‘Secondary suites’ are authorized in Vancouver

This month, Vancouver, British Columbia, will begin allowing developers to build condominium units that include “secondary suites” — living quarters that can operate independent of the main portion of each condo. A condo owner could use the secondary suite to house a parent, an older teen-ager, a caregiver, or someone else, or could rent the suite out — helping the owner meet mortgage payments in one of Canada’s most costly cities.

Across North America over the past two decades, new urbanists have increasingly built detached houses and townhouses that contain accessory units. Often the accessory unit is over a garage at the rear of the property. What’s different about the Vancouver initiative is that the accessory units are being encouraged in condominium buildings, including downtown high-rises.

Each secondary suite must have a complete bathroom, a small kitchen, and a door to a corridor or to the outdoors. The secondary suite is also required to have a door connecting it directly to the main part of the condo; that door can be locked off, however, if the owner and tenant want the unit to be completely independent.

Vancouver officials see rentable suites within condos as a way of expanding the city’s housing supply and giving people the flexibility to shrink or expand their household living space as their needs change. No additional automobile parking spaces are required for buildings offering secondary suites, but additional bicycle parking must be provided.

Vancouver Planning Director Brent Toderian calls the rentable suites a form of “invisible density” — a way of accommodating a growing population without radical or obvious change. City Council gave the go-ahead to this form of housing in July, in expectation that zoning charges and design guidelines would be adopted Sept. 8.

Secondary suites will be allowed only in new buildings, where they must be part of the original construction. That’s less expensive than trying to add a secondary suite to an existing building, says Senior Planner Neal LaMontagne. By allowing the suites only in new buildings, the city also provides an opportunity for city planning staff to exercise more control over the design, LaMontagne says. Planners want to make sure the kitchen, which LaMontagne says “can fit into the hallway near the bathroom or against the wall of the main room,” has a usable, livable design.

Planners produced a model design (at right) based on a floor plan from the UniverCity development of Simon Fraser University. Suites must generally contain at least 280 sq. ft., though in special cases they could be as small as 205 sq. ft. It will be up to each developer to decide how many such suites to include in a building. Condos containing the rentable suites will be allowed in commercial zones, residential sections of downtown, and some other parts of the city.

Laneway housing moves forward
In July, the Council also approved bylaws allowing “laneway housing” in most of the city’s residential zones. This is part of Vancouver’s attempt to generate a larger supply of affordable housing without overwhelming existing neighborhoods. A laneway housing unit — also called a coach house or a garden cottage — is a rental dwelling typically placed along an alley, behind or to the side of the lot’s principal house.

Laneway housing must be no higher than 1.5 stories. For a lot that contains a principal house and a coach house, Council set the minimum parking requirement at just one space, “erring on the side of more space for a livable first floor” for the laneway unit and emphasizing affordability and sustainability, says Toderian. It’s anticipated that many laneway dwellers will not own cars.
Toderian expects brisk demand for laneway housing. How much demand there will be for secondary suites in condos is unknown.