Vancouver Mayor Proposes Again Allowing Six Homes On Single Family Lots

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Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart asked the city on Wednesday to allow up to six homes on single-family lots, a year after the city council rejected a similar proposal.

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Stewart held a press conference to outline his latest plan to allow large single-family homes to be converted or rebuilt into multiple units that could be rented or sold as condominiums.

Stewart plans to present the motion at a council meeting in January. Some observers noted that this means the debate is likely to continue until the municipal election campaign in October 2022.

Stewart described his proposal as a “bold” move to create more sustainable and vibrant neighborhoods and add affordable options for working families excluded from the housing market in recent years, as successive councils failed to take decisive action.

The program would be designed to limit speculation, Stewart said, with mechanisms to “capture” the rise in land values ​​and use those funds for priorities that include social housing, child care and addressing climate change.

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A draft version of Stewart’s motion outlines a policy that allows up to 2,000 lots to be considered initially for these renovations, with “modest height increases to ensure compatibility with neighboring buildings.”

Marianne Amodio, architect with MA + HG Architects , said at the press conference that he wanted to dispel the idea that these bylaw changes would produce large buildings and out of context.

The buildings considered in such a program, Amodio said, would not necessarily look out of place on residential city streets, and he showed renderings of a layout for a four-unit main building separated by a backyard from a two-street house. units. .

“This is not a new idea,” Amodio said.

For many years, she said, she and other architects have studied how to add “more legal housing to exclusive zoning.”

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Reporters asked Stewart why he was putting forward this proposal now, after he tried a year ago to come up with a very similar proposal, which was not supported by the council.

Stewart said he had spoken with council members after his “trial” last year failed to garner the necessary support, and he is optimistic that his new, slightly modified proposal will be successful.

Last year, Stewart tried to present his pilot project of six units in a lot as an amendment to another councilor’s motion. Speaking on Wednesday, he said he was told by some councilors that they did not support last year’s proposal because “they didn’t have a lot of time to think about it due to the nature of the way it was presented. And that depends on me. I presented it as an amendment to a more general motion, where I should have presented it as a full motion, and that’s what I’m doing now. “

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Before the new motion is debated in January, councilors, city staff and the public should have plenty of time to consider it, Stewart said. “Starting in 2022, that is the choice before us: Will we do this or not? I know where my vote is. “

Reporters asked Stewart how the timing of approving and implementing such a program would play out given the upcoming election on October 15, 2022.

Stewart said he “hadn’t really thought about that,” prompting laughter from some journalists in the room, before adding, “If it was before (the election), that’s fine, if it’s after, that’s fine too. It’s really what it’s good for the city. “

University of British Columbia associate professor Tom Davidoff, who also appeared Wednesday to endorse the mayor’s proposal, said “it’s hard to see how this would not be a key issue in the election.”

After the new conference, Davidoff said: “This is a pretty concrete example of the kinds of things that might be acceptable to a lot of people. … Debating whether we want to have an absolute status quo, or this logical and incremental step, seems to me absolutely the right way to discuss housing in elections. “

While some members of the public and political opponents are likely to oppose Stewart’s proposal, Davidoff said “it would be very prudent for him to turn this issue into a loophole.”

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