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The Zoning Bylaw Renewal Initiative was a five-year project to overhaul Edmonton’s Zoning Bylaw - rethinking how, what and why the City regulates in terms of zoning and land development.
Council approved the new Zoning Bylaw (Charter Bylaw 20001) and associated city-wide rezoning (Charter Bylaw 21001) on October 23, 2023. The new bylaw and zoning map came into effect on January 1, 2024.
The bylaw isn't just about today; it's about preparing for tomorrow. It helps support Edmonton’s growth, change and competitiveness, ensuring we are creating a city that is equitable, climate-resilient, livable and adaptable for everyone.
While it may seem far removed from our everyday lives, zoning is everywhere—from parks and playgrounds to the housing we live in and the downtown core. It impacts almost every aspect of the way Edmonton’s land, buildings and neighbourhoods are planned and developed.
The Zoning Bylaw Renewal represented the first comprehensive review of our zoning rules in over 60 years. The last overhaul of the Zoning Bylaw was completed in 1961 when Edmonton’s population was only 276,000. Edmonton is now home to more than 1 million people and is rapidly growing towards a population of 2 million.
Today’s modern city needed modern rules. Achieving The City Plan vision of Edmonton as a healthy, urban, climate-resilient city requires a planning framework that aligns with and advances our city-building goals. Updating our zoning rules to rethink how what and why we regulate in terms of zoning and land development was an integral part of this city-building work.
The new bylaw helps achieve our city-building goals by:
The Zoning Bylaw Renewal Initiative started in 2018. The new bylaw came into effect in January 2024 and is now being implemented. To view a detailed timeline, see the Project Phases and Timeline .
The city-wide rezoning helped realize the vision of the new Zoning Bylaw by applying new zones to all properties in Edmonton. Guiding Principles were created to provide stakeholders and Edmontonians with a degree of transparency and predictability throughout the rezoning process.
The bylaw is housed on a new interactive platform and uses simpler language, visuals and diagrams to improve the user experience.
Thousands of Edmontonians played a critical role in developing the bylaw and ensuring it reflected our community’s values and needs through extensive public engagement since 2018.
Check out the Engagement Reports to read the What We Heard Reports and other summaries of engagement activities with residents, businesses, industry, community organizations and more.
Several progress update reports were presented to the Urban Planning Committee (UPC) in advance of the new Zoning Bylaw going to City Council Public Hearing for adoption in October 2023. This allowed us to hear Edmontonians’ perspectives and to get feedback and direction from members of Council to ensure we were on the right track along the way.
Read the reports and responses to Councillor questions in the Council and Committee Reports.
Regardless of intention, past zoning rules in Edmonton have sometimes had disproportionate impacts for certain members of the population.
We created a GBA+ and Equity Toolkit to guide how best to consider concepts of equity and diversity when drafting the new zoning rules. This included considering the unintended social impacts of regulations and taking thoughtful and decisive action to create an Edmonton for everyone.
For more information on how the Renewal Initiative embedded equity, read the Community Conversations Summary. To request a copy of the GBA+ and Equity Toolkit, email zoningbylaw@edmonton.ca.
The Zoning Bylaw is an essential piece of our city-building puzzle and one of many initiatives shaping Edmonton.
Implementing the new Zoning Bylaw requires updates to development processes and services, as well as thoughtfully planned education, training and awareness opportunities for Edmontonians, applicants and more.
See Zoning Bylaw 20001 for resources to assist in understanding the approved zoning changes and what they mean for Edmontonians, businesses and developers. Resources will continue to be added as they are available.
The Zoning Bylaw is a dynamic tool that will evolve and may be amended over time to meet future priorities. We'll continue to monitor how it's performing and advance more work to support climate resilience, affordable housing and heritage preservation.
