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News Release
For embargo until: 12:00 noon, Monday, April 13, 2015
Mature neighbourhoods unite to preserve school enrollment,
housing affordability and unique character
Edmonton–The Mature Neighbourhoods for Respectful Renewal coalition (MN4RR) today asked
Edmonton City Council to suspend its consideration of residential infill zoning applications and
bylaw amendments that compromise the Mature Neighbourhood Overlay. In doing so, it hopes to
restore the guiding principles first adopted and since abandoned by Edmonton City Council for
residential renewal through infill and densification.
The MN4RR coalition, an informal association of mature neighbourhoods with documented
shared interests, will host a news conference between Public Hearings at City Hall argue for the
cessation of incremental bylaw amendments in the service of residential infill that no longer
represent the principles endorsed by residents of Edmonton.
“Edmonton’s residential infill program was prompted by a desire to halt the closure of schools in
mature neighbourhoods; reverse the “hollowing out” of those same neighbourhoods and flight to
the suburbs; provide affordable housing, especially for house-rich/cash-poor seniors; and better
manage urban sprawl that eats up fertile farmland but never repays municipal investment through
property taxes,” said spokesperson Michael Evans.
“Unfortunately, the program as practiced achieves the opposite in many mature neighbourhoods,
reducing school enrollment, displacing families and seniors, and irrevocably changing the
character of some of Edmonton’s best-loved neighbourhoods.”
The Administration has suggested infill amendments are supported by Edmontonians on the basis
of having talked to a single community league and a total of just over 1,000 Edmontonians, or
less than one-and-a-quarter of one-thousandth of a percent of residents.
MN4RR has spoken to like-minded citizens in the communities of Aspen Gardens, Belgravia,
Bonnie Doon, Calder, Crestwood, Empire Park, Grovenor, Lendrum, Malmo, McKernan,
Parkallen, Parkview, Prince Charles, and Queen Mary Park in just the past three days. This news
conference and appearances at two public hearings in Council Chambers today mark the
beginning of a year-long campaign to restore public confidence in the process of neighbourhood
renewal.
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For more information, contact:
Michael Evans, spokesperson
Phone: (780) 425-4484
Visit our emerging website at: http://www.mn4rr.ca.
The MN4RR coalition is a grassroots, citizen-driven advocacy network that champions the importance of
good public engagement and the preservation of those attributes that make mature neighbourhoods unique,
without opposing infill delivered by responsible developers directed by appropriate municipal regulation
that achieves community sustainability.