Laneway Homes have hit 500 in the city of Vancouver

The city of Vancouver has issued 800 permits for laneway homes since the program started in 2009. 500 of the homes have been built. Vancouver started laneaway homes with the hopes of increasing the detached houses available to single families, renters and seniors with more access to transit in established residential neighborhoods.The city hosted an information session with proposed changes to improve the fit of the homes in neighborhoods. Jane Pickering, deputy director of planning, stated “We're expanding the program to include all of the single-family zones within the city, which was one of council’s directions.”The proposed plans are designed to make it easier to build single-story laneway houses. Currently the city allows for single story construction, but because of the current ruling, two-story homes had to be built. “Some of the neighbors reaction claim that it has affected their livability, so we had a look at that and are making some suggestions that would be a lot more amenable to build a single story” stated Pickering. The council is hoping to make laneway houses better for the families and neighborhoods involved and keep prices low.Fingers crossed for these new suggested plans! Building single-family homes will be a great advantage to our seniors who may have difficulty with stairs in two –story homes but most importantly they will be less expensive to build.