City staff are behind a community-based initiative to study the issue of triplex conversions which, says one city councillor, may help to define limits to intensification in existing neighbourhoods.

The issue of triplexes, both legal and not, has been a hot one among west end community associations of late, with many opposing owner's rezoning applications to allow conversions of duplexes for fear that the local character is being gradually eroded.

City council has approved several such applications this year, accepting the opinions of city planners that they meet goals in the Official Plan to intensify existing communities and thus reduce sprawling development.

The study area will be the Queensway Terrace North subdivision.

The Queensway Terrace North Community Association (QTNCA) gave unanimous approval to the study during its annual general meeting held late in November.

Local city Coun. Alex Cullen has drafted a motion for the initiative that will appear before the city's planning committee Dec. 14.

The motion includes a request to city council for an interim control by-law which will temporarily suspend any triplex rezoning applications from the area for one year, with the possibility of an additional year.

Residents will form a committee with city staff, explained QTNCA President Henry Sweich, which will make recommendations to council.

"That will determine, pretty much, the fate of this community in terms of intensification," he said.

Coun. Cullen said the idea began during his monthly meeting with constituents in September, where a resident presented a list of 19 properties in the area allegedly converted without proper approvals.

"It will serve as a bellwether to the larger issues of intensification across the city," he said. "Part of the issue that we have here is that, in drawing a line on urban sprawl as a means of addressing growth, the city is promoting intensification.  But there's a community concern about inappropriate or excessive intensification.  Council has yet to address that issue."

Zoning by-laws are enforced on a complaint basis, Coun. Cullen said, and he has found that, in spite of the scope of the problem in Queensway Terrace North, many residents are reticent to turn in landlords who are also their neighbours.

"He put the community and the city on the spot," Mr. Sweich said of the resident's triplex list.  "Now we're in a situation where we have no choice but to address this issue once and for all."

When such owners are found out, however, they have the option to go through the approvals process, which triggers public meetings, which in turn bring out the question common to such cases: will approval set a precedent?

"The concern that the community has is, if they become legalized, does that open the door to a transformation of Queensway Terrace North," Coun. Cullen said.  "That's why we're having the study."

Mr. Sweich said he has little confidence, given the city's tendency to approve triplexes, that the study will result in solid protections from spot rezonings.

"I'm not optimistic about the end result, because of the Official Plan and the fact that the city has really done nothing in the past to help this community when it comes to triplexes.  They've just approved them all."