Red Deer city councillors all agreed on Tuesday that Red Deer desperately need more housing.
But they did not unanimously agree to allow a federal program to dictate where this housing should go.
City council was asked by administration to endorse principles set out by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation that must be followed if the City of Red Deer is successful in getting a housing grant from the CMHC's Housing Accelerator Fund.
One of the principles was ending exclusionary zoning — which would allow for four-plexes to be built on any residential lot in the city.
City councillors Kraymer Barnstable, Victor Doerksen, Vesna Higham and Dianne Wyntjes did not vote in favour of this, saying council just went through a long public consultation process to update and change the existing Zoning Bylaw.
Wyntjes said she's concerned about where this principle will leave her if there was a public outcry against a four-plex development. Agreeing with this notion upfront, and then changing her mind after hearing from the public "is not ethical decision making."
"I strongly don't support this," said Barnstable. "I don't want to go down a road where I'm feeling hamstrung..."
But Mayor Ken Johnston — who had just heard last week from a distressed woman who could find nowhere to live — made an impassioned plea to council to agree to the CMHC program's terms so a grant application can be made.
He noted that the City of Saskatoon succeeded at getting a Housing Accelerator grant and is now trying to mitigate the four-plex rule by stipulating the amount of frontage that lots must have to accommodate multi-unit developments.
If Red Deer is lucky enough to get a Housing Accelerator grant then community conversations can be had about the terms — and if need be, the money can be returned, said Johnston. "But at least we need to be able to tell the public that we've kicked over every rock possible," in getting more housing started to alleviate the local crisis.
He added it's young people, marginalized people, and lower-income people that city council is leaving in the lurch if it doesn't try to apply for this housing grant.
"Are we interested in growing (as a city) or not?" said Johnston, who noted there's no room for newcomers with Red Deer's vacancy rate of less than one percent.
In the end, the majority of city council — Johnston, as well as Councillors Bruce Buruma, Chad Krahn, Lawrence Lee and Cindy Jefferies — voted to accept the CMHC terms so administration can make the grant application.