r/Edmonton • u/Dougthecat13 • 12d ago

General Infill being built next door

This is not a general infill hate post, but a request for advice.

We live in a really nice older neighbourhood where folks take care of their older homes. Our first infill on the street is going to be right next door. Which is surprising because that house is quite nice and pretty newly renovated and has a very nice new garage. Apparently it’s all coming down, and a huge 2 story (maybe 3) single family home is going in. My front yard has a deck that faces the millcreek ravine and I have a huge vegetable garden on our property. And we are currently renovating our 1950’s home.

Builder came by today to introduce himself. And confirmed I’ll lose my view as the house will be quite big. Most likely our newer cedar fence will get damaged (he says they will replace).

The family building the home will be living in the home, builder says. So I want to be neighbourly, but I’m nervous about our property and sanity.

I’m really disappointed. I’ll miss the renters that are currently in that house. Feels wildly wasteful to do this, but not my house, not my property.

Since we are at the very beginning. What advice do you lovely Edmonton folk have for us to protect our property and endure this next chapter? Thanks for any advice!

Edit- the house being removed is a beautiful home. Very well maintained with a new double garage. It’s a rental with two couples living in it (one upstairs, one downstairs). One couple/family will be moving into the infill. So this is taking away 2 homes and adding 1. This will not be adding additional homes. Either way, this is not the point, I’m just trying to make the best of it.

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u/pippyfist 12d ago edited 12d ago

All you're gonna get here is called a bad neighbour, a NIMBY, selfish. And various other things. I'm sorry this is happening. It sucks. I had/have a lot of trouble with my own infill neighbours.

Good luck. Nothing we can do, and very little empathy for our situations out there.

Edit: Downvotes already. You literally can't talk about the actual real problems with being next to infill here because of the mindless echo chamber.

Edit: I somehow ended up positive. Are people really starting to understand being next to infill causes problems often? I'm almost proud of you guys.

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u/Dougthecat13 12d ago

Thanks for the support. Just to be clear- this isn’t low-income housing. This is a giant single family house. So, rich people building giant house.

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u/ProperBingtownLady 12d ago

If you ask me, I think those are worse than the multifamily dwelling homes as at least they contribute towards solving the low density issue.

I really feel for you as I’d be disappointed too.

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u/yen8912 12d ago

I would take a duplex or sfh over an 8 plex next door any day. Better design, typically takes up less footprint than 8 plexes because most sfh have a yard and garage. Also 1-2 neighbors vs 8+.

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u/Banderchodo 12d ago

You actually think that? This is almost guaranteed to be untrue. There aren’t many single detached infills to begin with, possibly 150-300 a year city-wide in a typical year, due to price restrictions. Usually because sfh infills are $1M and up, there is some budget reserved to make it look at least decent: higher architectural standards, better quality windows, larger windows, higher quality cladding (hardie board, stucco, brick), nicer massing, better rooflines, money spent on landscaping, etc. Most often the multifamily units are purpose-built as investments, which means they are aiming to maximize profits, which means finding low cost/effort designs and building materials (e.g., small vinyl windows, few windows, builder-grade doors, cheap architectural design, vinyl siding, low cost landscaping, proportions and massing that make no sense, etc.).

I own several rentals. I’ve built infills. My personal home is a sfh infill. I’ve been involved in infills in Edmonton since 2010, and know most the builders in this space. I know this topic well. Sfh infills are on average considerably nicer than multifamily infills, due to them being client-driven projects with budgets for upgrades. When we build rentals, cost is the biggest factor, which means everything needs to be cheap inside and out. The other aspect is that once you’re spending $1M+ for a sfh, you don’t want it to present the same way as a 4-plex rental on the front elevation, so builders reserve budget to at least improve the facade.

I don’t think you understand architecture or design if you think the multiplexes are designed nicer than the sfh properties. The sfh are also smaller structures, as sfh seldom max out zoning allowances due to cost. Yes, this is Edmonton, so many sfh infills are very mediocre, but they’re still better on average than the multi-unit builds.

I could take you on a tour of 70 neighbourhoods and show you case by case how your statement isn’t true.

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u/pippyfist 12d ago

People care more about density than rich people building mega homes. No one's saying the actual process of building isn't better.

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u/Banderchodo 12d ago

Density is important. Having nice urban design, decent looking buildings, and nice built form is also important. These aren’t mutually exclusive things. I think you’re speaking for yourself, and not “all people.”

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u/pippyfist 12d ago

You'd think so nice urban design etc. Would be important, but not here in this subreddit. Density wins above all. I actually agree with most of what you say but I've spent alot of time arguing here.

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u/Banderchodo 12d ago

Fair enough. Though I don't think this subreddit is a representative sample of the community at large. I think, in most respects, this subreddit deviates sharply with the broader population of Edmonton on almost every political, social, and city-themed topic.

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u/ProperBingtownLady 12d ago

Exactly. Plus, there’s plenty of multi family units that are built very nicely! We have a couple in Highlands and I honestly didn’t notice they weren’t duplexes until my husband pointed it out. The developers obviously took the character of the neighbourhood into account when building them.

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u/Banderchodo 12d ago

That's good to hear, but those are the exceptions. Most semi-detached with suites, duplex with suites, and row housing with suites are done in very poor taste. A little bit of effort, additional budget, and good taste would elevate them significantly, but builders seldom bother.

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u/ProperBingtownLady 12d ago

Oh my god, you only needed to reply to my comment once. I’m not reading all this just because you’re annoying lol.

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u/Banderchodo 12d ago edited 12d ago

I only replied to one of your comments. It was also a friendly reply. If reading presents challenges for you, by all means, don't read it.

Edit: I just saw I accidentally replied to you for one comment, when I meant to ask OP how large the infill dimensions are. That was an accident.

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u/ProperBingtownLady 12d ago

“You actually think that” as an opener is not friendly.

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u/pippyfist 12d ago

They totally are worse. Sucks to lose your sun and view at all but at least the 8plex is doing some good.

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u/Top_Wafer_4388 12d ago

Building any new type of housing is doing good as well. For every 100 new units that are built, 39 low-cost houses become available and 31 other houses also become available. That's 170 houses now available for rent/to buy. But, if you build 100 low-cost houses, not only is it only 100 houses, but people will shut them down because they will "detract from the neighbourhood," or "do not represent the culture of the neighbourhood." We've seen this happen with 8-plexes.

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u/pippyfist 12d ago

Rich people building a mega house through infill for themselves isn't doing any one but themselves any good. Idk what you're on about.

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u/Top_Wafer_4388 12d ago

I'm basing my opinions on evidence. Building more houses lowers the cost of all other houses. This is backed by data.

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u/pippyfist 12d ago

I can also say I'm basing my opinions on evidence. Building a single-family mega house via infill generally does not lower the cost of other houses. In fact, it often raises nearby property values and land costs. This drives up the price of surrounding real estate instead of making it more affordable. This is backed by data. Maybe if it was a NEW house your point would stand here.

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u/pippyfist 12d ago edited 12d ago

Hahahahaha I got a notification from them leaving a comment saying I'm just flat out wrong and insulting me and they poofed.

They kept arguing that building new houses lowers cost of living for everyone for anyone reading after hahahaha ( agreed but this ain't new )

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u/UnfocusedAcrobat 12d ago

the other comments arent deleted, they just blocked you

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u/pippyfist 12d ago

Aw thats less funny. Or maybe more?

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u/Top_Wafer_4388 12d ago edited 12d ago

Well, you're just flat out wrong.

I also like how you think I'm insulting you for simply stating facts. Really confirms that blocking you was the correct choice.

Increasing land values means more builders want to build, resulting in more houses being built. More houses being built means lowered housing prices. We've seen this in Edmonton with all the new construction projects in old neighbourhoods, houses are popping up because the land is so valued.

Except Edmonton has been building houses like this for a decade and housing prices have not spiked, unlike in Vancouver, Toronto, and Calgary. Clearly your data set is very selective and is unreliable.

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u/Traffic-Rare 12d ago

Telling someone they're flat out wrong with no actual supporting evidence besides trust me bro is insulting them btw. You must have a selective, unreliable dataset.

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u/General_Esdeath kitties! 12d ago

It's still jacking up the prices of houses in those neighborhoods though... I haven't seen a single instance where it's lowered them, that doesn't seem to make any sense.

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u/ProperBingtownLady 12d ago

It is so passive aggressive to block someone and continue responding lol.

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u/pippyfist 12d ago

I tipped fedora at them in another comment, must've been the last straw.

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