Ashley SalvadorEvery podcast appearance, updated as new ones drop

Recorded on the Valley Line Southeast LRT! We're joined by ETS branch manager Carrie Hotton-MacDonald, councillors Anne Stevenson and Ashley Salvador, new Taproot Edmonton managing editor Tim Querengesser, and several others. Here are the relevant links for this episode: Guests Carrie Hotton-MacDonald Anne Stevenson Ashley Salvador Mike Kunicki Tim Querengesser New managing editor Meet Taproot Edmonton's new managing editor Valley Line Southeast LRT Valley Line Southeast LRT opening Nov. 4 Citizens assemble to celebrate Valley Line Southeast LRT opening Other Arc card adoption reaches 63% Using CRL to fund office conversions seen as a gamble This episode was sponsored by the Edmonton Community Foundation , which together with the Edmonton Social Planning Council has released Vital Signs. This year's report focuses on food security, how it has changed over the last 10 years, and where we are today. You can see the latest report at ecfoundation.org/vitalsigns . Speaking Municipally is produced by Taproot Edmonton , a source of curiosity-driven original stories, curated newsletters on various topics, and locally focused podcasts, all in the service of informing Edmontonians about what is going on in their community. Sign up to get The Pulse , our weekday news briefing. It's free! ★ Support this podcast ★

Here are the relevant links for this episode: Michael Janz (papastew) Councillor profile @michaeljanz Ashley Salvador (Métis) Councillor profile @AshleyASalvador Anne Stevenson (O-day'min) Councillor profile @edmonton_anne Speaking Municipally is a proud member of the Alberta Podcast Network : locally grown, community supported. This week we talked about Park Power , your friendly, local utilities provider in Alberta. Offering Internet, Electricity, and Natural Gas with low rates, awesome service, and profit-sharing with local charities. We also highlighted Alberta Blue Cross , which offers group benefit plans that enable employees to manage their own health, dental, life and disability coverage online. Speaking Municipally is produced by Taproot Edmonton , a source of curiosity-driven original stories, curated newsletters on various topics, and locally focused podcasts, all in the service of informing Edmontonians about what is going on in their community. Sign up to get The Pulse , our weekday news briefing. It's free! ★ Support this podcast ★

Here are the relevant links for this episode: 77 trees 'It's a bummer': Edmonton chops 77 trees near cemetery for new sidewalk, bike lanes Ditch the draft Protesters call for Alberta government to scrap K-6 draft curriculum AHS CEO Dr. Verna Yiu out as president and CEO at Alberta Health Services Michael Janz @michaeljanz Meet the councillors: Sarah Hamilton and Michael Janz look forward to team-building Ashley Salvador @AshleyASalvador Meet the councillors: Keren Tang and Ashley Salvador identify key priorities as they begin their terms Links from the discussion Curbing Excessive Executive Compensation Fire, police team up to extinguish growing problem of suspicious fires in northeast Edmonton 2019: City may back out of suburban development biz, council votes Speaking Municipally is a proud member of the Alberta Podcast Network : locally grown, community supported. This week we highlighted ATB , which was built to help Alberta businesses. Be sure to check out The Future Of , a podcast hosted by ATB's chief economist, Todd Hirsch. We also spoke about The Well Endowed Podcast from the Edmonton Community Foundation. Episode 119 looks at how The Dash Fund helps keep the memory of a very special pet alive while supporting pets in need. Speaking Municipally is produced by Taproot Edmonton , a source of curiosity

Ashley is the founder and president of YEGarden Suites and Calgary Backyard Suites - Alberta’s only education and advocacy-based non-profits dedicated to informing citizens on the benefits, challenges, and regulations surrounding backyard housing. She is also the CEO of Municipaction Inc., a consulting firm that supports Edmontonians in their city-building endeavours. She has experience working across sectors on projects related to affordable housing, climate change, social isolation and inclusion, infill policy, seniors housing, and demographic change. Born and raised in Edmonton, Ashley holds a BA Honours in Sustainability and Sociology from Dalhousie University, and an MA Planning degree from the University of Waterloo. [00:00:00] Kol Peterson: Good morning. Ashley Salvador: Morning, Kol.. Kol Peterson: Thanks so much for coming on today. Ashley Salvador: Thanks for having me. Kol Peterson: And I'm super excited to talk with you about the work that you've done. I've been a fan of your research for a number of years and never had a chance to really talk with you directly. I've read your work because you put some of that content on AccessoryDwellings.Org initially, and that's kind of how I first learned about it. So let's dive right in. So tell us about yourself and where Edmonton is for those who aren't familiar with Edmonton. Ashley Salvador: Sure. So first of all, I've been tended in Alberta. Some of you may notice the Texas of the north. It's not necessarily that I would say, Hmm. Conservative. We, we actually have a lot of progressive policies here, a lot of really young folks who are looking to push the policies in a really good direction. On the, on the ADU front, things have moved quite quickly over the last couple of years to allow for, the diversity of sizes, sizes of ADUs basically across the entire [00:01:00] city at this point as a permitted use. Yeah. And. Just for a bit of context, we're looking at getting rid of our parking minimums entirely. So if that gives you a sense of kind of where we sit as a city and where our city councilors are at that's that's Edmonton. Kol Peterson: Yeah. Cool. So how did you get involved in doing ADU research and work? Ashley Salvador: Yeah. So it actually started in my undergrad. I have a degree in sustainability and sociology from Dalhousie University. And I started to get really interested in basically cities as human habitats and the ways that our cities are helping us thrive, but also the ways that they're kind of detrimental to So from a sustainability lens, I was always interested in the ways that we can help our cities grow, grow inward as opposed to outwards forever endlessly. And at some point along the way, I came across ADUs as a way for everyday homeowners to participate [00:02:00] in kind of the remaking and rebuilding of their cities. So that's, that's where it started. Kol Peterson: And can you tell us about some of the key findings of your undergrad and master's degree research in of garden suites and secondary suites, and actually, maybe take a second to define garden suites for people since that's a different term. Ashley Salvador: Absolutely. So garden suites would be a detached accessory dwelling unit. Most folks will know them as that. Also known as laneway homes, granny flats. The list goes on in Edmonton attached, ADUs. So ones that are typically located in a basement, those are considered secondary suites. So most of my research focuses on detached accessory dwelling units, so independent from the main house. And I've done two studies at this point. One was in 2016 to 2017 and one I'm currently doing right now. So I, in terms of key findings just reflecting back on the study done in 2016, one of the big findings coming out of [00:03:00] that and Kol, you know all about this is voluntary, affordable. There was a really good study actually out in Portland that did a full sample or a full survey of owners at that time. And similar findings were, were discovered there around the affordability benefits. Kol Peterson: Let's just dive into voluntary affordability and then we'll go back to other findings. Ashley Salvador: Yeah. So basically what I wanted to look at from my research was whether or not it user functioning as a form of affordable housing and what the relationship between the owner and attending. Has to do with that affordability conversation. So in Edmonton, it was found that close to half of the people who are building these gardens suites are doing so for family or friends to live in. The other half are doing it for a traditional rental income. And when you bring affordability into that conversation it was found that the folks who are renting to family and friends are charging ultra low, sometimes zero rent. [00:04:00] And I mean, it, it seems pretty intuitive. You're not going to charge grandma a bunch of money, the same way you would just a, an unknown tenant. But being able to put that, that finding on paper and actually have similar findings popping up in other cities like Portland, it shows that there is a trend and it shows that ADUs in some capacity are functioning differently in a traditional rental property. And part of that has to do with the fact that these are homeowner developers, right? They're not, these big wig professional developers who are just trying to do it for a money-making opportunity. There's social reasons in there as well. Kol Peterson: Let's go back to the original research. Aside from the, just generally speaking that voluntary affordability is one of the things that happens with ADUs, what are some other key findings from your original research? Ashley Salvador: Yeah. So from the original study I also looked at barriers to development. And one of the biggest [00:05:00] barriers at that time was cost and financing. So it turns out that around 70% of the folks who were building ADUs had a household income of over a hundred thousand dollars annually. So that also brings into question who is able to even benefit from ADUs.. And it was looking like at that time it was really reserved for folks who are in that higher income bracket.. So that was, that was a big finding. One that I like is folks who are building and living in ADUs don't own as many cars. So it is just that they are trying to. Either by choice or just by the location they live in, in the city live a more sustainable, less auto dependence lifestyle. Kol Peterson: So regarding voluntary affordability, I think you've found some interesting things. Can you go into a little bit more depth about some of the data that you were able to derive from your research? Ashley Salvador: Yeah, absolutely. And I'll, I'll bring in the current research as well. Cause there was also some findings around [00:06:00] voluntary affordability there. And so if we break down the numbers if you're looking at kind of a typical rent or comparable unit in Edmonton, you'd be looking at around, $1,100, maybe $1,200. Whereas an ADU who is rented to not a family member---the owner does not know the tenants. It would be comparable, sometimes slightly higher. Whereas if you renting to a family member you're looking between that $500, maybe $700 range. So there's a pretty significant gap between those two and that's not accounting for the people who are discharging zero rent at all. And I think one of the interesting things is on top o