Leading other expensive cities in North America, Vancouver, British Columbia is quickly adding accessory dwelling units as a result of permissive regulations approved in 2009.
Frances Bula reports on the planning treatment of so-called "laneway houses" in Vancouver, British Columbia. Vancouver has some of the most permissive regulations for laneway houses (also known as accessory dwelling units or granny flats) in North America.
According to Bula, the city allows "laneway homes to be built on almost all single-family lots." The extremely high costs of housing in Vancouver have inspired many residents of the city to take advantage of the policy. "The city of about 640,000 people has seen almost 2,000 applications for laneway houses in the six years they’ve been allowed. About 85 per cent of those have been built," according to Bula.
"Living in the laneways has proven so popular in Vancouver," adds Bula, "that the city recently initiated a new variation — the laneway apartment building."
The article includes a lot more detail about the nitty gritty of Vancouver's regulations for laneway houses, including some of the tweaks the city made to streamline the permitting process.
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