District Planning

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.

Both The City Plan and district plans encourage and create more opportunities for housing, businesses, amenities and transportation options in the existing redeveloping areas of the city (roughly inside the Anthony Henday). This will help us build a city that feels less anonymous, more personal and ready to welcome new residents.
Simplifying our planning system and retiring planning tools that have served their purpose will help clarify intended development outcomes for both applicants and communities
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.

Provide clear, consistent policy direction for where taller, more intense developments will be supported which makes developing in these areas easier.
- Both The City Plan and district plans direct more intense developments to nodes and corridors. The proposed district plans also support taller buildings outside the nodes and corridors if they meet certain criteria such as being located along an arterial or collector road, on a corner lot, or adjacent to an existing tall building or park (see District Policy 2.5.2.6).
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 future work 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.

Public Hearing Outcome and Next Steps

District Policy and 14 of the District Plans

Rabbit Hill District Plan

District Policy and Plans

Public Engagement

District Maps with Neighbourhoods

Nodes and Corridors Map