Edmonton city council passes height restrictions on infill builds
Posted April 28, 2026 8:47 am.
Last Updated April 28, 2026 8:59 am.
Another day, another infill debate at Edmonton City Hall.
Councillors voted Monday to restrict the height of infill, moving the maximum height from 10.5 metres to 9.5.
It comes as others living in Edmonton’s older neighbourhoods are trying to stop councillors from opening up more infill development in their communities.
“Nobody minds a new single-family home coming into the community, or even a good duplex, tastefully done,” said Parkdale resident Nita Jalkanen. “But we have no architectural controls. We have what I call predatory infill, because it’s robbing us of our sunlight, it’s destroying our quality of life. I have five windows looking into my bedroom now.”
Jalkanen says while she’s happy to see city councillors pass new rules restricting the height of new infill builds by a metre, she says it doesn’t go far enough.
On Tuesday, city leaders are looking at expanding where infill can be built in the city, potentially if the location is near good transit routes or roadways.
“Basically what I’m saying is, as a homeowner, it will no longer be safe to live anywhere in the city of Edmonton because your equity can be wiped out without you having any recourse.”
More on infill in Edmonton
But Edmonton’s mayor says the height restrictions, along with rules around the size of infill builds passed last year, will make an impact on the types of homes people see in their neighbourhoods. He’s asking residents to be patient.
“What we don’t want to be doing is changing the rules every six months without giving that stability, because then you actually don’t get to see how that’s playing out,” said Mayor Andrew Knack. “But I think this was a thoughtful change to respond to very real feedback.”
New councillor Mike Elliott says infill bylaws passed by previous city council didn’t provide enough control on the types of new builds. He’s hopeful Monday’s bylaw strikes a balance.
“Like I said about bringing the pendulum back, let’s try to get back somewhere in the middle on this,” said the Ward pihêsiwin coucnillor.
“Those who want more can say, ‘OK maybe it’s not appropriate per se but I can live with it,’ and just like people on the other side who say it’s gone too far, they can say, ‘well maybe we can look at this and this is more reasonable as well.’”
