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AlvinofDiaspar
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From Globe Real Estate Section:
POSTED ON: 19/10/06
Council snuffs out laneway dream
JANE GADD
From Friday's Globe and Mail
The vision of revitalizing Toronto's 311 kilometres of back alleys with tiny, cheap homes that has tantalized architects and city planners appears to have been extinguished by city officials' concerns about the costs of utility servicing and garbage pickup.
A 2003 report by two Toronto architects financed by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. touched off a wave of excitement in the media and among architects and urban designers. It pointed to hundreds of potential sites for nifty new laneway dwellings, to replace ramshackle garages and abandoned industrial sheds in the alleys that crisscross the city.
The report by Jeffery Stinson and Terence Van Elslander included designs for four styles of compact homes that would not encroach on neighbours, and called for a loosening of city regulations so that building in laneways would entail a less arduous bureaucratic process.
The owners would pay for the installation of new water, sewage and hydro services, though the city would have to service them in the longer term.
The planning department responded favourably, setting up a working group to investigate the merits and problems of the proposal, and there was talk of a task force and a pilot project.
But the task force was never established and planners now confirm that the idea of large-scale laneway development is dead.
“[Mr. Stinson] felt it should be something the city would legalize essentially; right now laneway homes are not permitted by zoning bylaws or the official plan,†says Lynda Macdonald, a city planning manager. “And the new official plan is much stronger in enforcing the existing pattern of housing ... and not permitting anomalies.â€Â
The new official plan came into effect during the summer, and city council also received a report from its works committee that called for a ban on new homes in laneways if there was any chance of adverse impact on privacy or costs associated with new services.
Council adopted the recommendations with only a slight modification that allows area planners to decide if there are “special circumstances†at an individual site that make a laneway house there appropriate.
“By insisting on ‘special circumstances' as a prerequisite for laneway housing but not defining [them], council has thrown the onus back on to individual area planners without offering them any effective, city-wide policy,†Mr. Stinson says.
According to an inventory prepared for the works committee, the city has 2,433 public laneways totalling 311 km, the vast majority of them in the old city of Toronto and East York.
Some lanes were built to provide access to garages; others predate the automobile and were used for outbuildings or small industrial workshops.
“It's inconceivable there couldn't be some housing possibilities there,†Mr. Stinson says.
Ms. Macdonald says there is still hope for one-off proposals for a laneway house, particularly if they are to be built on an industrial lane, like Croft Street in the Harbord and Bathurst streets area, rather than on a lane of garages.
She acknowledged she doesn't know what the “special circumstances†referred to in the works report passed by council might be.
“We didn't see the works report until it was done,†she says. “I saw it at the last minute.â€Â
But the planning department has developed its own checklist of considerations that must be addressed in any proposal for a laneway house.
These include fire-truck access, utility servicing, garbage pickup and impact on the neighbourhood context.
“Works committees never like anything that isn't the status quo,†Mr. Stinson says.
The report that city council adopted “reflects the traditional public works attitude to laneway housing ... that nothing about laneway housing fits with current practice and therefore everything is a problem.â€Â
The architect says what's needed is “to start with the premise that laneway housing may be a good idea, and ask the experts on piped services and snow and garbage removal to use their skill and imagination and the experience of other cities to see if it might be made feasible.â€Â
jgadd@globeandmail.com
_________________________________________________
Works is notoriously conservative - and guess who was the chair?
AoD
POSTED ON: 19/10/06
Council snuffs out laneway dream
JANE GADD
From Friday's Globe and Mail
The vision of revitalizing Toronto's 311 kilometres of back alleys with tiny, cheap homes that has tantalized architects and city planners appears to have been extinguished by city officials' concerns about the costs of utility servicing and garbage pickup.
A 2003 report by two Toronto architects financed by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. touched off a wave of excitement in the media and among architects and urban designers. It pointed to hundreds of potential sites for nifty new laneway dwellings, to replace ramshackle garages and abandoned industrial sheds in the alleys that crisscross the city.
The report by Jeffery Stinson and Terence Van Elslander included designs for four styles of compact homes that would not encroach on neighbours, and called for a loosening of city regulations so that building in laneways would entail a less arduous bureaucratic process.
The owners would pay for the installation of new water, sewage and hydro services, though the city would have to service them in the longer term.
The planning department responded favourably, setting up a working group to investigate the merits and problems of the proposal, and there was talk of a task force and a pilot project.
But the task force was never established and planners now confirm that the idea of large-scale laneway development is dead.
“[Mr. Stinson] felt it should be something the city would legalize essentially; right now laneway homes are not permitted by zoning bylaws or the official plan,†says Lynda Macdonald, a city planning manager. “And the new official plan is much stronger in enforcing the existing pattern of housing ... and not permitting anomalies.â€Â
The new official plan came into effect during the summer, and city council also received a report from its works committee that called for a ban on new homes in laneways if there was any chance of adverse impact on privacy or costs associated with new services.
Council adopted the recommendations with only a slight modification that allows area planners to decide if there are “special circumstances†at an individual site that make a laneway house there appropriate.
“By insisting on ‘special circumstances' as a prerequisite for laneway housing but not defining [them], council has thrown the onus back on to individual area planners without offering them any effective, city-wide policy,†Mr. Stinson says.
According to an inventory prepared for the works committee, the city has 2,433 public laneways totalling 311 km, the vast majority of them in the old city of Toronto and East York.
Some lanes were built to provide access to garages; others predate the automobile and were used for outbuildings or small industrial workshops.
“It's inconceivable there couldn't be some housing possibilities there,†Mr. Stinson says.
Ms. Macdonald says there is still hope for one-off proposals for a laneway house, particularly if they are to be built on an industrial lane, like Croft Street in the Harbord and Bathurst streets area, rather than on a lane of garages.
She acknowledged she doesn't know what the “special circumstances†referred to in the works report passed by council might be.
“We didn't see the works report until it was done,†she says. “I saw it at the last minute.â€Â
But the planning department has developed its own checklist of considerations that must be addressed in any proposal for a laneway house.
These include fire-truck access, utility servicing, garbage pickup and impact on the neighbourhood context.
“Works committees never like anything that isn't the status quo,†Mr. Stinson says.
The report that city council adopted “reflects the traditional public works attitude to laneway housing ... that nothing about laneway housing fits with current practice and therefore everything is a problem.â€Â
The architect says what's needed is “to start with the premise that laneway housing may be a good idea, and ask the experts on piped services and snow and garbage removal to use their skill and imagination and the experience of other cities to see if it might be made feasible.â€Â
jgadd@globeandmail.com
_________________________________________________
Works is notoriously conservative - and guess who was the chair?
AoD
