Protest in Parkview: Residents decry series of infill projects

It was more than a protest; it was a declaration of intent.

About 200 people gathered in Parkview Sunday to protest a series of infill projects they say are creating an "exodus" of long-time residents from the neighbourhood. But this wasn't just about Parkview. Protesters came from neighbouring communites. From Crestwood. From Laurier. From West Jasper Place.

The new omnibus zoning bylaw, approved by the previous iteration of city council, allows mid-block infill developments of up to eight units in existing residential neighbournhoods. It's part of the city's plan to have half of all new housing delivered via infill. Before the 2025 election, a motion to cap mid-blocks at six was narrowly defeated by council, though new architectural controls were placed on infill developers.

Residents said they know the current council isn't changing the rules, so it's up to them to make it harder and harder for developers to get shovels in the ground. More applications to the appeal board. More outcry at the city's committee meetings. Longer lists of public speakers at City Hall. As one protester called out, it's now up to residents in mature neighbourhoods to "make it expensive and inconvenient" for large infill projects to proceed.

The protesters gathered near the t-intersection of 88 Avenue and 147 Street, the site of not only one seven-unit infill project under construction, but seven more houses in the area have also been sold and will be redeveloped. Residents said that 50 new units or more could take the place of those seven units.

They chanted "responsible infill" in front of a lot that will be redeveloped by Edmonton's Davach Properties.

"We're losing sleep," said Parkview resident Katrina Owen. "We're losing our sense of safety. I'm not going to be able to drive this way anymore. This street is just going to be a construction nightmare.

"This is all going down: This house, this house and five houses over there. You see a bunch of 'for sale' signs around here. People are freaking out, and there are people moving. I think one of them had been here 30 years. Another one of them's 25. They have no choice. They have to leave."

'It's illogical what's happening'

Cosandria Leyton-High lives across the street from the infill project that's under construction on 88 Avnenue. She moved into the neighbourhood last year, into a single-family skinny home. She said she's concerned about the number of neighbours she's losing.

"It's an exodus," she said. And she said many of her former neighbours are choosing to leave Edmonton for communities outside the city limits.

"We see that are being pushed out to make way for all these rental units," she said. "People quit, pack up and leave because we've tried every possible way to slow it down or make it logical. It's illogical what's happening."

She said that an infill spurs a neighbour to sell, then that is redeveloped, which leads another neighbour to sell, and that land is redeveloped. It's a domino effect.

Leyton-High said she expects the value of her new home to plummet. And she said the neighbourhood already had issues with snow removal, which she thinks will only get worse when the population of the neighbourhood swells.

"My value is a big concern, but it's not the main concern," said Leyton-High. "The main concern is livability, right? We're not having parking spots. We're going to have very poor waste management. With the windrows in the winter, I had to pay to have somebody come remove it last year because the city doesn't remove them. So where are cars going to park? My mother is handicapped. She needs access to the street without any sort of intrusions. If I clean the snow and somebody comes and takes the spot I have access to, then I'm going to double park, and then there's going to be cars on both sides, and I'm going to stop traffic. I'm going to make it unsafe for everybody because I'm going to have to park in the middle of the road to get my mother into the car."

Residents said that when the home on Parkview construction site was demolished, there were no protective fences up. They made 311 calls and then the area was secured.

Steven Lakey said he and his neighbours in West Jasper Place have been unsuccessful in their attempts to stop aninfill spread that stretches from 9501 to 9519 155 St. NW. Span Architecture's proposal for rezoning called for a four-to-five storey apartment building to be erected on those lots.

"I am coming to the conclusion that the one way that this is going to change is through a a change of council, because the ideology of too many members in this council is in line with this kind of densification," said Lakey. "It's a false premise, as far as I'm concerned. There are other ways in which we should be going and could be going about this. We're creating a situation where we're going to be beholden to financial institutions and creating a society of renters. If they had a program where it was actually encouraging people to be able to afford to buy houses and keep the character of the old neighbourhood, that would be a much preferable way to do this."

He said there is plenty of chances for the city to achieve its densification efforts by focusing on making downtown more livable, and to stimulate more development in the Blatchford development, the former City Centre Airport lands. The city is acting as the developer at Blatchford, there's even a ghost LRT station that's been finished and is waiting for people to move in around it. But most of Blatchford is still waiting for builders to break ground there.

Lakey said he's frustrated. Plain and simple.

"We used to have a very strong advocacy voice in our community," he said. "People have just kind of given up. It sometimes feels as if it's futile."

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