Infill award ironic for critics of city's policy

Edmonton's efforts at increasing infill housing are being recognized with an award by the Alberta Professional Planners Institute.

The city is one of three cities in Alberta to win awards from the institute this week.

Edmonton was awarded for the city's infill roadmap, a plan to increase the amount of residential housing in mature neighbourhoods over the next two years.

However, the way some construction companies are building projects is provoking complaints about safety, noise and other issues from across the city. 

Bev Zubot, the planning adviser for the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues, said most communities approve of infill housing.

 But some residents worry about the lack of accountability for construction companies, and might question the city getting the award.

"What is at stake here is the fear factor that could turn people against infill and that would be very unfortunate," she said.

Peter Ohm, branch manager of urban planning and development, acknowledges there have been problems with construction. He said that these will be resolved in time.

"It's something we will work through and we have to be nimble while we're executing in terms of responding to stuff that maybe we didn't capture," he said.

"But we'll do that and we'll execute on this plan and then we'll end up having another two-year plan to be able to develop after that."

The city is about halfway through executing the current infill plan