Thread by @Lanefab

Digging into the proposed missing middle zoning language for Victoria #yyj

pub-victoria.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ash…

I'm not super familiar with @CityOfVictoria zoning (except to know that their lane house policy has been meagre)... but the new zoning seems to allow "Houseplexes" and corner site town houses.

These are generally the low hanging fruit (politically speaking) after LWHs & suites

A "Houseplex" in Vic is 3 to 6 units, most with direct exterior access.

...presumably 'part 9' of the building code, and with a pile of design rules to make it look house like (will have to see)

Corner townhouses can have up to 12 units, and (interestingly) neither houseplexes or townhouses can have basements.

Now I'm curious what the height limit is, and if they'll allow 3 full floor or cap it lower...

To get extra density it needs to be a housing co-op, rental, or have 10% below market units.

This is a "Conditional upzone"

Looks like you can also pay a kind of CAC on the density: "For additional density... a monetary contribution equiv to $107 per square metre of bonus density ...with 70% of the contribution allocated to the Vic Housing Reserve Fund and 30% ...to the Local Amenities Reserve Fund. "

This is roughly $10 psf of upzoned density

...Will have to see what the numbers are, but this seems easier than any of the other conditions

Someone will have to interpret this for me... but it looks like a houseplex providing amenities gets the same zoning as a single fam house... and a town house gets 10% more floor area?

A houseplex with no 'amenity' gets downzoned 50%?

I'm wondering if I'm misreading this because is seems like the same old thing where we demand something from multifam that we don't demand from single fam.

For height: 9.5m for a flat roof (~31')
This is just enough to fit 3 floors

The parking requirements seem to be a fairly complicated formula.. I'll admit to not having the energy to navigate it, but will instead say: hey, other cities are dispensing with min parking requirements, why not try that! Most projects will still provide parking.

Well, all in all it's a small but perhaps important step forward, but the densities are still quite low and single family seems to retain cultural primacy... (no surprise there)

We'll see what Vancouver staff have to say to council about their parallel work in the next hour

And the bigger question is the extent to which this can be a template for province-wide zoning reform.

If Vancouver and Vic make some steps forward, but Oak Bay and West Van continue to coast along then we're continuing to fail as a province.