Global News Edmonton has reported:

Dozens of residents attended a special Edmonton city council meeting Friday as questions remained about Alberta’s order to roll back the city’s infill zoning rules to those in place before 2024. City officials said they had received only the province’s Oct. 8 announcement and no written directive, leaving many questions from the meeting unanswered.

Mayor Andrew Knack said the provincial move raised concerns about the authority of city council. “This is probably by far and away the most significant line crossing that we’ve ever seen in our local government, across Alberta, in probably our history,” he told reporters Friday.

Knack said he was struggling with the implications for his role. “How do I still follow through on this role when essentially, every decision council makes can be overturned? “It’s a very real question I’m grappling with.” He put forward a motion asking the province to send the city its written directive on the infill rules as soon as possible.

The lack of direction frustrated some people who attended. Jan Hardstaff, with Edmonton’s Residential Infill Working Group, said she remained uncertain about what would happen next. “I’m still unclear as to what direction we’re going,” she said. “It almost seemed as if it was too premature to have a meeting and have the public there because there’s just not enough. They still have a lot of things they need to understand.”

Spectator Michael Demoor said the uncertainty had put council in a difficult position. “The province seems to be making it up as it goes along and doing that very slowly, right, and therefore putting city council in an almost impossible position, so I find that deeply frustrating.”

Premier Danielle Smith and Municipal Affairs Minister Dan Williams defended the province’s decision in comments to reporters on Oct. 8. Smith said, “When you see the kind of reaction that we’ve seen from residents, then we have to step in.” Williams said the province had seen “extreme examples” that were dividing neighbourhoods. “Clearly, this demonstrably tells the province that this needs a pause and sober second thought,” he said.

The province’s order also calls for public engagement, but there is no clarity on how that process will work. The uncertainty leaves open the possibility of a legal challenge, which Knack has raised previously.

Knack said the absence of a written directive was frustrating and embarrassing for the province. “It’s frustrating for everyone, and I think more importantly it’s embarrassing for the provincial government because you would have assumed that when you announce something, you’d actually have something in writing. But they’ve chosen not to do that,” he said.