1733-37 Fairfield

Right Homes in the Right Places

It is widely understood that homes should be located near existing services, amenities and other destinations. Locations like these are great candidates for more housing as they demonstrate an efficient use of urban infill land that avoids clearcutting forests in order to provide needed homes. The City’s policies speak to these trends with a whole host of strategies that aim to reduce car dependency, showcase climate leadership and promote diverse housing choice in existing neighbourhoods. Evolution of this proposal further emphasizes our dedication to this concept, as we have revised the unit mix to include a broader demographic of home buyers.

A Thoughtful Design

Thoughtful design speaks to the value of purpose-built and purpose-designed spaces, which have been envisioned with a local community audience in mind. Identifying this audience allows us to acutely address day-to-day needs. In this case, not only are we ensuring options with single-level living, but also homes that could be modified to become adaptable. Secondly, thoughtful design also speaks to complementing the existing neighbourhood grain, when considering the overarching site context. By gathering feedback from the community and making necessary adjustments we were able to create a space that better fits the needs of the neighbourhood, while aligning with key policy objectives.

Protecting Neighbourhood Greenspace

An important component of this proposal is long-term preservation of neighbourhood greenspace through the use of a density transfer. In this instance, Abkhazi Garden is acting as the donor site with the land at 1733-1737 Fairfield Road being the receiver site of the density rights. This will officially downzone the entire Abkhazi Garden lands to a zone that preserves the site’s current activities while also ensuring that the site receives its official heritage designation. Of the available 35,000 sqft of density available from the Abkhazi Garden site, our proposal uses 39% of the density with the balance being released and secured as a financial donation for The Land Conservancy of BC.

Housing Diversity

We have heard concerns from the community about the lack of diversity in housing options within the Fairfield/Gonzales neighborhood, which currently consists primarily of single family homes. As our population and demographics change, we need to build housing that suits the current (and desperate) needs of our community. By heavily redesigning the building to provide a broader variety of home types and sizes at a range of price points, the homes will inherently suit a broader range of lifestyles and demographics including individuals, couples, families and seniors.

Roof Form/Design

Our feedback from the community, staff and Advisory Design Panel was that the ‘modern mansard’ roof and fishscale metal shingle materials were too dominant and not in keeping with the neighbourhood’s scale and expression. In response to these concerns, our approach to the project’s architectural design has been substantially revised. The mansard roof has been removed and the material palette has been revised. In making these modifications we have the added benefit of changing the floorplans to increase housing diversity within the building and layer in attainable housing options.

Attainable Housing

Utilizing attainable housing programs, we will be able to assist more people in their homeownership journey, thus providing them the opportunity to enter into the housing market that may traditionally be out of reach. Currently, many first-time home buyers and young families who want to live in the Gonzales neighbourhood are not able to find a home that is within their budget, forcing them to look elsewhere. We are still exploring how these attainable homes will be offered within this proposed development—either through the City’s affordable housing fund or an alternative.

Parking Capacity

We understand that parking is a concern for neighbours, so we completed a study to examine the availability of parking in the nearby area. This concluded that the observed area has a total of 81 parking spaces with a peak demand of 40 spaces (49%). There are 41 residential spaces within an approximate one-block area from the site and peak periods only reduced availability by 16, leaving 25 spaces available. There are 31 public spaces within an approximate one-block area from the site and these had a maximum observed demand of 19 (61% occupancy or approximately 12 vacant spaces).