The Urban Development Institute - Calgary and the Canadian Home Builders’ Association - Calgary Region have recently put together a video about housing availably that answers many questions about planning and building during an economic downturn. The perspectives expressed in this video are shared with our progressive clients who know the value of preparing for the future, and in particular, being ready for the next time that demand puts pressure on supply.
Bridgeland Trio
Our Bridgeland Trio is on 10th Street NE in Calgary. If you're interested in looking at more exterior shots, take a look at our singles gallery. Thanks to Gary Campbell for the photos!
Secondary Suite Permit Exemption
From September 1, 2015 to March 3, 2017, the City of Calgary is offering a Development Permit (DP) exemption for Secondary Suites. This means that if your property is permitted to have a Secondary Suite, you can go directly to the Building Permit stage and avoid the fees and delay associated with a DP application.
The City has a web page for suites, but at the time of this post, the page is misleading. It indicates that Backyard Suites are considered Secondary Suites, but this is not the case. Secondary Suites must meet the following (and other) conditions:
- contain two or more rooms used or designed to be used as a residence by one or more persons,
- contain a kitchen, living, sleeping and sanitary facilities,
- is self-contained and located within a Dwelling Unit, and
- is secondary to the main residential use on the parcel.
Therefore, Secondary Suites are only those suites that are within a Dwelling Unit, or house, on a property. Backyard Suites, such as those above a garage, are considered discretionary and will still require a Development Permit. That said, the fee for this permit is also waived.
Properties that are eligible for permitted Secondary Suites are those that are zoned R-1s, R-C1s, R-C1Ls, R-2, or R-C2 and meet the respective minimum parcel width, depth and area requirements. For example, R-1s properties must be 15m wide, 30m deep, and have a minimum area of 330m2, whereas R-C2 properties must be 9m wide, but have no depth or area restrictions.
If your property needs to be redesignated to one of these districts to allow for a Secondary Suite (such as from R-C1 to R-C1s), the City is also waiving the fee for that application as well!
You can read more on the City's blog.
Inertia Office Complete
For those of you who were following our office renovation on this blog, you might have wondered how it all ended. Happily, everything turned out really well. We now have almost twice as much space, larger desks, a decent kitchen, and a much brighter workspace.
For the curious, the lights in our workspace and boardroom are Elan Fornello LED Pendants in sand textured white.
We would like to thank Alan Miller from Verbatim for contracting the work and taking care of all the big and little details. Also, thanks to Keith Dumonceaux for the kitchen (and the awesome chunky handles). As well, thanks to Steve Spinks for being accommodating as we made a mess of both our space and his.
Thanks to Gary Campbell for the photography.
Post Bowling 2015
Post-Bowling Glow
This past Friday, the staff at Inertia could barely contain their joy that they didn't have to bowl any more. Well, except Trent who thought if he could just play one more game he would come out on top. Yes, that is the shirt that Stephen bowled in. He doesn't have any bowling wear and found it hard not to come home with the cool shoes they gave him.
Demolition Day
For those of you who are interested in the construction process, this blog will have regular entries illustrating the building of a single family house that Inertia designed for Gary Campbell and Heidi Wagner. Currently, we have a Development Permit submitted and are awaiting the first review (DTR) from the City. To bring you up to speed, this post include photos (and a video) from demolition day on June 25, 2015.
Dwell on Design Los Angeles 2015
Inertia had the opportunity to go on the South Bay home tour at the recent Dwell on Design conference in Los Angeles. Only personal photography is permitted inside the private homes, so here are some shots that anyone could take from the street with their iPhone. Unlike last year's tour, we were impressed with the quality of design and finishing. To find out more about this tour and the selected houses, visit the Dwell on Design website.
The Globe Visits Our Wildwood House
This past weekend, the Globe and Mail published an article about the design process behind our Wildwood House. Colleen Seto met with Inertia's Stephen Barnecut as well as the homeowners to delve into the factors that shaped this signature house.
We love this quote from the article:
“It was always amazing to me how vocal people were about the house,” Mr. Dugdale says. “Some people hated it, while others loved it. But that’s okay; when you don’t get a reaction at all, it’s usually because you haven’t really done anything.”
Thanks to Colleen Seto for the article and to Gary Campbell for the photography.
Photo by Gary Campbell
Swift Creek Prairie House
The architectural controls for Swift Creek estates permitted four architectural styles, one of which was the Prairie form. Within this guideline, Inertia was able to design a house that was both true to the historic style and responsive to the needs of the homeowner.
The entry is central to the front facade and opens onto the stairwell and the main living space. To the left is the kitchen and dining area, and to the right, facing spectacular views of the Rocky Mountains, is the owners' suite. The second floor features a gallery, a common area and children's bedrooms.
The house has varying eave depths to allow and disallow light and heat into the house and is entirely insulated with blown-in cellulose insulation.
This design leans heavily on Frank Lloyd Wright's Ward Winfield Willits House in Highland Park, Illinois. For more information about this house, check out this Wikipedia article.
Residential ePermit Customer Experience
Rollin Stanley, the General Manager Planning, Development And Assessment at the City Of Calgary, reposted our blog post on his blog post yesterday (with our permission, of course). Rollin's team even came in and interviewed our own Trent Letwiniuk about Inertia's experience with residential ePermits and captured the discussion on video.
(Yes, that's a Lego Empire State Building in the left side of the frame. Trent picked that up on his last trip to New York City.)
Office Construction Update
We're getting closer! With the walls almost all painted and the ceiling dropped in today, our new space is starting to look like an office should. The kitchen cabinets go in tomorrow, carpet will be laid by the end of the week and the network will get fired up on Monday.
Time to go furniture shopping!
Photo by Gary Campbell
14a Street Single
We've uploaded photos of the 14a Street Single to Houzz!
This Bankview house is unusual because in Calgary it's rare to find a dwelling larger than 4000 square feet in such an urban location. This three story modern house was designed for a 37 1/2 foot wide lot between an original 1908 bungalow and an apartment building.
The design of the building is a result of the interplay between a solid mass on the main floor and a large white bracket that hovers two floors above it.
Sitting near the top of the 14th Street hill, the third floor master suite has excellent views from both front and rear rooftop balconies. The main floor is dedicated to the main living space, and the second floor is split between bedrooms in the back and an entertainment/office space in the front. The basement has a recreation area and a guest room. The front drive access was required due to the lack of a lane in this block.
Take a look at the photos here.
Proposed Garage Suite
Secondary Suites in Four Inner-city Wards
Calgary's City Council has asked City administration to prepare a Land Use Bylaw amendment that will allow homeowners and developers to apply for secondary suites in R-1, R-C1, and R-C1L in Calgary's four inner city wards without having to apply for a land use redesignation. This is an exciting possibility, though it still needs to be passed by a Council that has been reluctant to simplify this process.
You can find out more at the Calgary City News Blog post here: Proposed Bylaw changes may allow secondary suites in four inner-city wards
Fostering Inner City Development
Within the past month, Richard White has published three blog entries on how Calgary’s City Council could foster development in established communities.
Permitted Multifamily
http://everydaytourist.ca/blog/2015/1/20/enhancing-established-community-development-multifamily
In the first entry, White proposes making multifamily development in the inner city a permitted use rather than a discretionary use. This means that if a proposed development meets all the Land Use Bylaw rules, then it's allowed as proposed. We're not against this idea, but relaxations can be an important part of making a project better or even possible. In fact, most multifamily applications have at least one relaxation. If a single relaxation exposes a developer to potential appeal, then this idea wouldn't really improve things at all.
SDAB Reform
http://everydaytourist.ca/blog/2015/1/20/enhancing-established-community-development-sdab-reform
In White's second entry, he discusses the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board. This board is famous for being arbitrary and allowing specious arguments. In our own experience, the decisions that the Board makes are at best unpredictable. We can't expect that there will be any more weight placed on the larger needs of the City than on the irrelevant claims of an unaffected neighbour. This introduces a signifiant risk to developers considering an inner city project, and certainly makes suburban development look more attractive. Unfortunately, as Richard writes, the recent review has only resulted in minor changes that haven't had an affect on outcomes.
Remove Redundant Policy
In his last entry on the subject, White suggests removing Area Redevelopment Plans from public policy. These plans were drafted to curb inner city development, and because of this, are out of sync with the City's progressive Municipal Development Plan. Case in point, the North Hill ARP begins with a nostalgic vision statement that includes: "There is a village atmosphere with young and old mingling in a way reminiscent of earlier, gentler times." The person who wrote that isn't going to stand for any change to his or her neighbourhood, especially if it might increase traffic (which is a code word for diversity). We project that the ARPs will stay on the books but will slowly fade out of relevance.
Thanks to Richard White for these three great entries and his excellent blog, The Everyday Tourist.
Trent Letwiniuk, Stephen Barnecut and Paul Shannon
Inertia Turns Nine Today
Today is Inertia's ninth anniversary.
At the beginning of 2006, Trent Letwiniuk, Stephen Barnecut and Paul Shannon were all working at Jager/AlanRidge homes, and Calgary was booming. Builders couldn't build the homes as fast as they could sell them, and that was especially the case with AlanRidge. Things were going a bit sideways are work, and we were each being approached by colleagues desperate for help with their residential design.
So the three of us agreed to meet at Denny's before work on Monday, January 30th. It didn't take long before we had agreed to start our own firm. But before breakfast was done, Stephen expressed his concern that if we didn't get moving right away, then inertia would be against us, and we needed to have inertia on our side.
Before the day was out, we had gone to the registry and registered Inertia.
Bay A After Demolition
It's About to Get Loud!
Inertia has grown! There are now seven people on the Inertia team, but our current office only has space for about five. Luckily our neighbour has just moved out allowing us to expand into the adjacent space.
Demolition is complete and the framers are at work today putting up the partitions for our new kitchen. We're excited about having bigger desks, a layout table, an alternative meeting area, and a kitchen sink!
Our mailing address and front door will remain the same: 1140B 44th Avenue SE.
R-CG Pre-App Meeting
This morning we had our first pre-application meeting for a potential R-CG parcel. We were very impressed by how open the planners at the City are about this redesignation. As well, the community was excited about it as well.
Because R-CG is not considered a multi-residential district in Calgary's Land Use Bylaw, there are fewer hurdles to jump in order to get an R-C2 parcel redesignated as R-CG. If there is an existing policy, such as an Area Redevelopment Plan, that indicates that a parcel should remain a Low Density use, the R-CG district still conforms. As well, because of its conventional format where entrances are on the street and are not internal to the parcel, neighbours and community associations are less concerned about R-CG developments causing conflicts with adjacent low density development.
Based on the positive feedback from the community association, neighbours and today's pre-application meeting, we're going to move forward with the land use redesignation. We'll keep our followers informed as this development progresses!
Secondary Suite Silver Lining
We think that most Calgarians are disappointed by yesterday's news that Secondary Suites won't soon be permitted (or even discretionary) in Calgary's R-C1 districts (nor R-1, R-C1L districts). We won't belabour the situation by pointing out how unique our city is in disallowing this modest form of housing.
Rather, we want to remind homeowners, builders, and developers that accessory suites are currently possible in the R-C2 district and many others! In fact, in the ubiquitous R-C2 district, suites within a dwelling unit, such as basement suites, are permitted on all lots that are 29 1/2 feet (9m) or wider.
As well, backyard suites—such as suites above garages—are discretionary on lots that are 42 1/2 feet (13m) in width or wider, at at least 98 1/2 feet (30m) deep, and at least 4305 square feet (400 square metres) in area. Most of Calgary's inner city lots are 50 feet wide and easily accommodate a backyard suite. The fact that they are discretionary simply means that a development permit is required prior to applying for a building permit.
From Council Agenda December 15th, 2014 at agendaminutes.calgary.ca
Currently, most of our clients are building accessory suites above triple garages. This size of garage easily accommodates two parking stalls for the main house, plus one for the suite. As well, triple garages provide a large enough footprint to allow for a good-sized two bedroom suite above the garage.
Even though yesterday's secondary suite news might be bad, it doesn't necessarily mean that you need to put off your suite plans. If you have an R-C2 lot, you're good to go. If you have questions, please feel free to give us a call.
Residential ePermit
Yesterday, we submitted our first Residential ePermit to the City of Calgary. As you know, since the 1980s, the architecture and design industry has been moving towards using computer software to generate construction documentation including architectural drawings. As well, since the 1990s, the Internet has allowed us to move files from computer to computer that are in different places. Yet, until last year, the City of Calgary only accepted permit applications on paper and in person. Applicants would have to print all of their digital files to paper, take that paper to the City, and then wait in a queue to submit them. This would usually take hours, and occasionally resulted in the application being turned away because of a single missing piece of paper.
Happily, the City's new Residential ePermit system now allows us to submit some permits online. Currently the City is accepting single and semi-detached building permits in the suburbs, and single-detached development permit applications in the inner city. Next month they are expecting to be able to accept semi-detached development permit applications.
Our first application went smoothly only taking about a half an hour to complete. There were some things that weren't clear, such as whether site photos should be uploaded as individual files, or be put together as a multi-page PDF. The uploads were a bit slow, but overall, it was a straightforward process.
We saved:
- Printing about 50 sheets of 24"x26" paper, stapled and folded
- The delivery of those prints
- Driving to and from City Hall
- Waiting for hours before being seen at the counter, and then waiting for the counter staff to review the application while we wait.
We found out today that our application was rejected because of some minor deficiencies (it turns out that all the site photos have to be uploaded as separate files), but we can now quickly complete the application directly from our office. As well, we don't have to prepare any replacement prints.
This is a very exciting initiative from the City—one that is genuinely reducing red tape—and we are pleased to be a participant. To find out more about the City's Residential ePermits, visit their website. (Sorry if that link doesn't work—the City tends to shuffle their URLs from time to time.)
Richmond Hill Singles
Gary Campbell recently took a couple of shots of our Richmond Hill singles. We're quite proud of these two houses that Casa DeVille built a few years ago. You can see these and more Singles in our Singles Gallery.