Town addresses garden suite bylaw petition

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Town of Strathmore council discussed a petition that had been submitted to them regarding the recently passed garden suite bylaw.

The petition was addressed during the Sept. 18 regular meeting of council, as it had been submitted at the end of August by Strathmore resident, Claude Brown. 

Following the passing of the bylaw, July 3, Brown began to canvas the town and speak to fellow residents, gauging their opinions on the bylaw. 

As he introduced himself to council, Brown conceded that according to the Municipal Government Act, his petition was insufficient to automatically prompt council to respond to it.

Among his talking points regarding the petition, Brown cited that a large majority of residents he spoke with were unaware of the bylaw having been passed. 

“Nine in 10 people who I spoke with did not even know about the bylaw being passed or what it was about,” he said. “We did get over 600 signatures, and 600 signatures is not something that is of inconsequence … 627 by my count; that is just under five per cent of the population.”

Brown cited as a result of his survey, 84 per cent of people he spoke with were in opposition to the bylaw and wish to see it repealed. 

Following Brown’s presentation, Mayor Pat Fule defferred to town administration for clarification regarding distribution and advertising to the public regarding discussion of the bylaw prior to its passing. 

“Land use bylaw amendments typically take 18 to 24 months from beginning to finish, so this started in August of 2022 and it concluded in June, so 20-ish, 21 months or so … there was an insert in the August 2022 utility newsletter; there (were) eight advertisements in the Strathmore Times, including four advertisements of the public hearing on June 12, 2024, June 19, 2024, June 26, 2024, and July 3, 2024. As well, the town did digital media for the feedback that has been referenced in the survey,” said CAO Kevin Scoble. 

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“There was also a notice of the public hearing on social media on June 20, 2024, June 24, and June 25, 2024. Stuff that the town did not initiate, there was a series of 12 articles in local media between 2020 and 2024.”

Fule added an emphasis to the public that the decision to pass the bylaw amendment was not made “in the shadows,” but rather the town did make available to the public information that was relevant to the bylaw and how it may impact them.

“The idea of having garden and garage suites came from a place of us being incredibly worried about the lack of housing for people in the town,” said Fule. “The other thing that I hope people realize is that this is not going to happen willy-nilly. We are not just rezoning things; there is a lot of work that has to be done by anyone thinking of having a garage conversion – it would cost a very high amount of money, you would have to bring (a structure) up to current codes, so it is not something that is going to happen all over the community.”

Though the bylaw was passed unanimously on July 3, any councillor may bring the bylaw back to council six months following its passing should they believe it necessary. 

The full discussion which took place in council is publicly available for viewing via the town’s YouTube channel for the Sept. 18 meeting.