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The city needs to allow a wider variety of housing in mature areas so the population and amenities in these communities don’t stagnate, an Edmonton urban planner said Wednesday.

Too many neighbourhoods contain almost exclusively traditional single-family houses when they should also offer skinny homes, places where several generations can live together, and condos for empty-nesters, said Simon O’Byrne, Stantec’s vice-president of community development.

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He suggested city officials update zoning laws to make it easier to create small lots, secondary and garage suites, corner duplexes and buildings up to about 12 storeys high along major thoroughfares.

This would increase the city’s stock of affordable housing, he said after a lunch speech to the Edmonton chapter of NAIOP, an international commercial real estate development association.

“To have complete communities, we need to have a wide variety of neighbourhoods,” O’Byrne said.