Love them or hate them, there is no doubt that the iconic “Vancouver Special” housing form is a part of the city’s character.
The houses, built in large numbers between the mid 1960s and mid 1980s, were known for being cheap to build and maximizing allowable size on a lot. Because of their ubiquity and well-known dimensions, they were also known for quick permit turnaround times at city hall.
Now, as Vancouver grapples with a housing and affordability crisis, one city councillor is hoping to kick-start a new generation of Vancouver Specials — this time, in the form of multi-family or laneway homes.
“We built tons of them for 20 years. It’s crazy, Metro Vancouver is the only region that actually has the Vancouver Special, which we see everywhere, and now we’re seeing people retrofit them,” Green Coun. Michael Wiebe told Global News.
“This isn’t that same house, doing single-family zoning again. The goal here is how we create cohousing and small coops and different unit forms … but we want a repeatable housing form, a form we can continue to replicate that makes it easier to go through planning, easier to get labourers for and easier to get it built, and we can do it modular and green.”
Wiebe is proposing to have city staff to come up with an “expedited building permit and construction process” for a new generation of easy to reproduce Vancouver Specials ranging from tiny homes to multi-family homes.
“A catalogue of next generation Vancouver Special houses could be created with pre-approved building forms that allow for an expedited permitting and construction process – a repeatable house that meets net zero energy and universal design standards, is constructed with wood and modular prefabrication by way of social employment and local procurement and operates with 100% renewable sources of energy,” his motion states.
“A pilot version of a next generation Vancouver Special could be designed by City of Vancouver architects and designers for a backyard mini modular Accessory Dwelling Unit,” it adds.
Wiebe said the idea could accommodate forms ranging from a smaller laneway home for a grandparent or teen, living inter-generationally, larger structures like a sixplex owned by a group of friends looking to buy property together.
Along with cutting down permit times, the motion suggests an official, repeatable housing form would also cut labour needs, allow standardization of local materials and come with shorter building times.
Council is scheduled to debate Wiebe’s motion Tuesday.