A program that seeks to increase housing options in certain neighbourhoods could soon be expanding to parts of southwest Coquitlam.
The city hopes to bolster its stock of duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes as well as carriage houses and garden cottages as part of a review of its Housing Choices Program. The goal of the initiative, according to a staff report, is to increase the range of residential types without affecting neighbourhood characteristics.
Since the program’s inception and the development of the Neighbourhood Attached Residential land use designation — which includes laneway houses — council has approved 98 housing choices projects, adding 194 units to the city’s housing stock.
But Jim McIntyre, the city’s general manager of development services, said the majority of the projects have consisted of only two-lot subdivisions.
He said the simple subdivision of one lot into two lots gets away from the type of infill housing, including triplexes and duplexes, that the city desires.
As part of the review, staff will look at ways the city can improve its housing mix and will consider expanding its Housing Choices Program to other areas of southwest Coquitlam. Zoning in much of southwest Coquitlam allows for one-to-one replacement of older homes, usually with a secondary suite. But a staff report notes that the current zoning does “not add to the range of housing options available.”
The Housing Choices Program review will get underway immediately and is expected to be completed by 2019. An update of the city’s Southwest Coquitlam Area Plan is also being considered as part of Phase 3 of the review.
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