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A surge in downtown construction and a slowdown in suburban growth pushed Edmonton’s infill numbers to within spitting distance of council’s 10-year target last year.

In 2008, Edmonton set a 10-year goal of having one quarter of all new homes to be built each year located within existing areas. On Tuesday, city officials released last year’s total: 24 per cent.

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“We’re feeling pretty good about some of the efforts we’ve made to attract investment back to the inner city and mature neighbourhoods,” said Peter Ohm, head of city planning.

“It’s a combination of all the work we’ve done,” said Ohm, pointing to the increased zoning opportunities to create secondary suites, split lots and build duplexes, plus towers in the downtown core.

The city was at 13 per cent in 2015, down from a high of 19 per cent in 2011. The total number of new units has crept steadily up.

According to the Mature Neighbourhood Reinvestment Report, of the 2,022 units approved in mature and core neighbourhoods last year, half were in the downtown core and most of those were in just two towers. Queen Mary Park, Griesbach and Strathcona saw the next largest increases, with 180 units, 149 units and 87 units, respectively.