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Vancouver looks at shrinking size, height of uber-popular laneway houses

October 14th, 2010 · 9 Comments

The laneway houses are proving to be a craze. The city has had 173 applications for laneway houses approved so far and another 50 or so are going through the process. They now account for one out of every eight houses built in the city.

But the city report that just popped up today notes that there are some glitches that still need to be worked out. One is the general size of houses on bigger lots, which can be as large as 750 square feet — bigger than some of the post-war houses we boomers grew up in. One is the height of the houses on both the bigger and the standard 33-foot lots.

City staff are looking at whether there need to be some adjustments made: reduce the overall size of the larger houses, for one. For two, allow the laneway houses on smaller lots to extend further into the backyard so that they have the same amount of square feet, but are one storey instead of two.

No immediate action planned yet, though, which will enrage some people who see this mini-McMansions popping up everywhere. The city’s map in the report seems to indicate, though, that they’re not just a west-side phenomenon, but equally popular on both sides of the city.

And wait for the next step. The city is currently entertaining a proposal from a developer working the 3200-block of East Boulevard, who is suggesting an eight-unit little complex on a lot there, with two strata-titled laneway houses. To this point, the city isn’t allowing strata titles because the aim has been to produce more rental stock, not to create subdivided single-family lots. Not sure where this one will go but, surprise, there’s a neighbourhood group that’s not too excited about this idea.

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