The land use bylaw (LUB) in Lloydminster passed following a council decision.
Council passed the bylaw at the June 9 council meeting after giving the bylaw second and third reading.
The process has been years in the making and the bylaw has seen countless amendments.
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Most recently changes centred around separation from community support centre majors.
At the June 9 meeting, Coun. Michael Diachuk spoke on the bylaw and where the city’s at today.
“We make the best decision with the information we have today and I’m happy with where we’re at, is it perfect? No.But, it’s getting closer to where we want to be and it’s headed in the right direction,” he said.
Diachuk spoke to the need of housing and how the updated bylaw may limit expansion.
“Coming around the corner, we’ve done our housing study, it says we need to build 335 units per year,” said Diachuk. “I’m really afraid if we’re relying upon single-family dwellings to meet that need, we’re going to be hard-pressed to meet the challenge for providing those houses.”
He says looking at multi-family dwellings will be important.
“We really need to be open to multi-family dwelling units, walk ups, apartments, condos, whichever it is. I think that’ll be a challenge for us going forward,” said Diachuk.
“Simply relying upon single-family dwellings is going to be a challenge. Not everybody wants to live in a single-family dwelling.”
Natasha Pidkowa, manager of planning with the City of Lloydminster, says education is important.
“We are starting to work with our developers more and more,” she said.
Mayor Gerald Aalbers says the city doesn’t build houses but looks to other bodies of government to undertake the process.
“We play a crucial role in it, but it’s not for the city to lead,” he said. “We look to the industry, business and the government, be it provincial, federal government to be responsible for housing.”
He says multi-family dwellings are needed in the community.
“We do need condos, we do need townhouses, we do need duplexes, but, we also need single family dwellings,” said Aalbers.
“It’s finding the happy medium.”
Read more: Aalbers elected twice, continues FCM advocacy
