Upscale fourplex to replace house
Project on Cadder Avenue 1st to be approved under Kelowna’s infill housing initiative
For sale on desirable Cadder Avenue, near hospital and lake. New 1,300-square-foot home, European design, quality finishings. Price: $450,000. Homebuyers probably haven’t seen a listing like that in a while.
But they soon will, when the first project approved by the city in a scheme to densify downtown, breathe new life into old neighbourhoods and promote more affordable housing is put on the market.
“A lot of people want to live downtown, without spending a million dollars or more, or living in an old, small house that needs a lot of work,” developer Daniel Mandelbaum said Tuesday.
“We’re trying to offer a very good product that we think will be attractive to a lot of middle-class people,” Mandelbaum said.
His development, at 770 Cadder Ave., is the first to receive city approval under the so-called infill housing initiative, approved by council last December. Five similar developments are in the approval process, says James Moore, a city planner.
What’s different about these developments is that they allow for four new housing units to be built on about 700 standard-sized, 15.25-metre-wide lots in and around the downtown core.
Previously, the maximum was two residences on properties of this size.
The projects could be called fourplexes, but that is not the term the city and developers are using.
Instead, the developments are called infill housing, and they are touted as a way to boost residential densities to achieve several desirable outcomes.
“The addition of new housing units to existing units represents an important part of the city’s overall strategy to combat the impacts of urban sprawl,” the city says of the infill housing initiative.
“By focusing growth in areas with existing infrastructure (e.g. roads, schools, parks, transit, etc.), it is possible not only to mitigate the impacts of sprawl, but also to build resilient neighbourhoods with easy access to daily services, transit and a wider variety of housing options,” the city says.
Despite the potential to greatly increase the number of people living in areas designated for infill housing, the initiative has attracted little public controversy.
Ten people spoke at a public hearing in December at which the initiative was considered, most of them offering general support for the densification plan. Before the hearing, the city had received only five letters on the subject, four of them from real estate agents who endorsed the idea.
The realtors’ enthusiasm wasn’t surprising since permitting more housing to be built on a standardsized lot increases the value of the property, so landowners stand to financially benefit.
But Ken Cappos, among the few property owners who took time to register their opposition to the infill housing plan, believes many people were against the idea but didn’t see the point of protesting.
“People have real lives, with jobs and kids, and they just don’t see the point of going to council and spinning their wheels against something that’s probably already a done deal,” Cappos said last November.
City staff say they’re holding developers of infill housing projects to a higher standard, wanting the new residences to be visually interesting.
Mandelbaum says that has indeed been the case, with city officials asking for upgrades to things like landscaping and architectural details.
“The city doesn’t want mirror-image units,” Mandelbaum said. “They’ve been pretty picky about some things, and we’ve been happy to work with them, because we want to be bring high-quality, affordable homes to the market.”
Demolition of the existing home at 770 Cadder Ave., a 1,066-square-foot home built in 1921, was to begin Wednesday. Mandelbaum expects to have the four new homes on the site ready for sale in six months.