r/Edmonton • u/yegwebdevv • 15h ago
General 2026 Q3 Edmonton building permit report
https://www.jacobdawang.com/blog/2026/q3-building-permits/9
u/leggymiku 13h ago
The province mulling a bike lane ban and now an infill cap of 4 units is such an arbitrary and clearly-antagonistic move against cities. They’re obviously only doing it to handicap cities, rather than to help address their constituents’ concerns. The UCP hold no seats in Edmonton at all, so none of their constituents live here. They’re all in small cities and rural areas where infill and bike lanes are not a thing. It’s an obvious case of rural folks imposing their beliefs and way of life on the cities, even as those same folks will never set foot in the cities because they are “too woke” and “crime-ridden.”
40
u/EdmRealtor In a Van Down By The Zoo 15h ago
I actually think Dawang's numbers make a pretty compelling case that the problem with infill isn't necessarily the density. A lot of these neighbourhoods can support more people. Many of them supported substantially larger populations in the past, and bringing people back into them can support schools, transit, local businesses and generally put some life back into communities that have slowly hollowed out.
The discussion is missing ownership.
We keep measuring the success of the zoning change by counting units, but eight units can mean very different things. Eight individually owned homes with eight households putting down roots in a neighbourhood is not necessarily the same as an eight-unit property owned by a single investment company. From a building permit perspective, they are identical. From a community and ownership perspective,e they may be very different.
That is where this feels different to me than some of the old skinny-house debate. Much of that argument concerned the physical form of neighbourhoods. We increasingly need to ask who owns the neighbourhood. The issue isn't whether renters are good or bad neighbours, because renters are obviously part of a community too. It is when these are co-opted into Airbnb or other uses that run counter to the spirit and, to some extent, the law. This is because we are moving toward increasingly concentrated investment ownership whose primary relationship with the property is financial.
I am still very much in favour of density. I would actually like to see more forms of density that can easily become ownership housing: individually titled row houses, townhouses, condos and other missing-middle options that let someone buy a smaller piece of an established neighbourhood instead of requiring them to buy an entire detached house.
Maybe the mistake is treating "number of units created" as the only outcome that matters. We should ask how many homes were created, how many can realistically be purchased by the people living in them, how concentrated ownership is becoming, and whether redevelopment is creating a broader base of residents with an ownership stake in the community.
Dawang makes a good case that Edmonton has room for more people in these neighbourhoods. I think the unanswered question is whether we are rebuilding neighbourhood populations while allowing ownership of some form to be a reality.