City of Calgary 'misinterpreting' rules to deny secondary suites in Inglewood: officials

The city's policy of restricting secondary suites in parts of Inglewood is based on an old regulation that is being misinterpreted by city administration, some officials say.

"I think it absolutely has been misinterpreting this on a number of levels across the board,"said Coun.Gian-Carlo Carra.

"Basically administration needs to give their head a shake."

• Secondary suites will not fly in most of Inglewood

The Inglewood airport vicinity protection area, orAVPA, wasestablished in 1979 andis meant to limit development and densification on flight paths.

But even the Calgary Airport Authority says it was never intended to prevent secondary suites.

"The AVPA does not restrict secondary suites," said the authority'sJody Moseley. "Taking a piece of land, subdividing it, putting a fourplex, putting in a condo, that's what the AVPA is designed to regulate."

Regardless, dozens of residents like Peter De Benedetti have been denied applications to build a secondary suite in their Inglewood homes.

"After spending thousands of dollars doing plans up ... they say, 'Oh you're in the AVPA;you can't do this.'"

City council recently voted to examine whether Calgarians support removing Inglewood from the terms of the AVPA.

Last month, the city mailed out letters to property owners to alert them that, while existing residences are grandfathered in, no new development can take place on their property.

Online public consultation will continue over the summer and administrators will prepare a report for city council this fall.

If council votes to ask the provincial government to exempt Inglewood from the AVPA, a letter would likely go to Edmonton early in 2017.

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