Is Edmonton losing money on new suburbs?

A Canadian urban planner says Edmonton must plan different styles of neighbourhoods before the affordable housing problem will be solved.

Avi Friedman, a professor from McGill University, says the City of Edmonton and many other municipalities have been building new communities using the same prototype for more than 50 years. Every new suburb built costs more than the taxes assessed and only Edmonton's industrial tax base is offsetting rising costs.

He claims the only way to change that is to build more dense neighbourhoods, which means narrow roads, more Edmonton townhomes and low-rise apartment buildings. Single-family dwellings are keeping the price of homes too high.

Dense neighbourhoods are more walkable and create environments where transit is more efficient with higher ridership.

Friedman is a teacher in the McGill School of Architecture and in 1988 founded the Affordable Homes Program. He claims too many cities in North America are resistant to creating more dense neighbourhoods, preferring the roominess of urban sprawl, citing safety concerns such as fire and EMS access. Yet urban centres in Europe seem to cope well with providing emergency services to citizens.

Friedman, who is recognized internationally for innovation in housing, says building suburban communities with so much space is a loss, adding that cities such as Edmonton are subsidizing this wonderful roomy lifestyle. He claims it doesn't make good sense.

Statistics Canada reports that in Edmonton, there are 47,000 households in which the residents have to spend 33% or more of their income on either rent or mortgage payments. It's all that young families can do to scrape together a down payment to purchase a property, and often need to enlist the financial help of parents or relatives in order to do so. Single-family detached homes are not affordable, so what else could we build, Friedman asks rhetorically.

He uses retail stores as a metaphor, saying that a store will never sell just one type of size of blue jean.

Friedman's theory is that density also creates affordability, on many fronts. Walkable neighbourhoods with good transit means people only need one car.

In Edmonton recently on a speaking tour, Friedman acknowledged that the city is making changes. While many of the outlying communities are still designed around the car, they are developed with high density in mind compared to neighbourhoods built in the 1980s. He applauds the Blatchford development being built by the City of Edmonton on the former airport site.

Friedman recommends that civic leaders and urban planners in Edmonton tour other places in the world to see what's being done in new suburban developments. Some are being constructed without roads, and others are being constructed well after transit has already been established.

It's not only municipal leaders that need to change their outlook when it comes to planning suburbs. Edmonton residents value some of the amenities that come with urban sprawl, such as boulevards and lush front lawns. The desire for affordable housing and lower taxes needs to take priority so that public opinion will shift. Or, find a way for the two philosophies to co-exist. Like, next to your lush lawn and grassy boulevard, put a seven-storey apartment building, he suggests.

Friedman urged Edmonton and area developers to provide affordable housing options for young people and young families so that they don't leave.