David Buston

Dan Meades, director for Vibrant Communities Calgary, says more secondary suites will be good for the city.

Three years ago, near the peak of Calgary’s once-scorching real estate boom, Dennis Bonk bought his first house in a quiet northwest neighbourhood, then promptly proceeded to break the law.

Married and with two young children, Bonk is one of an estimated 40,000 Calgary homeowners across the city who owns and rents an illegal secondary suite.

“We built everything to code,” says Bonk (his real name is withheld). “We have off-street parking for the tenants, so we tried to stay in accordance with legal suites, but we know that it isn’t legal.”

Bonk spent about $35,000 to build the two-bedroom basement suite, saving hordes of money by renovating with the help of friends and family.

He rents the basement suite for $900 a month to supplement his income. “We leaned on it pretty heavily at the beginning,” he says.

Shortly after his second child was born, Bonk moved his family into a larger home and now rents the upstairs and downstairs of his previous house.

As long as the city keeps the current zoning bylaws in place, Bonk has no plans to legalize his property. “I’m worried that if I applied and got rejected then they’d shut me down,” he says.

Bonk’s fears are understandable. Under the city’s current bylaws, homeowners who want secondary suites in single-family neighbourhoods have to go through an onerous land-use-change process, which can cost thousands of dollars and includes an appearance before city council for final approval. Even then, they’re not guaranteed success.

Critics have long complained about this system, and a recent report by city administration sent to a council committee echoes that sentiment. The report calls the process costly and time-consuming for applicants and the city, adding that final decisions on redesignation applications have been of “little consistency.”

But on March 7, city council will consider scrapping this process for one that will allow secondary suites in all residential neighbourhoods, with a few caveats: suites must meet safety codes, have on-site parking for tenants and require the homeowner to live in the house — though this last provision “has proven extremely difficult to implement” in other cities, notes the city administration report.

Bonk says the proposed occupancy rule completely defeats the purpose of owning a rental property. “I don’t understand the reasoning behind that,” he says. “Part of the motivation for people to build rental suites is the fact that they can maximize the income from a house.”

The concern over crowded, on-street parking is understandable, says Bonk, “but if people are conscientious of that and make accommodations for that then I don’t see why it would be a problem.”

Neither does Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, who has long pushed for changes, as well as several business groups and non-profit organizations that support the proposal. Several other North American cites, including Edmonton and Vancouver, now allow for secondary suites in all residential areas.

Last June, the City of Calgary held several stakeholder workshops, including builders, landlords, developers, student and tenant representatives and community associations. The general agreement, says the city report, was to support “a more permissive approach to secondary suites.”

A survey by the city found the majority of Calgarians, 76 per cent, support secondary suites in their neighbourhoods and 86 per cent support the legalization of existing suites.

Nonetheless, several council members are hesitant to support the proposal, saying it will erode single-family communities, tenants will consume on-street parking spaces and property values will drop.

But many of those concerns are based on fear rather than fact, say proponents.

Dan Meades, director of Vibrant Communities Calgary, says the argument that approving secondary suites across the city will erode the quality of single-family communities is fallacy.

“There is a notion out there among some people that the only people who use secondary suites are people who live in poverty and therefore it’s going to erode the nature of their communities,” says Meades. “Secondary suites aren’t only used by folks living in poverty, and if they’re only used by people living in poverty that’s not doing anything to hurt our communities.”

Non-profits aren’t the only ones supporting secondary suites in all residential neighbourhoods. Business organizations, including the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, along with the Calgary Real Estate Board, the Urban Development Institute, commercial development association NAIOP and the Canadian Home Builders Association, came out en masse calling for council to give the proposal the green light.

“Let’s put fact on the table and make informed decisions,” says Adam Legge, president and CEO of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce. “Let’s not talk about myth and misperception and uncertainty about what could happen.”

“Constituents are fearful of what the change in their community might be like,” says Legge. “There is an assumption that as soon as we legalize suites that eight out of 10 houses will all of a sudden have a suite in their house. And that’s based on a misperception or uncertainty. The reality is… not everybody will do it.”

Representatives from those groups say allowing secondary suites citywide would likely increase affordable housing choices, enable Calgarians to achieve homeownership sooner, allow seniors to age in their homes, increase property values and make secondary suites safer.

According to the City of Calgary, the number of apartment and townhouse rentals has declined by more than 11,300 units in the past decade. Many of those units were converted and sold as condominiums during the recent economic and real estate boom.

It’s estimated the city could have as many as 40,000 illegal secondary suites, many of which do not likely meet safety codes, which leaves tenants with little recourse to complain to authorities.

“There are a lot of renters out there… being taken advantage of and they’re living in unsafe housing,” says John Marotta, president of NAIOP. “There’s a fundamental basis there for just protecting those people, making sure slum landlords aren’t taking advantage of them, making them live in substandard facilities and putting their lives at risk in some cases.”

The city will need more affordable housing options when the recession ends and workers flock to Calgary, says Michael Flynn, executive director with the Urban Development Institute.

“We will no doubt see an influx of people coming to Calgary looking to gain employment,” he says. “And these people are going to need a place to stay.”

Email: thowell@ffwd.greatwest.ca