Advocates from Abundant Housing Vancouver are hosting a walking tour with a bit of a bite this weekend…
Vancouver’s Worst Zoning: The Walking Tour
Sunday, Sep. 16
1:00 – 4:00pm
Here’s a little context to the event from the AHV folks…
“You might already know that townhouses and apartments are illegal on most of Vancouver’s residential land. But did you know that some neighbourhoods go further by effectively zoning for mansions that are many times more expensive than even the average multi-million-dollar westside Vancouver house?
…Join AHV members for a casual walking tour through West Point Grey. We’ll tour the ultra-exclusionary Belmont Avenue and Drummond Drive neighbourhood, discuss the City of Vancouver policies that keep it out of reach for most, and wind up on 10th or Broadway for drinks, food, and socializing.”
Here’s a map of the ‘hood, with a pin at the starting point:
Zoning is a mofo.
A few years ago I was stopped in my tracks at the sight of a really logical building in the fabulous East Side. I lost track of it, but rediscovered it recently and went back for a better look: 1957 3rd Ave E.
It straddles a standard 33’ x 122’ lot lengthwise and contains … what! 8 units laid out like a row house.
When I cycled through the driveway, there were three men kicking a ball around in it. There is no parking there – that’s on the street. There is no back yard.
The structure encroaches front and rear of the lot on “city property” but, again, there are 8 units.
This genius use of space took place in 1910.
Someone else saw the value in it and bought it 3 years ago for over $3M. 3 million for a standard lot with a building put up in 1910! Just the building itself is assessed at $2.148M. Wow. Our house from the same time period is 2% of lot value.
It was grandfathered and now is zoned for RT-4 now and per square footage $ of land is about the same as all the adjacent RT-4 lots.