Untangling the Red Tape: The Housing Crisis and Construction Delays Blog 8 – 4-5 min.readNovember 15, 2023 | By: Iana Lanceta In a time of soaring housing costs, there is a hidden culprit that often exacerbates the financial burden on prospective homeowners: red tape. The combination of municipal charges and complicated bureaucratic processes associated with new development create an additional layer of expenses while hindering housing supply. Although increased affordable housing is on the agenda of most governments, existing development regulations prevent political leaders from reaching this goal. This article will look at studies that break down the additional costs that homeowners face. According to a 2022 Ontario study conducted by Building Industry and Land Development (BILD) and Altus Group, municipal approval timeframes for new housing have significantly increased since 2020. These delays prove to be more than just annoying inconveniences and have added approximately $50,0000 to the cost of...
Yes, in My Backyard : Do ADUs Ruin Neighbourhood Character? Blog 7 – 4-5 min.readOctober 24, 2023 | By: Iana Lanceta One of the biggest apprehensions to ADU development is that it will ruin a neighbourhood’s character. So… does it? Put simply, no. The idea that ADUs destroy an area’s character and decrease its value is based on misconception. In reality, ADUs are designed to preserve character while facilitating multigenerational housing, community connections, and greener living. A good place to start would be to debunk some common myths about ADUs. First, ADUs won’t disrupt the residential aesthetic because bylaws prevent them from being visible from the street. Our research team looked at hundreds of bylaws and found that municipalities only allow ADUs in side or rear yards. Moreover, different building requirements often exist to further limit a unit’s height sizes and facade distances to further restrict street visibility. There’s also...
What is the National Minimum Regulation? Blog 6 – 4-5 min.readSeptember 15, 2023 | By: Frazier Fathers Across Canada, ADUSearch processed approximately 2.2 million residential lots to determine how many of them could potentially build a detached Additional Dwelling Unit (ADU) based on existing bylaws in that municipality. Planning for Canadian municipalities is managed by local municipalities within an overarching framework set by their particular province. This leads to a range of different standards in the country where in June 2023, a city like Barrie, Ontario had a 7 meter rear setback requirement compared to 1.2 meters in Windsor, Ontario. For other communities, detached ADUs aren’t even permitted yet. But what if they were? What if there was a national least restrictive standard that let you compare a municipality’s capacity for detached ADUs? That is what the National Minimum Regulation (NMR) allows us to explore. At a high level, the...
