Increasing the Interest in Coach Houses
The use of coach houses creates the opportunity to provide increased density while maintaining the character and nature of a neighbourhood. Their existence also allows families to deal with changing living situations as owners have the opportunity to downsize to the coach house and allow the next generation to live in the main home.
Coach house use has become popular in the City of Vancouver with well over 500 built, but since the West Vancouver City Council approved coach houses in July 2014, only seven homeowners have made applications to construct.
In November 2015, West Vancouver City Council approved examining actions to “incentivize” the development of coach houses. One idea was to streamline the development permit process as well as the building permit process. Additionally, there has been thought of allowing ground-level “basements” of pre-1990 houses to be exempt from FSR calculations.
We wrote an article in January 2015 that compared the Vancouver Coach House program to the North Shore Coach House programs.
From that analysis it seems clear that two things are needed to truly incent the building of Coach Houses:
1) Allowance of an increase in Floor Space Ratio (FSR) with the addition of a coach house.
2) Allowing both a coach house and a secondary suite on a single property.
Other changes may provide some increase in North Shore coach house applications, but they will be marginal compared to the results seen in the City of Vancouver.
Reducing Monster Houses
Monster Homes have become an increasingly hot topic in West Vancouver over the past few years as neighbourhoods find themselves dominated by massive new home that don’t fit the character of the area. As discussions, and incremental changes continue, about 150 bulk building homes are constructed each year.
One of the most recent examples is on Mathers Avenue in Ambleside that will be 26,000 square feet. Residents are upset as undoubtedly this house will dominate the smaller character homes in this historic area.
Current regulations allow consolidation of lots which results in the ability to build even larger houses. Proposed regulations would limit a consolidated lot house to 150% of the minimum lot area.
There have also been recommendations to introduce residential fencing and landscape regulations, as well as rules governing the treatment of roads and lanes.
Alair Homes West Vancouver
As an active West Vancouver builder we strive to stay on top of the ever changing regulatory and zoning requirements. So if you have any questions or are envisioning a West Vancouver build or renovation, why not drop us a line. We’d be more than happy to hear about the project that you have in mind and answer any of your questions.