Infill Continues in Vancouver's Older Neighborhoods

Vancouver has been pushing urban infill for years now and the trend of tightening up older areas and vacant lots has not slowed. It has continued at a blistering pace. The city is pushing developers to build more units per acre and is quite ready to authorize high-rise and mid-rise apartment and condo buildings to help keep the city growing without gobbling up the remaining open space in Clark County.

The city is also allowing a fair number of ADUs (Accessory Dwelling Units) in town including many of the older neighborhoods such as Rose Village.

These accessory dwelling units are not intended as multi-family but in fact act a bit like it. Housing, particularly affordable housing for young people and elderly people is very tight in out local market. ADUs are generally something that is ideal for an elderly parent or an adult child either of which prefer to remain close to "home" but independent. Often an ADU is built for that specific purpose but later on when the family member no longer needs to ADU often it becomes an affordable rental for someone.

Vancouver has been reasonably loose on issuing permits for these types of structures and in the current state of our local rental market it is a good thing. The city has been concerned with urban sprawl and ADUs are one way to help combat it.

One only need to drive around the city to see that density has been the modus operandi for much of the new development, especially in the greater Downtown area. with current trends, and ADU can significantly increase the value of a property. Whether the value will increase commensurate with the cost of improvements depends largely on the type of improvement needed to pull it off and the local governments continued support of ADUs as rental units.

An ADU can be as simple as a converted garage, of attic over the garage to a completely detach and separate structure. The latter is likely a fair bit more expensive. Before any homeowner starts hammering away, a check with the local government to be sure any proposed project is in compliance is a must.

Depending on a homeowners circumstances and ADU may solve a personal family dilemma while improving the vale of the property.