Infill redevelopment is not yet occurring at a rapid pace in Okotoks, but that could change as the Town embarks on a new planning framework for the downtown core.
The Town approved a new Municipal Development Plan and land use bylaw in 2021. The policies were adopted, in part, to increase housing diversity in new and established neighbourhoods, and infills are identified as one way to achieve those goals.
"I wouldn't say there's been a lot of infill redevelopment throughout the community," planner Colin Gainer said. “There's only so much of Okotoks that's of an age where we would start to see more redevelopment pressures.”
The downtown area has the greatest potential for that type of redevelopment, and the Town is working on Our Plan for Downtown to determine what that could look like, he said.
To accommodate more housing types in newer residential areas, the Town’s development strategy now allows for a wider range of lot sizes, he said.
Land uses were simplified, going from 67 districts down to nine.
“Before, we had quite a variety of different residential districts,” Gainer said. “The district that effectively replaced all those districts is what we call the Traditional Neighborhood District.
“Now you can have single detached and duplex, and some attached housing configured in with those areas," he said. "So that allows for more of a mix."
Gainer said Okotoks is not the only municipality that has looked at simplified or more inclusionary zoning rules.
“There's definitely a larger trend,” he said.
The City of Calgary moved ahead with blanket rezoning polices last month after a record-setting public hearing and a 9-6 vote by council.
The policies allow for single- or semi-detached, rowhouses, fourplexes or townhomes in most developed areas, the City said.
The Town of High River took a similar approach to its land use bylaw as Okotoks, albeit a few years before, and the City of Edmonton was looking at its zoning rules around the same time as Okotoks, Gainer said.
When a federal incentive program for home building was announced last year, the Town didn’t apply for funding because many of the requirements were already included in the 2021 land use bylaw.
“A lot of what that funding was for was for projects that the Town was already looking at,” Gainer said.
