Zoning overhaul starts to deliver on promise of mixed-use neighbourhoods
A bakery and baking school in Bonnie Doon could be one of the first commercial establishments to open within a mature residential neighbourhood under Edmonton's renewed zoning bylaw, more than two years after the overhaul made such developments easier.
The bylaw, which went into effect in January 2024, has delivered on its goal of adding more housing through infill development. But another major goal — to encourage everyday services such as cafés, shops, and small businesses within walking distance — has been slower to materialize.
City administration told Taproot it has issued a development permit at 8820C 92 Street NW to convert the main floor of a house to a bakery and commercial baking school, and to convert the garage into a commercial kitchen. The owner doesn't have a building permit or business licence yet. The property in the French Quarter is zoned small-scale residential (RS) and is adjacent to another commercial building with a café from The Colombian. It's in the vicinity of a small node of non-residential buildings, including Duggan's Boundary Irish Pub and Café Bicyclette.
Lisa Drury, a senior planner with the City of Edmonton, said the potential new bakery is exactly the sort of development city planners hoped to incentivize with the new zoning bylaw.
"There's already neighbourhood commercial activity happening, and it's kind of a natural progression where we're seeing a new commercial opportunity occur with residential," Drury said. "They didn't have to rezone to get these permissions, and their development permit is under their existing zoning."
The updated bylaw makes it easier to open commercial spaces in residential areas by reducing and broadening land‑use categories. Under the previous system, business owners often had to seek rezoning or change‑of‑use permits for relatively small shifts in activity. For example, a clothing store switching from selling new items to secondhand goods required a separate approval. "Now, with the new zoning bylaw, because we have these broader use categories, you wouldn't have to do that," Drury said.
The RS zone, which applies to most of Edmonton's mature neighbourhoods, allows for restaurants, cafés, dental offices, retail stores, hair salons, and offices on some lots within residential areas, in addition to up to eight housing units on a typical lot (which has drawn the ire of some). The zone prohibits outdoor speakers and storage, and caps the size of a restaurant patio to 20 square metres. The bakery in the works "really reflects how the regulations in the RS zone have allowed that sensitive development of commercial to occur within the neighbourhood," Drury said.
This streamlining was a main selling point of the new zoning bylaw when administration was educating residents before it was implemented. A public engagement video from late 2023 said the zoning bylaw renewal initiative would make it a lot easier for a small convenience store or coffee shop to open within a residential neighbourhood. But Drury said this bakery, should it open, will be the first food service establishment in the RS zone, more than two years after the new zoning bylaw went into effect.
Drury said slower-than-expected uptake may reflect market dynamics more than zoning constraints.
"The zoning bylaw enables opportunities for commercial, but a lot of it is guided by the demand," Drury said. "The zoning bylaw is trying to enable and encourage those kinds of uses. However, if that demand is not there, maybe that's part of what we're seeing. Obviously, I can't say that for certain, but I do think that's part of the conversation."
