Winnipeg Zoning Bylaw Rewrite

[ColdRain&Snow]

Hi Folks,

Now that the Housing Accelerator Fund motion has passed City Council, it looks like Winnipeg will be getting money from the federal government to build more housing. Part of that money will be used to completely rewrite Winnipeg's two zoning bylaws (the Downtown Zoning Bylaw from 2004 and the city-wide Zoning Bylaw from 2006). The two documents will be combined into one brand new document (not just an update, a full and complete rewrite). This process will likely take 2-3 years and will completely transform how Winnipeg is built over the decades to come.

Edmonton just recently passed a brand new zoning bylaw last month and that process took 5 years:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmon...ings-1.7005691

[ColdRain&Snow]

Some more information:

From Item #16 at the Sept. 18, 2023 meeting for the Standing Policy Committee on Property and Development:
https://clkapps.winnipeg.ca/DMIS/Vie...onId=&InitUrl=
"In November 2022, the City of Winnipeg retained Clarion Associates (“Clarion”) to undertake an
initial review and assessment of the Winnipeg Zoning By-law No. 200/2006 and the Downtown
Winnipeg Zoning By-law No. 100/2004. This initial review and assessment are being referred to
as “Phase 1” because it is intended to help inform the larger, comprehensive Zoning By-law
review process (Phase 2).
Phase 1 (see Appendix A) identifies ways the current by-laws work well, or are
ineffective/difficult to use, and ways to make the revised documents more user-friendly. It also
includes an annotated outline of a new zoning by-law, and estimated scope of work for Phase 2
along with order of magnitude costs, which are estimated to range between $880,000 to
$1,584,000."
...
"Should the City’s application under HAF be approved by Canada Mortgage and Housing
Corporation (CMHC), Phase 2 is to occur within the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) timeline
as the final milestone for the proposed Rapid Zoning By-law Amendments for Accelerated
Housing and Complete Communities initiative."

So right now, we're waiting on the City of Winnipeg to receive the HAF money from the federal government (hopefully within the next few moths). Then the City of Winnipeg will probably go out to tender (Request For Proposals) for the consulting contract to rewrite the zoning bylaw (about a $1.5M contract).

[ColdRain&Snow]

The above text says that Phase 2 of the zoning bylaw rewrite will take place within the HAF timeline. I'm unfortunatley not too sure what is meant by "within the HAF timeline." I just read through the HAF application and the only date I can find is Sept. 1, 2026, which is a long ways away. Hopefully it doesn't take that long to get the new bylaw passed (3 more years lol) but it could.

The Housing Accelerator Fund application can be found under Item #12 using the following link:
https://clkapps.winnipeg.ca/DMIS/Vie...onId=&InitUrl=

My understand of the zoning bylaw rewrite process is as follows:
Phase 1: Preliminary Report (Clarion Report): Already completed
Phase 2: Detailed Report/First Draft of New Bylaw: Consultant to hopefully be hired within the next few months. My guess is that this will take about a year.
Public Engagement: Probably some sort of public hearings and a chance for the general public to give their input. Probably will take a few months.
Phase 3: Updating the Draft Bylaw with the public engagement feedback: Probably will take a few months.
Vote by City Council: Will probably have to go through the different committees, so might take 2-3 months.

In total, we're probably looking at 2-3 years until the new zoning bylaw is passed.

[bomberjet]

In my head just now: 2026, that's like 5 years away. And then realized its almost 2024.

So anyways, most definitely will take a number of years to get through this I would believe. City Hall is quite slow as we all know.

[FactaNV]

Originally Posted by ColdRain&Snow

The above text says that Phase 2 of the zoning bylaw rewrite will take place within the HAF timeline. I'm unfortunatley not too sure what is meant by "within the HAF timeline." I just read through the HAF application and the only date I can find is Sept. 1, 2026, which is a long ways away. Hopefully it doesn't take that long to get the new bylaw passed (3 more years lol) but it could.

The Housing Accelerator Fund application can be found under Item #12 using the following link:
https://clkapps.winnipeg.ca/DMIS/Vie...onId=&InitUrl=

My understand of the zoning bylaw rewrite process is as follows:
Phase 1: Preliminary Report (Clarion Report): Already completed
Phase 2: Detailed Report/First Draft of New Bylaw: Consultant to hopefully be hired within the next few months. My guess is that this will take about a year.
Public Engagement: Probably some sort of public hearings and a chance for the general public to give their input. Probably will take a few months.
Phase 3: Updating the Draft Bylaw with the public engagement feedback: Probably will take a few months.
Vote by City Council: Will probably have to go through the different committees, so might take 2-3 months.

In total, we're probably looking at 2-3 years until the new zoning bylaw is passed.

Three years isn't actually too bad for something so game changing. It just took Edmonton 5 years to rewrite theirs.

[borkborkbork]

How much can public feedback, city council politics and/or municipal public servants foot-dragging water this down in implementation?

So we get the $ for housing by pledging bylaw reform. But those reforms could take years to actually get through the process, if I understand your post right.

Does that also mean that the usual gang of NIMBY residents, suburban city councillors and change-averse staff have years to basically take all the teeth out of the changes?

[ColdRain&Snow]

Originally Posted by borkborkbork

How much can public feedback, city council politics and/or municipal public servants foot-dragging water this down in implementation?

So we get the $ for housing by pledging bylaw reform. But those reforms could take years to actually get through the process, if I understand your post right.

Does that also mean that the usual gang of NIMBY residents, suburban city councillors and change-averse staff have years to basically take all the teeth out of the changes?

The exact amount of public feedback remains to be seen. The timeline/process for the zoning bylaw rewrite will probably be announced in a few months when the consultant contract goes out for bidding.

The way this process works for infrastructure projects is that the public input is relatively meaningless (looking at you Kenaston Widening). The consultants will do what they want and only make minor changes after the public engagement sessions. Basically, it will all boil down to one vote at City Council in about 2-3 years from now. When Edmonton passed their new zoning bylaw last month, they had 6 days of public hearings at City Council before the vote happened. I heard that about 160 people showed up to opposed the bylaw and about 130 people showed up to support it. In the end it was passed by 11 votes to 2.

[heritage]

Hopefully a lot of the HAF funds are allocated to downtown. A capital incentive program to convert heritage and office buildings to residential is needed. Downtown office vacancy is about 20% and will continue to grow as companies shed space upon lease maturities and completion of Wawanesa's building. Substantial drop of tax revenue if nothing is done.