In the greater Vancouver region and East Van we crossed this threshold 10 years ago. On Vancouver’s west side it has been 20 years. This is one of many reasons why a provincial override of local zoning was needed. Local city govs would happily pump money into detached home values forever.

Hello Tampa

In Vancouver we have a generation of planners who did good work stopping freeways, densifying downtown, and rebuilding industrial sites …but they’ve been wholly silent about their role perpetuating exclusionary single family zoning amidst an extraordinary land value bubble. This is “Vancouverism”

If the worst single-family house in your n’hood costs over $1 million, then your n’hood should be zoned for apartment buildings. (It’s pretty much that simple)

Xmas and thanksgiving dinner are behind us so it’s time to party

Who needs a village when you can have parking lots?

This is some solid zoning nerd content

Five Million Rides and Counting: Paris’s Busiest Bike Lane Sets Record. momentummag.com/five-million...

Couldn’t resist (No chimney in this all electric building - but the roof access stair is convenient)

So - what’s worth seeing in Toronto today?

5 years ago, winter solstice. Three of us spent the night in the partially built tiny house shelter prototype that Lanefab built (on the grounds of the Insulspan prefab factory). Unfortunately we never could find a piece of land where it could function as an emergency shelter / temporary home.

Cc @wazaroff.bsky.social @rebeccaleebligh.bsky.social @lucymaloney.bsky.social

Wouldn’t see this in Vancouver… A single family home rezoned to house a nano-brewery in the garage. One of the co-owners of the brewery lives there while others volunteer their time.

Wait what? How much are we spending to establish a surveillance city?

Ok, that's a wrap for 2025. 1 baby, 3 weddings, new plexes and family size LWHs, red seal and passive house certifications, embodied carbon modelling, policy wins (and losses), but mostly a good team working to make good homes. We'll see you in 2026.

Our newest Red Seal carpenter, Hunter, modelling his new LF carhartt jacket.

“...at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the paramount challenge facing American cities is how to add density to the 50’-wide lots of single-family homes nestled in greenery.” - @maxpodemski.bsky.social in "A Paradise of Small Houses" When we're ready to take the leap beyond duplexes...

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holy @!# It looks like the final adopted update to Burnaby's R1 zoning is really bad. The allowable footprint area for a house and LWH is now capped at either 30% or 40% of the lot. This change appears to kill the current design for one of our projects, and the housing library designs.

Whole lot of trucks at 6th and Brunswick

More $#!+ from south of the border

In vancouver (bc) it’s hard to find a tear down for less than $1.5m

Speaking of single family homes, we're continuing to tinker with the window layouts and interiors for the large lane house on the west side

If the worst single-family house in your n’hood costs over $1 million, then your n’hood should be zoned for apartment buildings. (It’s pretty much that simple)

Congrats Nick on passing the @ipha.bsky.social exam - You're Lanefab's latest certified passive house designer!

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You know the Vancouver Special... now meet the Vancouver Stair. 🧵 #NoAssemblyRequired #SingleStair

Adding this book to my Santa wish list

Interesting single stair report from MN coming out - where they did a whole lot of data analysis and comparative life safety modeling. In short, it adds substance to what we’ve been arguing: Single stair is a lot safer than two stair buildings with long hallways, and much safer than single fam

Continuing to work on single stair zoning rules. Aiming for a simple rule set that work for scattered infill, but also for the eventual built-out urbanism. 50% Lot Coverage, 3FSR (6 storey) or 2FSR (4 storey) 10% side yard in front 1/2 of lot depth 20% side yard in rear 1/2 of lot depth

Ai is pretty much a climate disaster thus far, and it still takes some effort for it not to be a slot machine spitting out garbage…. But I feel like we’re on the cusp of some kind of democratizing of the urban imagination. Not just developers making sales - but weird ideas about how we might live

H/t to Scot Hein for #NoAssemblyRequired

We still need zoning updates to make this happen. Most of our zones still exclude small lots and lots without lanes from having equivalent density. Time to level the playing field. #NoAssemblyRequired

No such thing as an "Orphan Lot" any more. Single stair stacked flats can fit on small lots (like this 50x70 corner lot). This could be 12 small 1Br, or six family size flats. Just allow 50% lot coverage and 3FSR and away you go.

@sketchupofficial.bsky.social why is your license management system so terrible, and why is there zero help available.

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For those of you outside of Vancouver, Josh is the city’s Director of Planning. I think we are fairly fortunate to have alignment across staff, council, fire dept and industry.

Ok, now that a #SingleStair building code is on the books in Vancouver, we can pivot to obsessively arguing about #SingleStairZoning and urban design rules. Side yard / no side yard? 4 storeys or 6? Everywhere or?

Ok - single stair is up.

Council has wrapped up item 1, looking at development incentives... Reconvening at 2pm. Single stair is item 7...

Check it out!

Single stair code changes coming to @cityofvancouver.bsky.social council today. It’s been several years of work getting to this point. It’s not everything that I’d want but it’s a good first step, with external single stairs and low/mid rise scissor stairs as entirely new housing options.

Working on a Westside Multiplex with A split up/down and side/side plan that allows a bit more space in the living area

Love the latest combo of teak and recycled river plastic from the Sungai team. We donate to their river cleanups in Indonesia. The chairs are expensive but find a good cause.

Working to come up with a reasonably simple rule set for single-stair infill buildings.

Firs a big earthquake in Alaska, and now off the coast of Japan. The pacific rim is restive.

Bowen Island Bridge House Step 5 home by Lanefab

At the Commodore for another Sunday night

“One would expect the city's preservation community& heritage guardians to rise up against this attack on the city's folkways. However, these traditions are those of the city's poor and working-class residents-a group that has historically been ignored by many scholars, particularly in architecture”

Talking about Monday’s council report re: a shopping list of temp development incentives to counteract slowdown. piece by @isabellazavarise.bsky.social @ctvnewsvancouver.bsky.social also @tomdavidoff.bsky.social and CoV chief planner @jwhiteyvr.bsky.social www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/vi...