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.

[FactaNV]

Lots of HAF related votes coming to council on the 30th, including the vote to begin the application process for the downtown funding regime. I recommend a quick read for the funding breakdowns.

[rebl]

Does anybody know if there is a document outlining the winnipeg infill guidelines?

Edit: d'oh! found it...https://clkapps.winnipeg.ca/DMIS/mob...sp?DocID=23671

I always have a hard time with these links for some reason.

[ColdRain&Snow]

Today I found out about this page on the City of Winnipeg website:

https://www.winnipeg.ca/building-dev...celerator-fund

This is mostly related to the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF), but part of the city's HAF application was a promise to rewrite the zoning bylaw.

Back in December 2023, it was announced that Winnipeg would be receiving $122 million through the federal government's HAF program. Here is a news article about that funding:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manit...ment-1.7065380

The City of Winnipeg webpage shows that the funding will be going towards 8 different initiatives:

1. Capital Grant Incentive Program
2. Rapid Zoning Bylaw Amendments
3. Rapid Amendments to Local Area Plans
4. Land Enhancement Office
5. Concierge for Affordable Housing
6. Infrastructure Support Program to Increase Residential Density
7. Digitize and Facilitate Faster Development and Permit Approvals
8. Housing Needs Assessment

I will describe each of the 8 initiatives below in general terms. There are also more formal descriptions on the City of Winnipeg website using the first link in this post.

1. Capital Grants Incentive Program
In May 2024, the City of Winnipeg announced that $25 million of the $122 million would be going towards the "Capital Grant Incentive Program." There were 66 applications for the Capital Grant Incentive Program, as per the article below. Not all applicants will be receiving funding, the successful applicants will be announced in early September. I have heard that there may be a second round of funding/applications for the Capital Grant Incentive Program, but that has not been confirmed yet.

https://winnipegsun.com/news/local-n...s-expectations

2. Rapid Zoning Bylaw Amendments
Essentially, because the full rewrite of the zoning bylaw likely won't be completed until 2027, the City of Winnipeg is planning to make certain amendments to the current zoning bylaw to speed up housing construction before the new zoning bylaw takes effect. As far as I understand, City Council will be voting on zoning changes related to "Malls and Corridors" this fall and 4 units as-of-right city-wide (subject to lot size, setbacks, height limits, etc.) next spring. I'm not sure if there are any another zoning amendments planned for next year.

3. Rapid Amendments to Local Area Plans
Because the City of Winnipeg will be rewriting the entire zoning bylaw, all of the Local Area Plans will have to be updated so they conform to the new zoning bylaw.

4. Land Enhancement Office
As far as I can tell, the Land Enhancement Office will be a group of City of Winnipeg employees that will identify city-owned land that can/should be sold to non-profit developers to build new affordable housing on.

5. Concierge for Affordable Housing
The Affordable Housing Concierge will be a City of Winnipeg employee who will help developers/non-profit organizations plan their applications for new affordable housing projects.

6. Infrastructure Support Program to Increase Residential Density
As far as I understand, this initiative would be money set aside for infrastructure upgrades to allow for more infill housing such as paving backlanes, upgrading sewer pipes, etc. I have not been able to find any details on this initiative yet.

7. Digitize and Facilitate Faster Development and Permit Approvals
Basically the City of Winnipeg is planning to upgrade some of their permit application software. It sound like they'll be updating the online permit application portal to have more features and just generally be more useful.

8. Housing Needs Assessment
The federal government requires that all cities receiving HAF funding conduct a Housing Needs Assessment. This is essentially a report that counts how much housing we have, what condition it's in, and how much housing we will need in the future.

In summary, the above 8 initiatives are how the City of Winnipeg will be spending the $122 million it is receiving from the federal government through the Housing Accelerator Fund.