On Thursday, November 30th, Administration will provide an update on the R-CG district.
The R-CG district was adopted into the Land Use Bylaw in October of 2014. The R-CG District is a residential land use district that allows for a range of housing where each house has its own entry at ground level (“G” for Ground Oriented) facing the street. The district is primarily for rowhouses, but also allows for single detached, side-by-side and duplex homes all of which may include secondary suites. Rowhouses are essentially single houses attached together at the side.
Since it’s implementation, the City has been monitoring its progress and a number of issues have been identified including:
Key issues for R-CG district
- The appropriateness of allowing secondary suites in rowhouses and the associated allowance for parking, which is considered overly permissive;
- The appropriateness of a maximum building height of 11.0 metres for rowhouses, which raises concerns regarding impacts to the context and character of the street; and
- Required front and side yard setbacks for rowhouses on corner parcels are considered overly deep
Key issues common across all Infill Districts
- How to apply the Multi-Residential Locational Criteria
- How to manage privacy on neighbouring parcels
- How to sensitively integrate larger buildings into established neighbouhoods
Next steps:
The timeline for some of the more complex infill issues would likely extend into 2019. Administration recommends a two-phase approach:
- Phase 1 would address the key issues for the RC-G district identified above and return to the Calgary Planning Commission (CPC) in 2018 Q3. This is a short-term solution.
- As many of these issues are not limited to the RC-G but are common across the R-C1, R-C2, M-CG, M-C1 and M-C2, the recommendation is to take a long term, research and engagement framework to address how they can approach these complex issues including neighbourhood character and compatibility. This would be long-term solution. Phase 2 would address the key issues common across all Infill Districts and return to the SPC on Planning and Urban Development (PUD) with a framework to address the more complex infill issues through policy and land use regulation in 2018 Q4. Phase 2 is currently proposed as a recommendation in the Infill Scoping Report (PUD2017-1125).
The Infill Scoping Report (PUD2017-1125) and the R-CG Monitoring report propose a shared work plan for 2018. Considering their shared work plan, Administration recommends that these two reports be considered at the same meeting of Council on 2017 December 18.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Carrie.