Victoria has to be careful not to add pressure to an already pricey real-estate market by squeezing housing onto undersized lots, says Victoria Coun. Pam Madoff.
Madoff, a planning and land-use committee member, is concerned about an application to demolish a mid-century house in the 1600-block of Chandler Avenue and turn the existing lot into two narrow single-family building lots.
Each new lot would have an average width of 10.6 metres, reduced from the standard 15 metres, and the combined side-yard setbacks would be reduced to about four metres from the normal 5.4 metres.
“If you can actually demolish a house and build two small-lot houses on frontage this narrow, then the opportunity for profit is extraordinary. Those houses go for anywhere between $600,000, $700,000 or $800,000,” Madoff said.
Last year’s assessment of the home was $671,900.
Small-lot subdivisions are already subject to only modest requirements, but applicants keep asking for more through variances, Madoff said.
“We’ve already seen this history where we’ve gone from 15 metres to another one that’s 12 and now we’re looking at 10.67. When we look at 10.67 [does someone then say]: ‘What about nine and a half?’ Where is it going?” Madoff said.
“It’s not so much the issue of the urban fit. I think that works quite well. It’s just what are we doing in terms of the impact we have and I think we have to accept some responsibility — on the value of those lots.”
Each of the new three-bedroom houses on Chandler would be 1-1/2 storeys with a basement and a single-car garage.
A staff report says that because the Chandler Avenue lots are very deep, their overall size is larger than the minimum required under the zoning.
Privacy of adjacent properties would be minimally affected, because windows to all but one habitable room in the new houses will be limited to the buildings’ front and the rear, the report says.
Renovation is not a cost-effective option, as the existing house needs significant repair, the staff report says, citing a consultant’s report.
Madoff said small-lot-subdivision guidelines were geared toward infill developments, and weren’t intended to result in the demolition of existing viable housing.
Senior city planner Brian Sikstrom said that while the new lots would be narrower than anything currently on Chandler, the difference is not substantial. “[It’s] not significantly different from at least one of those lots we’ve approved in the past,” Sikstrom said.
Coun. Marianne Alto, chairwoman of the committee, said two similar-size houses were built last year just a half a block away and “turned out quite nicely.”
There are narrower lots in Victoria — including one on Shakespeare Street that is only five metres wide — but they typically date from pre-1956. In 2004, council changed its zoning regulations to only allow small sheds and garages to be built on existing lots smaller than 7.6 metres wide or 230 square metres in area.
