The fate of an 1891 home in the Moody Park neighbourhood is uncertain after city council heeded neighbours’ appeals to reject a proposed heritage revitalization agreement.
The owner of the house at 1031 Sixth Ave. applied for a heritage revitalization agreement so he could move the house to the rear of the lot and build a new house at the front of the property. More than a dozen neighbours attended a June 20 public hearing to oppose the plan.
“This is not a lane house proposal,” said neighbour Jacquie Park. “This is a house on a lane.”
Park said the land-use proposal is “far too severe” for the 4,385 square foot lot, with the two houses and parking taking up most of the site. She urged council to consider the impacts the “intrusive” proposal would have heritage homes beside and behind the property.
“This 125-year-old heritage home in New Westminster shouldn’t be the subordinate house on the parcel, or any other for that matter,” she said. “Hiding that 125-year-old home at the rear of the property is an affront to the heritage of New Westminster.”
A staff report stated the owner bought the house in 2014 with the intention of restoring the outside and renovating the inside of the McLaughlin House. The house is listed on the city’s heritage inventory but isn’t a designated heritage home.
“The owner explored a number of options that would have resulted in the expansion of the house or the construction of a new laneway house through an HRA, but none met his family’s needs or schedule for construction,” stated the report. “Given the age and status of the house, the owner was encouraged to reconsider the HRA option. As a result of the further discussions, the applicant is moving forward with this HRA application.”
The city’s community heritage commission opposed demolition of the existing house and encouraged the owner to find a way to retain it by building a laneway house or creating a duplex.
Neighbour Brian Jackart said he understood the owner’s original plan to lift the house and create a basement suite. He also said he knows what it’s like to live in a house that doesn’t quite meet his family’s needs.
“I sold my motorcycle for a new roof, I sold my sports car for a furnace. I am jammed into my small heritage house – and I love it,” he said. “I support my neighbours. I want my backyard, I want my neighbours to have their backyard.”
Jackart fears the outcome could be a lose-lose for the neighbourhood, but hopes a solution can be found that works for the property owner and the neighbours.
Council members thanked the homeowner for going through the process and attempting to retain the heritage house through a heritage revitalization agreement, but unanimously opposed the application.
“I am a fan and a proponent of laneway housing. I think it is a good form of density and I think it works in single-family neighbourhoods when it works. I try to see this as a laneway house, and it’s not,” said Coun. Mary Trentadue. “I am very sensitive to the fact laneway housing will be new for New West and I want it to be done right. I don’t want the first one to be a disaster or to create so much animosity and challenges for the neighbourhoods that we don’t get very far down the road with laneway housing.”
When the city develops guidelines for laneway housing, Trentadue said it will need to get buy-in from the community.
“I cannot support this because it’s not a laneway house. It’s a regular house on the back of a small lot,” she said. “When the city does come forward with our laneway guidelines, if we get that far, this would not probably get through the process. This would not make it.”
Council members noted the house’s fate is uncertain, as the owner has the right to apply for a demolition permit.
“I am feeling quite sad about it all,” said Coun. Lorrie Williams. “If we turn this down we may be sounding the death knell for this house because he certainly has a right to demolish if he so chooses. I would like to save the house.”
New West architect offers input
Communities across the Lower Mainland are building infill housing in residential neighbourhoods, says local architect Eric Pattison.
Pattison, who has worked on heritage projects in all parts of the city in the past two decades, said he’s done infill heritage projects in several New West neighbourhoods. (He’s not involved with this application.)
“This is the way the Lower Mainland is going,” he said. “This is the kind of density and sympathetic infill that we need, where you are retaining heritage assets and incorporating ground-oriented family housing in a reasonable way.”
Pattison said he has 10 projects on the go in Mallairdville, where everything from small houses, laneway houses, duplexes and townhouses are being built as part of projects where heritage buildings are retained.
“It’s a great, interesting process that is going on around the Lower Mainland. You look at Stratcona, you look at Kitsilano – this is the kind of density and infill that maintains community identity, keeps the heritage in place and provides new housing in a reasonable way,” he said. “If it comes back to meeting those numbers for setbacks, height, site coverage, to me the physical appearance of the project is kind of secondary. I don’t want to pass judgment on what the design looks like, but if it meets those numbers it’s like a single family home and we don’t have design controls on single-family homes.”
Speaking at a June 20 public hearing about a development proposal in the Moody Park neighbourhood, Pattison noted that if the owner was to demolish the existing house and build a new home, today’s zoning would allow a much larger home to be built on the site.
“Over time these projects settle down,” he said of infill housing. “They become familiar in the neighbourhood. The one just around the corner that we did at 626 10th St. was a controversial infill project but now, several years later, the dust has settled, the plants have grown and it’s a nice project, and we saved a heritage house.”
