Cities like Minneapolis and Portland are getting huge coverage in the U.S. for saying that they are ending the restriction of single-detached-only homes in large areas of their cities. Vancouver is part of that movement in Canada.
But, as I discovered when I went to do a follow-up story on how this is all working out, the duplex “revolution” is still very constrained by the fact that planners and politicians don’t want too much change to be visible to existing neighbours. So these new forms of housing are being restricted in size, which means the units are significantly smaller than what most people say is needed for real family-sized housing.
My story from the Globe is here and in text below.
As I mentioned also in my tweets, one of my small side discoveries in doing this story was how accessible land records were for Minneapolis.
While I was there a couple of weeks ago, I asked for an example of a triplex that’s been built. I was pointed to 3450 Grand (although it’s technically not legal yet, since the council there is only just finalizing all the motions/bylaws needed to change the zoning.)
While I was walking down the street to get pictures, I noticed that there was actually a small apartment building just two doors down.
Here are a couple of pictures, one of the triplex under construction, one of the apartment down the street, courtesy of Google.
