High River Town Council finally made a decision on what to do with secondary suites in R-1 neighbourhoods after Monday's council meeting.

The motion on the table was to allow secondary suites in R-1 neighbourhoods as permitted use, meaning residents in R-1 areas would be allowed to have legal, secondary suites. As long as the suites were safe and up to code, the Town would have very little involvement in the process.

When the motion was brought forward, Town Council opposed the motion by a 6-1 vote, with Don Moore being the only one in opposition. A decision was made to not allow secondary suites as permitted use, but to instead keep the rules the same as they are now where you can have secondary suites in R-1 districts, but in order to do so, you would have to get your home rezoned from R1 to R1a.

Councillor Dragan Brankovich spoke up first, saying having secondary suites as a permitted use would be the easy way out because Council wouldn't have to deal with the issue.

"I can't justify taking these abilities away and the opportunities for residents to say what it is they have to say when it comes to the development of suites in their neighbourhood," Brankovich said. "It must not be lost from sight that the reason this council pursues this policy is not really that we want to reduce the workload burden on us and administration. It is our job to do that. The primary purpose and goal of this policy would be to ensure we have an effective mechanism in place that would encourage development of legal suites and enforce the performance of legal suites."

Councillor Bruce Masterman also said he wouldn't support the motion, but said he would support a discretionary use bylaw.

"The report indicates that it's quite a rigorous process involved (in discretionary use) and I think that's a good thing," he says. "I think we need to keep a handle on secondary suites. We need to have some control on R-1 neighbourhoods. There's a reason people chose to live there and spend the money to invest there. I think by having discretionary (use), you're still leaving the door open for secondary suites. They would just have to comply with certain conditions."

Councillor Cathy Couey also weighed in with her opinion, saying the proposed motion is more suited towards new suites and not illegal suites, which she says is a big concern.

"If we don't simplify the process and we don't allow them in R-1 (districts), illegal suites will continue to be developed," she says. "I'm not convinced it's entirely the process that does deter (homeowners). I have to wonder how many cases where it's the additional cost to bring them up to code (that deters them)."

Mayor Craig Snodgrass, who was previously debating whether the suites should be permitted or discretionary, says now he doesn't think the bylaw should change at all.

"If you're looking at the issue of the process, to me the process is just fine. This council has been inundated with (secondary suites) because of the flood everyone redoing their basements, so we've dealt with a lot of them--19. For previous councils, (there have only been) two or three a year, so it's not that big of a deal."

He says he would, however, like to see a bylaw in place that would help crack down on illegal suites.

Council has asked administration to provide legal information on how to deal with illegal suites.