There is an interesting article on laneway homes in the Huffington Post where a couple in Calgary have built a carbon neutral laneway house, the ultimate “Garage Mahal”.
I was working in the planning department when the public discussions brought up the idea of laneway houses through the CityPlan process. As the idea developed, I remember Ted Sebastian ( a transportation and housing planner well respected for his temerity and analysis) going back to the original notes from those public meetings. The concept developed from folks that wished to age in place and wanted to have a smaller dwelling on their property to either move to or have their kids move in to.
It would be interesting to see an occupancy survey to see if it is indeed family members that are living in these laneway houses, or if they are mainly rented out to others. The high construction costs of building these small units is surprising, and there is no economy of scale to keep costs down. This carbon neutral laneway house may not be too attractive, but I think it is on the right track in minimizing its ecological footprint.
I’m always amazed that $300k construction costs are easily achieved for a laneway house … considering the size of brand new house you can buy with that money elsewhere (ie. in much of the USA) … I know there are a host of reasons that make this so, but it still seems like a huge lump to pay when the land is ‘free’.