Keren’s professional experience merges her background in community development, human-centred design, and the social determinants of health to co-create solutions and build communities. She is a firm believer in the power of peer-to-peer and neighbour-to-neighbour networks.

Having worked both for frontline community organizations and in policy development with both provincial and city governments, Keren is a strong bridge between the two sectors. She brings a public health lens, people-first approach, and justice and equity centred values to the decision-making table. 

Her experience as the Project Manager for the City's Recover initiative—a project focused on improving urban wellness in the downtown core—has exposed her to productive and creative ways of bringing together diverse stakeholders from public, private, and community sectors, and overcoming differences. Keren thrives on facilitating conversations that build trust and co-create innovative solutions and processes that work for everyone.

What steps do you believe are necessary for Edmonton to achieve balanced growth between greenfield and infill development as outlined in the City Plan?

According to the City Plan, much of the growth in residential dwellings to support Edmonton’s population increasing from one to two million people will take place on the periphery of the city. In Ward Karhiio, most of this will be greenfield development in the short-term as the city limit expands toward Beaumont. In the long-term redevelopment and infill will be key to providing affordable and accessible homes for all Edmontonians, and we need tools that make infill projects easier to approve and execute.

To achieve balance, I believe that we should not only concentrate on greenfield development in the short-term, but also look at meaningful opportunities for redevelopment. Our development strategy must be proactive and strategic. We need to consider the effectiveness and economics of municipal service delivery as our population grows, as well as ensuring that climate mitigation and adaptation create the strategic foundation for all of our plans.

How will you support Edmonton’s competitive advantage and market affordable housing? How do you see fees, levies, taxes and municipal cost control playing a role in housing affordability? Note: CHBA-ER refers to “market affordable housing” as housing that is market priced and meets the general requirements of affordability based on household income. Market affordable housing may include market rental housing and market home ownership.

Edmonton’s affordable housing advantage exists due to high median household incomes and an abundance of land.

The key to any affordable housing market is balancing supply with demand. Edmonton is uniquely advantaged over many jurisdictions due to the abundance of land in the surrounding regions. With our annexation strategy in place, our city can continue to provide market-affordable housing for years to come. As city councillor, I will be advocating for the expansion of 50th street into Beaumont to accommodate the southward expansion of Ward Karhiio.

However, continued outward growth is not a sustainable strategy to control affordability. I will also advocate for increasing density in our neighbourhoods through creative redevelopment projects and transit oriented development along the new LRT lines.

Property taxes, levies and fees are a cost associated with homeownership and it is our job as a city to ensure these costs are maintained at reasonable levels while our city grows.

What steps do you believe are necessary to reduce red tape and support business investment in the residential construction industry?

To smooth the process and support business investments in the residential construction industry, I believe we need simple, fast, and fair permitting processes, and adequate oversight, partnerships and resources with organizations that can provide strong linkages between communities and developers. City development needs to be collaborative, cooperative, forward-thinking, focused, and fair.

The city should start thinking with a person-centred mindset with a commitment to processing all permit requests within a specific period of time. I know from first hand experience that when pressed, the city can deliver permits in days or even hours - I will be advocating for these types of timelines to become the new norm.

Do you support welcoming a diversity of housing types throughout Edmonton?

Yes! Diverse housing options are necessary for affordability, quality of life, and respond to the life cycle of neighbourhoods to sustain schools and communities.

To ensure diverse housing, I will: Work with communities and industry partners to ensure that diverse housing options, distributed throughout the city, are available for all, through all stages of life, co-locating with social and city services wherever appropriate to create a joint, cohesive support network

Encourage the City to apply best practices and processes in community planning so that people have choice in housing and the opportunity to live in great neighbourhoods

How do you envision City Council expanding infrastructure capacity to support future development as outlined in the City Plan?

City Council will play a key role in expanding Edmonton’s infrastructure to support development. There are several key elements that I see as important to this work:

• Fighting for a better regional infrastructure funding model to help pay for critical infrastructure, including region-supporting arteries like 50th Street
• Advocating for true 15-minute neighbourhoods and permissive zoning that allows for diverse land use within our neighbourhoods to encourage density, and community economic development
• Focusing on data driven improvements to our infrastructure, and data informed development
• Supporting innovation and technology advancements that improve Edmonton’s mobility networks so that people living across the City can commute with ease

Do you support the goals of the Community Energy Transition Strategy? How do you envision the City of Edmonton achieving these goals?

Yes, I support the goals of the Community Energy Transition Strategy. The City of Edmonton declared a state of Climate Emergency in summer 2019, and we are already feeling the impacts of climate change. Heat waves, wildfires, smoke advisories, drought, and flooding threaten our quality of life. Infrastructure damage will cost us financially too.

Cities have an important role to play in leading climate change mitigation and adaptation initiatives. While climate change efforts are underway at both national and provincial levels, local solutions need to come from the local level.

The updated Community Energy Transition Strategy and Action Plan is a detailed document with program and action plans to achieve the goals it sets. To facilitate its implementation, City Council must:

• Commit to progressing its implementation
• Proactively invest in infrastructure and development practices to mitigate the effects of climate change and to adapt toward being a climate resilient city
• Use climate science to inform Council’s decision-making
• Encourage community level climate initiatives including community gardens, tree planting, tool libraries and other sharing organizations, repairathons, and community solar projects
• Advocate for the preservation of our river valley and green spaces

Is there anything about your platform that you think CHBA-ER members should know?

Please visit kerentang.ca/platform for my full platform.