Quote:
Originally Posted by Qmx323
Now this would be very very reasonable pricing. This is very informative.
So basically we had the right idea a few generations ago but stopped due to complaints of the folks living in the areas of potential growth?
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Yep. This video does a nice job explaining how we got here:
Basically rich people didn't want poor people near them (surprise!) and got government to zone most of the land so that only rich people could afford it (detached SFH) - everyone else was forced into apartments. Back then it was to keep minorities rounded up into certain areas (Chinatown and Japantown for example, notice how both towns are in shitty parts of Vancouver?).
So in my example you could take a 33x122 lot in Vancouver and allow 5000sf on it via something like:
- Main building (27' wide, 46' long) consisting of 3 units (a ground level garden suite and a two 2 level units, a front and back or side by side) that would be about 1250sf each.
- 2 story house above a 3 car carport in the back (27' wide, 25' deep that's 1250sf.
Reduce the setback requirement (how far back the front of the building has set back from the front) to 10% from 20% and you'll get a backyard that measures 33'x38' that can be shared (the front yard would be 33'x12'). Reduce the setback to 5% or 0% and you get a very usable, shareable backyard. Allow the main building to be 4 stories and you get another 10' in the backyard (33'48'). Turn the lane (20' wide) into a "street" (it's wider than many streets in Europe/Japan) and you can make the house in the back as appealing as the one in the front.
None of this would "ruin" neighbourhood character - take a walk around Strathcona or parts of Mount Pleasant and you'll see stuff that's not that different from what I described, they're just old b/c they were made before it was banned.