Despite very lean agendas for this week's committee meetings, Edmonton City Council got quite a bit done.

Mature Neighbourhood Overlay

This week Mayor Don Iveson made infill an election issue.

The Mature Neighbourhood Overlay, a set of zoning restrictions that apply specifically to areas of the city that house mature neighbourhoods.

There were 25 speakers that registered to talk about the MNO with some saying the permitted uses went too far, and others saying the regulation did not go far enough. David Staples argues that the MNO is too timid.

Don Iveson's motion requests administration provide a report this September outlining areas within the MNO that might benefit from taller heights or shorter distances from the street - perhaps areas near major streets or transit corridors. This targeted and more neighbourhood-specific infill strategy is set to become an issue for the election this October.

FOIP Process

A report on the City's FOIP (Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy) process came back to Executive Committee this week. I spoke at the committee arguing for a more concierge-like service - you can read my thoughts on A Better, More Welcoming FOIP Experience for Edmonton.

Frequently, when Council has an interesting question that administration does not have the answer to immediately, they provide the answer later to Council in the form of a memo. These memos are not public, so the public and journalists are often left in the dark about many aspects of city administration.

Thanks to Elise Stolte's hard work, these memos will now be public on an ongoing basis. Continuing the trend of increased disclosure, administration will also draft a procedure for make private reports public when the reason for making them private no longer applies. For example, if a report was private because it contained details about an unsigned contract, after the negotiation is complete, there is no longer any reason to keep it private.