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Secondary-suite reform is back on the agenda at city hall, this time with four suggested tweaks including introducing fines for landlords who advertise their non-registered suites for rent.

Ward 10 councillor and mayoral candidate Andre Chabot has brought forward a four-part plan, scheduled to be debated by council next week, that he believes will bring more illegal suites into compliance and cut down on the hours city council spends hearing suite applications.

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Chabot’s ‘Reforming the Secondary Suite Process’ notice of motion calls for secondary suites listed for rent to be registered with the city’s existing suite registry program (with a fine schedule developed for those who don’t comply), a limit of one secondary suite application per citizen per year, and a bylaw amendment to differentiate between basement suites and garage or laneway suites in a backyard.

The motion also asks bureaucrats to develop a list of potential zones suitable for secondary-suite designation (for example, inner-city areas near LRT stations), and to then create a system in which a certain percentage of area residents could petition to allow suites in that specific area. It’s similar to the existing system used to establish residential parking zones.