District Planning

District Planning is about changing the way we plan and support development by streamlining our planning framework to create a new foundation for local planning and future policy development. Since a plan for every neighbourhood isn’t feasible — Edmonton has over 300 neighbourhoods — District Planning creates an overarching District Policy and a plan for each of Edmonton’s 15 districts.

Together the new District Policy and plans will help guide growth and change in Edmonton, showing where development, and infrastructure and amenity investment should be encouraged in each district. The intent is to move Edmonton towards The City Plan vision of a healthy, urban, climate resilient city where everyone enjoys easy access to amenities and services close to home.

Developing the District policy and plans involved carefully reviewing and analyzing existing geographic plans, policies and guidelines to determine if they should be kept, changed or retired.

About District Planning

In 2020, Edmonton adopted The City Plan, Edmonton’s combined Municipal Development and Transportation Master Plan, which sets the vision for how we will become a healthy, urban, climate-resilient city of two million people. One of the key goals of The City Plan, known as Community of Communities, is to create more housing in existing neighbourhoods and make amenities and services more accessible.

To help achieve this, The City Plan introduced a new planning geography called the District Network so we could start planning for the future in a new way. Since a plan for every neighbourhood isn’t feasible — Edmonton has over 300 neighbourhoods — the District Network groups collections of neighbourhoods into 15 districts.

District Planning brings The City Plan’s District Network to life by creating an overarching District Policy and plans for all 15 of Edmonton’s districts. This helps move us towards better governance of the planning system, creating a new foundation for local planning and future policy development to build on.

Together the District Policy and plans use a mix of long and short term horizons to identify the specific places where density and development will be supported and encouraged as Edmonton grows. The intent is to move Edmonton towards The City Plan vision of a healthy, urban, climate resilient city where everyone enjoys easy access to amenities and services close to home.

District Planning is rooted in The City Plan direction and doesn’t introduce any new direction or create any new opportunities for growth and development not already broadly identified in The City Plan. It also isn’t about restricting movement, monitoring people or tracking an individual’s carbon emissions, and nothing will be put in place to do so.

While ideally Edmontonians will be able to meet most of their daily needs close to home, districts will not be self-contained. People will continue to travel however they choose, to wherever they want in the city. In fact, district plans will enable better access and movement throughout the city by supporting more transportation options within and between districts.

Watch the April 17, 2024 District Planning media briefing to learn more.

What does it mean for you?

For Edmontonians, the District Policy and plans show where development is encouraged and give them a clearer picture of how they can expect Edmonton and their communities to grow and change over time. The City Plan provides this direction for the entire city, but district plans provide it in more detail.

District Plans describe where the City is encouraging and supporting more housing, businesses, amenities and transportation options within our city’s current boundaries. This will help us build a city that feels less anonymous and more personal, and ready to welcome new residents.
By growing and investing in the existing areas of the city, new residents will be able to make use of existing infrastructure and facilities.
The Policy and plans also identify where new infrastructure and service improvements, such as roadways, parks and transit, will be needed to support future, increased development.

For businesses and the development and construction industry, the Policy and plans will be used to show where development and redevelopment is encouraged and evaluate development proposals, such as rezonings, subdivisions and development permits.

Both The City Plan and district plans create more opportunities for development in the redeveloping areas of the city (roughly inside the Anthony Henday) and direct larger developments to nodes and corridors. Clear support for rezonings in nodes and corridors will help make developing in these areas easier.
Replacing our older, patchwork system of plans with district plans will facilitate a more efficient development review process by reducing the number of conflicting plans and policies the City must review to evaluate development proposals.
A more efficient planning and permitting process reduces barriers to housing and encourages business investment in our city - a key goal of both The City Plan and the Edmonton Economic Action Plan.

For City Administration and City Council, District Planning streamlines and modernizes our planning system, which creates a better foundation for future city-building work.

The District Policy and plans are designed to be comprehensive while still being flexible enough to be updated over time based on our progress towards The City Plan goals. As more work is done to implement The City Plan, new policies and information can be added to the District Policy and plans as needed, rather than creating new local plans.
This will create a consolidated, more easily updatable source of policies to evaluate development proposals and inform infrastructure investment and design decisions, such as for roadways, parks and transit, needed to support increased development.

District Plans and Zoning

The District Policy, plans and the new Zoning Bylaw each play a role in guiding future development to achieve The City Plan vision. The District Policy and plans generally set the vision for how communities will grow and change over time, whereas zoning generally determines what can be developed on a site today.

Development Planners will consult the relevant district plan and associated District Policy direction as required when they must exercise discretion to consider a development permit. If landowners want to build something that is not permitted under the current zoning, they will still need to apply for a rezoning as they do now.

City planners will use the District Policy and plans (and any other relevant statutory plan) to inform their review of rezoning proposals. Based on that review, City planners will provide a recommendation to City Council on whether or not to approve a proposed rezoning.

City Council then makes the final decision at a public hearing. District plans won’t change any aspects of the rezoning process, such as public notification, engagement or participation at the public hearing.

The District Planning project is not proposing to rezone any land across the city. This means that your underlying zone will not change if the District Policy and plans are approved by City Council.

However, through a separate project, the City is exploring targeted rezonings within some of the 19 nodes and corridors identified as Priority Growth Areas in The City Plan (see item 7.4). This project supports the Housing Accelerator Fund actions and is intended to help activate growth and development in these important areas. Communities and businesses in the affected areas will have an opportunity to provide input on the proposed rezonings before they go to City Council Public Hearing for a decision.

Nodes and Corridors

Building and maintaining a city is expensive. As a city grows outwards and new taxpayers help pay for its costs, there are also new roads to plow and pave, new pipes to connect and new parks to mow.

By growing and investing in existing areas of the city, new residents can make use of existing infrastructure and facilities. The City Plan seeks to shift how Edmonton will grow, targeting 50% of growth to happen in redeveloping areas (roughly inside the Anthony Henday).

District plans show the developing, redeveloping and future growth areas identified in The City plan. The plans encourage development intensification in the redeveloping areas of the city (roughly inside the Anthony Henday) and Priority Growth Areas, such as the nodes and corridors, established to support the City’s growth management goals.

Nodes are centres of activity and typically include mass transit stations and important destinations. Corridors are centred around major roads, providing connections within and across districts, and are destinations themselves. The City Plan describes the different types of nodes and corridors in Edmonton, including how big they are and where they are in the city ( see pages 97 to 104 ).

District plans show the boundaries of the nodes and corridors (map) within each district. The District Policy guides where different building heights should receive support within the node and corridor areas. Review the Overview of Changes 2024 to learn more about changes made to the nodes and corridors policies since December 2023.

If you live within a node or corridor, you can expect to see redevelopment in your area over time including construction, potential changes in traffic, and a greater mix of housing and services to accommodate the daily needs of Edmontonians. The Policy and plans will guide where the City should prioritize infrastructure investment to help support the anticipated increased development and redevelopment in these areas.

For more information on how the City is managing its growth, see the Growth Management Framework.

Future Work

Throughout the project we heard feedback on a number of issues that fell outside the scope of District Planning. These included:

Concerns with some City Plan direction
Calls to take more action on climate change and housing affordability, and
The need to address other local concerns in neighbourhoods experiencing change and redevelopment

This feedback is being used to help identify other projects to add to the City’s work plan after district plans are adopted.

After the District Policy and plans are adopted, and more work is done on these issues, new policy and information can be added to the district plans as appropriate. This will help steer the City towards its goals and plan for the next phase of The City Plan.

Project Timeline

Recommend Policy and Plans — We Are Here

Final Policy and plans release (April 2024)

Early release of the final draft District Policy, plans and proposed existing geographic plans to keep, change or retire. This allows Edmontonians and stakeholders time to familiarize themselves with the documents and ask questions prior to public hearing.
Public information and Q&A sessions were held on April 22, 23 and 24, 2024 to help Edmontonians learn more about District Planning, the changes made to the final draft District Policy and plans since 2023, and how to participate in the upcoming public hearing. Comments received will be summarized and relayed to Council for their awareness at the public hearing.
- Watch the information session presentation video

City Council Public Hearing (May 2024)

May 1: Start of the formal public hearing notification period.
May 28: City Council Public Hearing for the proposed District Policy and plans, and existing geographic plans proposed to be retired or changed. Review our Quick Guide to Land Use Statutory Public Hearings to learn more about participating.

Next Steps

Summer 2024: Edmonton Metropolitan Region Board review.
Tentatively early fall 2024: Policy and plans return to City Council for third reading and a final decision. If adopted, the Policy and plans will come into effect immediately.
Tentatively late 2024: Present prioritized list of future work opportunities to Urban Planning Committee.

Finalize Draft Policy and Plans

Second draft Policy and plan feedback (October - November 2023)

Advise-level engagement and technical review to gather feedback on changes made to the draft District Policy, plans and proposed existing geographic plans to keep, change or retire as a result of the Phase 2 Refine-level engagement.
Shared future work priorities for feedback.

Finalize Policy and plans (December 2023 - March 2024)

Urban Planning Committee meeting: District Planning - 1.25 Million and 2 Million Population Milestones (December 2023).
Made final revisions to the draft District Policy and plans based on the November 2023 Advise-level engagement and direction from the Urban Planning Committee.
Finalized the proposed list of existing geographic plans to keep, change or retire.
Themed the feedback on the future work priorities shared during public engagement.

Revise Draft Policy and Plans

Initial draft Policy and plan feedback (June - November 2022)

Refine-level engagement and technical review to gather feedback on:
- How the District Policy guides change within districts
- Node and corridor boundaries in each district
- Errors or missing information in the maps
- Impacts of the recommendations to change, keep or retire existing geographic plans

Revisions to initial draft Policy and plans (December 2022 - early October 2023)

Made revisions to the draft District Policy and plans and proposed list of existing geographic plans to keep, change or retire based on previous Urban Planning Committee direction, and Refine-level stakeholder and public engagement
Identified potential future work priorities
Reviewed impacts of district plans on land development services
Urban Planning Committee meeting: District Planning Project and Engagement Update and District Planning Process - Review of Area Redevelopment Plans (January 2023)

Develop Prototypes and Draft Policy and Plans

Prototype development and testing (January-July 2021)

Created prototypes for the District Policy and three sample district plans, including mapping, illustrations, graphics and graphic design of the plans
Gathered feedback from The City Plan core stakeholders to refine the structure, organization, level of detail, and appearance of the prototypes
Developed existing geographic plan review process
Urban Planning Committee meeting: Advancing City Plan: Systems and Networks (February 2021)
Urban Planning Committee meeting: City Plan Implementation Update: Advancing Edmonton’s Systems (August 2021)

Initial draft Policy and plan development (August 2021-May 2022)

Developed the initial draft District Policy and 15 district plans
Reviewed and made recommendations to either retire, keep or change each existing geographic plan
Urban Planning Committee meeting: District Planning Authorization and Engagement Approach (April 2022)

The City Plan (2018-2020)

The City Plan was developed based on technical studies, policy development and over 2 years of Create and Refine level engagement with thousands of Edmontonians.
During these engagements, Edmontonians shared their desire to live more locally in a “Community of Communities.”
This is why The City Plan introduced a new planning geography called districts - collections of diverse neighbourhoods where Edmontonians can strengthen their connections and meet most of their daily needs closer to home.
The District Planning project translates The City Plan’s policies and applies them at the district level to guide future growth. Therefore, the project is implementing The City Plan’s vision rather than introducing new ideas or visions.

Parking Ban

Share Your Voice at Public Hearing

View the Proposed Policy and Plans

Register to Speak

District Plan Changes

Help Spread the Word

Next Steps

District Policy and Plans

Public Engagement

District Maps with Neighbourhoods

Nodes and Corridors Map