5 ms·

Interesting. I'm kind of shocked at how much one-family dwelling there is. I would love to see expansion to Richmond, Delta, Surrey, Burnaby, Coquitlam as there

Interesting. I'm kind of shocked at how much one-family dwelling there is. I would love to see expansion to Richmond, Delta, Surrey, Burnaby, Coquitlam as there is a ton of commuting population that ingress and egress to Vancouver.

nickff 5y ago
Vancouver used to be the city with the highest proportion of single family dwelling zoning in North America. It was the example of SFH zoning in "Zoned in the USA", a very good book on the history of zoning in North America.
- seanmcdirmid 5y ago
  Why would Vancouver be used as an example of “Zoned in the USA”? Unless that was meant to be tongue and cheek?
  - nickff 5y ago
    Vancouver had the highest proportion of single-family house zoning in North America, and the book was really about Canada and the USA, not just the latter.
    - seanmcdirmid 5y ago
      If it is not meant as a joke, they might be referring to the other Vancouver next to that active volcano.
      - nickff 5y ago
        I read the book, and that section was very clearly about Vancouver, British Columbia; Vancouver, Washington was not discussed.
  - ripley12 5y ago
    North American zoning shares a lot of the same origins in both Canada and the USA; Vancouver's first zoning code was drafted by Harland Bartholomew who did a lot of American cities' first zoning codes.
f1yght 5y ago
It's kind of wild but very common how much land is zoned for single family in north american cities, especially the expensive ones.
lbrito 5y ago
Yeah, metro cities are pretty much exclusively SFH except for islands of density around transit corridors/skytrain stations.
nayuki 5y ago
Indeed. At first I thought the gray areas of the map were inactive or had no data available. But upon clicking, the pop-up legend says that gray means "One-Family Dwelling", and "Zoning District" is RS-1, RS-3, RS-5, RS-6, etc.
dleslie 5y ago
You've left a big gap for New Westminster. ;)
- munk-a 5y ago
  New West is perfect as it is - don't change a thing... except maybe improve the sidewalks along Columbia St. and Royal Ave. those median strips are way too thin in places.
  - dleslie 5y ago
    It's far from perfect; I lived there for twenty years and only moved away last summer. For starters: it's gone quickly downhill in the last 5 years or thereabouts because the street-level outreach services were placed within the downtown and high-density mixed use areas of the city; and so city promenades and parks have become unsafe for children and other vulnerable persons. I got tired of having to sweep the grass and sand for broken glass and needles before my kids could play; or having to explain why their favourite playground was closed/spray painted/burned down. My wife and neighbours didn't feel safe walking at night; probably because of the _numerous_ murders in the immediate neighbourhood. But more to zoning: the Queen's Park Heritage Community is an affront to affordability and heritage both! It secures and defends the white-favored, post-war housing that was constructed in the Queen's Park area that replaced the high-density housing that existed in the area pre-war. The tenements that were there prior would never pass the heritage committee now. Good luck trying to convince Queen's Park to build anything remotely affordable. The whole of Brow of the Hill is a low-income residential area that council, even the current self-declared progressive council, seems determined to completely ignore. It has some of the highest density of children, but parts of Brow are a half hour, or longer, walk from a public playground. There was a playground, 10y ago, but the School Board paved it over to put in parking for teachers. Last spring, I knew it was time to leave when I was walking my kids to day care at 9am on a sunny day and I had to divert their attention _yet again_ because a man was running down the street with knife wounds. It's funny, because when I first moved to town I did so because it was cheap; and one day leaving the Columbia Sky Train station a man lunged from a bush, covered in dried blood, and asked to use my phone. I let him, thinking he'd call 911, but instead he called his friends and ordered a hit on those who tortured him. Since then things got better, the neighbourhood cleaned up, but then they rapidly declined again because council thought it was better to embrace than resist. And so I packed up my family and left.
solson4 5y ago
It looks like this could change soon with the city allowing “metroplexs” everywhere in city limits[1]. It’s not law yet, but the city has been doing a lot of upzoning, so we’ll see. 1. https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/dan-fumano-the-end-of-single-family-zoning-in-vancouver https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/dan-fumano-the-e...
- deanCommie 5y ago
  Fantastic!
- ripley12 5y ago
  It's definitely, definitely not going to happen soon. The Vancouver Plan needs to be approved, then an Official Development Plan, then neighbourhood plans, then actual rezonings. Expect 10+ years, if it happens at all; Vancouver has a very poor record with these sorts of city-wide plans. From a 1992 article I found in the archives a while back: "no city council has ever accepted any of the half-dozen attempts at developing a city plan" https://twitter.com/GRIDSVancouver/status/1066893017116631040 https://twitter.com/GRIDSVancouver/status/106689301711663104...
SkeuomorphicBee 5y ago
As an outsider (not from North America), I find it beyond insane how they still zone all those neighborhoods at the core of the city (short walking distance from Downtown proper) as if they were far periphery suburbs. In my country such central neighborhoods in such a young fast-growing city would have been re-zoned to 4-story buildings a long time ago, and then rezoned again to 12-story buildings more recently. No wonder they have a "housing crisis". Edit: And when you compare it to a transit map it becomes even more outlandish, they have "single family zones" completely surrounding major transit stations.
- tenuousemphasis 5y ago
  Yes, the US and Canada have absolutely stupid zoning laws. This is documented extensively by YouTubers like Not Just Bikes and City Beautiful.
99_00 5y ago
More people from Vancouver go to Richmond for work than the other way around. Also, Richmond Delta are 50% or more farmland, Surrey maybe 30%.

nickff 5y ago

Vancouver used to be the city with the highest proportion of single family dwelling zoning in North America. It was the example of SFH zoning in "Zoned in the USA", a very good book on the history of zoning in North America.

seanmcdirmid 5y ago
Why would Vancouver be used as an example of “Zoned in the USA”? Unless that was meant to be tongue and cheek?
- nickff 5y ago
  Vancouver had the highest proportion of single-family house zoning in North America, and the book was really about Canada and the USA, not just the latter.
  - seanmcdirmid 5y ago
    If it is not meant as a joke, they might be referring to the other Vancouver next to that active volcano.
    - nickff 5y ago
      I read the book, and that section was very clearly about Vancouver, British Columbia; Vancouver, Washington was not discussed.
- ripley12 5y ago
  North American zoning shares a lot of the same origins in both Canada and the USA; Vancouver's first zoning code was drafted by Harland Bartholomew who did a lot of American cities' first zoning codes.

f1yght 5y ago

It's kind of wild but very common how much land is zoned for single family in north american cities, especially the expensive ones.

lbrito 5y ago

Yeah, metro cities are pretty much exclusively SFH except for islands of density around transit corridors/skytrain stations.

nayuki 5y ago

Indeed. At first I thought the gray areas of the map were inactive or had no data available. But upon clicking, the pop-up legend says that gray means "One-Family Dwelling", and "Zoning District" is RS-1, RS-3, RS-5, RS-6, etc.

dleslie 5y ago

You've left a big gap for New Westminster. ;)

munk-a 5y ago
New West is perfect as it is - don't change a thing... except maybe improve the sidewalks along Columbia St. and Royal Ave. those median strips are way too thin in places.
- dleslie 5y ago
  It's far from perfect; I lived there for twenty years and only moved away last summer. For starters: it's gone quickly downhill in the last 5 years or thereabouts because the street-level outreach services were placed within the downtown and high-density mixed use areas of the city; and so city promenades and parks have become unsafe for children and other vulnerable persons. I got tired of having to sweep the grass and sand for broken glass and needles before my kids could play; or having to explain why their favourite playground was closed/spray painted/burned down. My wife and neighbours didn't feel safe walking at night; probably because of the _numerous_ murders in the immediate neighbourhood. But more to zoning: the Queen's Park Heritage Community is an affront to affordability and heritage both! It secures and defends the white-favored, post-war housing that was constructed in the Queen's Park area that replaced the high-density housing that existed in the area pre-war. The tenements that were there prior would never pass the heritage committee now. Good luck trying to convince Queen's Park to build anything remotely affordable. The whole of Brow of the Hill is a low-income residential area that council, even the current self-declared progressive council, seems determined to completely ignore. It has some of the highest density of children, but parts of Brow are a half hour, or longer, walk from a public playground. There was a playground, 10y ago, but the School Board paved it over to put in parking for teachers. Last spring, I knew it was time to leave when I was walking my kids to day care at 9am on a sunny day and I had to divert their attention _yet again_ because a man was running down the street with knife wounds. It's funny, because when I first moved to town I did so because it was cheap; and one day leaving the Columbia Sky Train station a man lunged from a bush, covered in dried blood, and asked to use my phone. I let him, thinking he'd call 911, but instead he called his friends and ordered a hit on those who tortured him. Since then things got better, the neighbourhood cleaned up, but then they rapidly declined again because council thought it was better to embrace than resist. And so I packed up my family and left.

solson4 5y ago

It looks like this could change soon with the city allowing “metroplexs” everywhere in city limits[1]. It’s not law yet, but the city has been doing a lot of upzoning, so we’ll see. 1. https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/dan-fumano-the-end-of-single-family-zoning-in-vancouver https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/dan-fumano-the-e...

deanCommie 5y ago
Fantastic!
ripley12 5y ago
It's definitely, definitely not going to happen soon. The Vancouver Plan needs to be approved, then an Official Development Plan, then neighbourhood plans, then actual rezonings. Expect 10+ years, if it happens at all; Vancouver has a very poor record with these sorts of city-wide plans. From a 1992 article I found in the archives a while back: "no city council has ever accepted any of the half-dozen attempts at developing a city plan" https://twitter.com/GRIDSVancouver/status/1066893017116631040 https://twitter.com/GRIDSVancouver/status/106689301711663104...

SkeuomorphicBee 5y ago

As an outsider (not from North America), I find it beyond insane how they still zone all those neighborhoods at the core of the city (short walking distance from Downtown proper) as if they were far periphery suburbs. In my country such central neighborhoods in such a young fast-growing city would have been re-zoned to 4-story buildings a long time ago, and then rezoned again to 12-story buildings more recently. No wonder they have a "housing crisis". Edit: And when you compare it to a transit map it becomes even more outlandish, they have "single family zones" completely surrounding major transit stations.

tenuousemphasis 5y ago
Yes, the US and Canada have absolutely stupid zoning laws. This is documented extensively by YouTubers like Not Just Bikes and City Beautiful.

99_00 5y ago

More people from Vancouver go to Richmond for work than the other way around. Also, Richmond Delta are 50% or more farmland, Surrey maybe 30%.