It seems the persistence of a lane and custom home builder specializing in modular construction has finally worked. Their idea of ββa highly unconventional development is now being officially considered by the municipal government.
Since acquiring the property in June 2021, Lanefab Design and Build has sought to utilize the highly unusual lot at 1916 William Street – near the southeast corner of the intersection of Victoria Drive and William Street in East Vancouver.
Bryn Davidson, co-owner of Lanefab, has been budding with City of Vancouver staff about possible uses for the site, and some of that frustration spilled over to his social media last year when the city government ordered his company to remove their “desktop module structure”.
It’s not just an orphan lot in a single-family neighborhood, but it’s very irregular in size at just 540 square feet, with street frontage of just nine feet and a shallow depth of 60 feet. It served as a driveway for the garage of the western adjacent house at 1216 Victoria Drive, and as an ad hoc parking space for the eastern adjacent house at 1922 William Street.
The municipal government has now accepted Lanefab’s development permit application for consideration to pursue a permanent development of narrow buildings on the site.
Still a little uncertain… but it’s progressing.
We’ll probably have to go to the variance board after that and see if we get a ππ» or ππ» pic.twitter.com/BbEnEIsEln
β Bryn Davidson @Lanefab (@Lanefab) October 29, 2022
βWe see this project as a continuation of that spirit of collaboration between our team and the City with the goal of showing what is possible with small-lot urban infill,β reads Lanefabβs application.
βWhile there are only a few lots like this in the city, we believe this project can be a source of learning and inspiration for any future forms of housing that may be considered in the areas. City RS and RT Likewise, we believe this will be a memorable and unique addition to the neighborhood, and potentially play a defining role in how the Sam Kee Building has played a similar role in Chinatown.
The recently posted application shows that they are looking to build a three story single family home with a basement, roof deck, front yard and back yard.
The total floor area would reach 1,202 square feet. The floor plan includes “stairs, a bathroom, and a usable bedroom.”
But to achieve this very unconventional form of construction, they are asking City staff to approve several relaxations of the current requirements.
They want to increase the allowable building depth from 21ft (35%) to 30ft (50%), increase the allowable floor area ratio (FAR) density from 0.6 FAR (324 sq ft) to 2.24 FAR (1,202 sq ft), increase permitted building coverage on site from 45% (243 sq ft) to 50% (270 sq ft), disregard minimum site area requirement of 3,294 square feet for a single family home and reduce the minimum parking space requirement to zero.
Additionally, they want the spacing requirement on the side of the building eliminated, which would allow the building to come within inches of the existing house facade to the east.
It is acknowledged by Lanefab that the house adjacent to 1922 William Street would be impacted by their new building, but they claim that the windows in the old structure facing the small lot are “non-fire code compliant”. This existing home at 1922 William Street is slated for redevelopment into a character home with an infill addition, but construction has yet to begin. Lanefab notes that he contacted the owner about acquiring the small piece of land to form a land assemblage with his project, but they received no response.
British Columbia assessment records show that the assessed value of the tiny lot has been consistently extremely low for most of the past decade, peaking at $7,200 for the 2015 assessment roll and a low. $3,600 for the 2016 roll.
For the 2021 roll, the property had a assessed value of $4,900, or about $9.00 per square foot.
Compare that to the $1,837,600 assessed value ($1,744,000 land; $93,600 structure) for 1922 Willam Street, which has a lot size of 4,000 square feet β seven and a half times larger than the small neighboring plot. The assessed value per square foot of the land component alone is $379 per square foot, or 42 times more than the small lot.
But the difference in canyon width in the estimated value no longer exists, since the beginning of this year.
The 2022 roll estimates the assessed value of the tiny lot to be $173,000 or $320 per square foot, which is a 35-fold increase from 2021.
It’s unclear exactly what triggered the staggering year-over-year increase in the lot’s assessed value.
Lanefab’s acquisition of the property last year was worth $210,000. Ownership also changed hands in July 2020 in a deal worth $88,000.
We are building a desktop module (with nice @vettawindows )
If someone needs more space to work, we can drop them right in your garden. pic.twitter.com/LTJoyc3WKf
β Bryn Davidson @Lanefab (@Lanefab) August 25, 2021
Meanwhile, we continue to work on the small office shed/pod.
If anyone wants a one minute visit let me know π pic.twitter.com/qYizdyeFMi
β Bryn Davidson @Lanefab (@Lanefab) October 5, 2021
Continuation of work on the office automation module. pic.twitter.com/NPRHzBUkLu
β Bryn Davidson @Lanefab (@Lanefab) October 5, 2021
Our controversial little office is about to transform from an accessory building into a “vehicle” pic.twitter.com/lReBxB6w1Z
β Bryn Davidson @Lanefab (@Lanefab) October 20, 2021
The interior finishes enter the office module. pic.twitter.com/QaWslNrOJG
β Bryn Davidson @Lanefab (@Lanefab) October 29, 2021
small tour pic.twitter.com/o3Iq5AXKy7
β Bryn Davidson @Lanefab (@Lanefab) October 31, 2021
Desk module, steering wheel pic.twitter.com/JakVcGfQPw
β Bryn Davidson @Lanefab (@Lanefab) November 5, 2021
#3story #house #built #small #lot #singlefamily #neighborhood #Vancouver #Urbanized