A lengthy overhaul of Saskatoon’s Zoning Bylaws will continue, after the first phase of amendments were passed by City Council recently.

The next phase for a zoning bylaw review, by the City of Saskatoon, will include a lot of feedback from the community and businesses. That according to Director of Planning and Development, Lesley Anderson, who says the endgame for zoning bylaw changes, will represent the most up to date current building industry and community trends.

Phase 2, she says, will include specific feedback from stakeholders. Anderson states they are taking a few years to look at this, and while they will be involving some technical stakeholders they will be looking to capture a lot of feedback from the general public, for some broader input, going forward. Right now Anderson says they are looking at townhouses, they have heard a number of concerns regarding those districts from the (building) industries. She says infill, the rededication of land in an urban environment, is also a complex issue and a technical group is currently reviewing that as part of phase 2. Anderson says these issues will be addressed over the course of the summer and into the fall.

Saskatoon and Region Home Builder’s Association CEO, Chris Guerette, says changes made in phase 1 of the city’s zoning bylaw review, were disappointing. Guerette explains they were hoping to see some high value changes, so they could apply any adjustments to construction season. Instead the changes, she says, were mostly houskeeping ones. Moving into phase 2 the SRHBA is hoping to see more valuable changes that will impact affordability, the way we build and the way we live in our city.

Guerette says important factors for phase 2, the SRHBA would like to see addressed, are restrictions on building height, the density of the city, maximizing lot space and changing parking requirements.