More flexible bigenerational
Legal since 1998, bigenerational houses have sprouted up all over the territory, allowing families to stay close and help each other through the neighborhood. However, in some cities, this can be complicated during departures and deaths. “If your parents, your in-laws die, legally, it is not possible to rent it to someone who is not a member of your family and there are restrictions”, points out Catherine Boisclair, coordinator at Living in the City. Same thing during the resale, municipalities requiring that there be a family relationship between the residents, noted the urban planner Charlotte Montfils-Ratelle, who points out that Sainte-Catherine has precisely lifted this requirement in its regulations.
New parking standards
In most municipalities, building developers must provide a minimum of two parking spaces for each house, in addition to street parking. The city of Minneapolis acted on this front when it ended exclusive single-family zoning by lifting this requirement. This change was intended to promote public transit and fight against GHG emissions. From the outset, this leaves room for more green space and less concrete, in addition to reducing construction costs for developers.
In Quebec, these standards have notably been lifted in eco-district projects or in collective housing formulas such as Cohabitat, for example.
To avoid “monster houses”
In order to avoid the proliferation of oversized houses in residential neighborhoods, cities can modify what are called “floor occupation coefficients”, or the proportion of the land on which one can build. The City of Vancouver changed its standards in August to protect the character of some of its residential neighborhoods. As an example, the buildable part on a 22,000 square foot lot has gone from 7,700 square feet to 6,300, according to what the news site reported. North Shore News.
Accessory housing units
Also known as “tiny backyard homes”, accessory dwelling units (ADUs) are residential annexes or dwellings built on a lot already occupied by a single-family home. Popular on the American West Coast and elsewhere in Canada, ADUs are now authorized in the municipality of Sainte-Catherine, on the South Shore. This model has several advantages. It can bring additional income to owners, allow young families to occupy housing in a context of soaring real estate prices and promote “soft” densification without disfiguring neighborhoods. “It will not explode the density, but it is a tool that should not be deprived,” said Guillaume Lessard, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Waterloo who is interested in the phenomenon of tiny houses.
Two- and three-storey buildings allowed
Minneapolis did just that in 2018. The city originally wanted to even allow four-story buildings, but backed down in the face of public criticism. This measure was part of a vast plan to reflect on the future of the city, the Minneapolis 2040 policy. Thus, the abolition of single-family zoning on a large scale was accompanied by a series of other measures such as the increase in the number of floors allowed (more than three) near public transport services, lower requirements for the number of parking lots and additional investments in social housing.