Edmonton looks to incentivize downtown apartment development

Edmonton’s executive committee is recommending city council approve a new Attainable Housing Program that incentivizes developers to build new apartments in the city’s downtown area.

According to the city’s report, one-bedroom units will be considered attainable if they are rented for no more than 30 per cent of the median renter income for Edmonton.

“The grant would be structured in a way that uses the number of attainable housing units to determine the amount that they would be eligible for, and so there would be clear requirements for them to deliver on that in order to be able to access that funding,” said Edmonton Mayor Andrew Knack.

The annual grant program would cover between 25 and 100 per cent of property taxes for the developer, depending on how many attainable units a project includes.

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In an example provided in the city report on the program, a development where 50 per cent of the units are attainable would receive an annual grant payment equivalent to 50 per cent of the tax uplift.

Edmonton’s Chamber of Commerce supports the program.

“More people in the core means a safer downtown. When residents live, shop, and spend time downtown, streets become livelier, businesses thrive, and a stronger sense of community takes root,” the chamber said in a letter on its website.

With roughly 13,000 residents currently living in that area, the Edmonton Downtown Business Association is also in favour of the program.

“Increasing residents is just going to increase vibrancy because you do have people who are down here more often,” says Quinn Phillips, the association’s communications director.

Knack says the program would also help with the city’s goal of increasing the downtown population to 24,000 people by 2030.