Vancouver approves laneway housing improvements

Vancouver will make changes to bylaws to make it easier to build laneway housing.

The City Council voted in favour of the changes this week which will help to achieve the Housing Vancouver target of 4,000 new laneway homes over the next 10 years.

“It’s great to see City Council support changes to get more laneway homes built in neighbourhoods across the city,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson. “We’ve heard loud and clear that Vancouver residents want more housing choices and laneway homes are a great option for middle-income households.”

The agreement on the changes means several benefits:

• Streamlining approvals for one and a half storey laneway homes by introducing an outright review process similar to the current process for one storey laneway homes
• Supporting more functional and flexible laneway home design by increasing allowable heights and updating the method of measuring height
• Improving livability by introducing minimum room size requirements
• Providing more flexibility for the location and design of one-storey laneway houses

Since 2009, the Laneway Housing Program has approved more than 3,900 laneway homes across the city.

“These changes are a result of consultation with the public through Housing Vancouver about housing needs, as well as focused engagement with owners and renters of laneway homes, industry engagement, and staff analysis,” says Paula Huber, Senior Planner. “By removing identified barriers to building a laneway home, we are making it easier and faster to build the type of housing we know people want and need.”