing Council’s City Plan goals.
We are excited to see proposed options for achieving our 25-year goals with a 90 percent waste diversion target across all sectors. IDEA’s values center around building a sustainable City and we believe that waste management plays a large role in achieving those goals.
Background
In 2019 City Council decided to move away from collecting any commercial waste in the City of Edmonton. At that time IDEA was not involved in the conversation around the effects of that change on mixed-use and small multi-unit sites. The City currently collects all residential waste and no commercial waste.
Context and Concerns
City Plan contains policy to support mixed use development in nodes and corridors throughout the City, and the Zoning Bylaw Renewal team is currently creating mixed-use zones to implement City Plan policy.
However, our current waste and transportation standards present an operational barrier to facilitating mixed-use and multi-unit development on small and medium sized infill sites.
Mixed-use buildings contain both residential and commercial uses. Because of the City’s waste pick-up standards, such buildings require two separate waste pick-up operations: bins/carts and pick-up schedule for the residential use (which the City picks up) and separate bins and pick-up schedule for the commercial use (which a private contractor picks up). This creates both an operational challenge—to coordinate separate pick-up schedules—as well as a site planning challenge, with additional land that must be set aside for waste storage, rather than being used for housing or amenities. This is an unnecessary barrier for those who are looking to build in on small lots in nodes and corridors in alignment with City Plan.
Some of Edmonton’s small and medium-sized multi-unit sites do not have lane access, creating operational challenges for pick up, in that turning maneuvers for the City’s fleet of large-sized waste vehicles must occur on site. This is almost always impossible to achieve on a small site. This issue is related to transportation standards.
Potential Solutions
1) Remove barriers for mixed-use development on infill sites
What is needed on small sites is flexibility in waste storage and pick-up, as such sites are difficult to design and build (hence the missing middle). We are not certain at this time that the proposed cart system will provide the flexibility needed for site planning, nor the agility and frequency needed for pick up, as updated standards have not yet been developed (see point #2, below). We recommend leaving the door open for local waste companies being a part of the collection solution, as they can potentially pick up garbage more frequently and with smaller vehicles. We understand that a fee may still need to be paid to the City to account for waste education, diversion and processing.
2) Prioritize the update of the Waste Storage Guidelines
Concerns around site planning, waste storage, and waste pick up may be able to be mitigated through an update to the Waste Storage Guidelines and Access Management Guidelines. However, our understanding is that work on this update has not yet begun. Until this work is complete, our request to Committee is to hold off on making a final decision on who picks up waste for mixed-use and multi-unit buildings on small and medium sized infill sites.
City Plan Alignment
4.2 Edmontonians live closer to what they need and are supported by walkable communities, active transportation networks and greater connectivity across all travel modes.
4.2.1.3 Adapt City operations, equipment and infrastructure to contribute to intensification.
Proposed Motion
“That Administration, with engagement from stakeholders, facilitate mixed use and medium scale residential development through a comprehensive update to the Waste Storage Guidelines and Access Management Guidelines, which may include private fee-for-service for mixed use and/or multi-unit collection, with the aim to achieve three stream collection and diversion rate targets as set out in the March 25, 2022, City Operations report CO00581rev and return to Committee in Quarter 1, 2023.”
IDEA would like to see Edmonton move to a three-stream communal collection system with a priority set on facilitating mixed-use and small-scale infill sites as outlined in Edmonton’s City Plan. We believe this three-stream system will help us better take care of our environment and we thank Administration and Council for their commitment to our future. We believe this objective can and must be achieved in tandem with facilitating mixed use and multi-unit development on small and medium sized infill sites.
Thank you for your time. We request a meeting with you prior to the meeting to discuss the issues surrounding infill and waste collection. If you have any questions please contact IDEA via Mariah Samji at mariah@infilledmonton.com or 780-951-6926.
Sincerely,
Letter sent to Edmonton City Council, Deputy City Manager of Urban Planning and Economy and the Administration Team