On March 12, 2018 City Council approved amendments to the Land Use Bylaw that allow secondary suites as a discretionary use within the R-1, R-C1, and R-C1L land use districts. They also approved adding backyard suites to these districts, but asked City staff to develop standards relating to the design of backyard suites before finalizing this approval. These approvals are part of a process reform for secondary suites. Applicants can now apply for a development permit as the first step in building a secondary suite in these land use districts. The development permit fee for all new secondary suite applications is being waived until June 1, 2020.

Council directed Administration to return with:

• standards relating to the design of backyard suites across all districts before the end of 2018.
  Backyard suites applications in R-1, R-C1 and R-C1L land use districts will not be accepted until the standards are approved by Council;
• proposed draft amendments to the Suite Registry program

Learn more about the benefits of secondary suites, development permit process, apply for a secondary suite or Suite Registry program.

The standards for backyard suites under development will apply across all districts and are intended to improve the fit of backyard suites in built out communities.

City staff have been reviewing feedback from citizens from previous engagement on backyard suites, discussions at Council, and feedback from neighbouring land owners on past backyard suite applications. This background has given city staff a preliminary overview of the major concerns that neighbours have about backyard suites.

Targeted discussions and workshops with representatives from a number of Calgary's community associations were held to review these concerns, to discuss concerns that may not have been captured and to explore options to address these concerns.

These discussions, with the feedback from this survey, will form the basis for proposed rule changes and design standards for backyard suites. These guidelines will be presented to Council in early 2019.

In June 2018, The City was collecting input into the proposed changes to Land Use Bylaw rules and to new guidelines to help make new backyard suites more acceptable and fitting into communities. This feedback opportunity is now closed.

A What We Heard Report summarizing the comments received can be found here