TooBizzy
New Member
The 4+4 typology is exceedingly rare, David White from Civicworks had a presentation at the Public Hearing back in 2024 claiming that only about 5% of parcels could actually support it given site and market conditions. A lot of these are corner lots. Almost exclusively these are in neighbourhoods built in the 60s and earlier, near decent transit and active transportation infrastructure.With the blanket rezoning debate I keep seeing comments about “8-plexes mid block” (not including a corner lot). Does anyone have examples of these projects under construction or completed in Calgary, with a single mid block home being replaced with 8 units? I’m not doubting they exist but I haven’t come across any myself. The only example I can think of is the large townhouse development proposed on the north side of 26 Avenue SW in Bankview, which is over multiple lots.
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I hope that whatever Council does with R-CG it's along the lines of neutering certain configurations that are already basically impossible, and playing it up in the media as though they 'fixed the problem.' We banned 8-plex rowhomes and townhomes in neighbourhoods without laneways, we fixed it!
Though unfortunately, the last Council already did this for the maligned "12-plex" which is actually physically impossible and only took off because certain loose interpretations of the bylaw before amended made it sound like it might be possible.
Does it matter that Council amended the policy to disallow people from building both secondary and laneway suites? Does it matter that rowhouses and townhouses became discretionary uses, meaning that LAPs and neighbours can easily block or appeal DPs from releasing through required notification and engagement processes? Does it matter that Council increased the parking minimum to 1 on-site stall per unit and suite in basically every suburb without a C-Train connection?
No - people will fearmonger themselves and others without access or consideration to information or its validity. The bylaw will only get wordier and more difficult to interpret, and the small subset of loud people that are ultimately interested in preserving the primacy and exclusivity of their mansion-only neighbourhoods will only get angrier.