Proposed changes to laneway homes being rolled out this week
Posted March 5, 2013 7:23 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Laneway homes have been popping up all over Vancouver over the past few years and the City is looking to expand the program even further.
Proposed changes are being rolled out at two public open houses this week. The consultations are meant to introduce those changes, as well as address neighbourhood concerns like parking and height.
“There’s every effort made to avoid those issues, but they still come up,” admits Councillor Geoff Meggs.
“I think there are also concerns about how many laneway homes should occur in a given block or whether it’s possible to even limit that.”
Bill McCreery, an NPA council candidate in the last civic election, thinks the City needs to give neighbours more of a say. “They’re not notified that this is happening and then all of a sudden, before they know it, they’ve got a construction project in their backyard literally.”
McCreery, who proposed a moratorium on laneway housing during the 2011 campaign, feels there needs to be a greater community conversation about increases to density.
“The community may or may not want to use that kind of housing in their neighbourhood… they should have the right to say, ‘No, we don’t want that in our neighbourhood.'”
Meggs counters that people are becoming more accepting of laneway homes.
“In 2010, when the program was getting started, there [were] 39 complaints and in 2012 there’s been 14,” he points out.
“So, the number of complaints has been dropping steadily as people become more familiar with laneway housing but also, I think, planners and builders are getting more sophisticated about avoiding any friction,” he adds.
The City issued a record 350 laneway housing permits in 2012, a big increase from the yearly average of 146 recorded between 2009 and 2011.
The first of two open house happens tomorrow between 4:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at the Polish Community Centre on Fraser Street.
The other is planned for Thursday between 4:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at the Hellenic Community Centre on Arbutus Street.
