Dear Editor:
If we want to improve affordability and create more housing, it’s time for the City of North Vancouver to allow the stratification of coach houses.
It is well known that people with regular incomes are being priced out of the city as land is expensive and construction costs prohibitive. Owners would be more likely to build coach houses if they had the option to sell them. Density could be improved without changing the character of residential neighbourhoods.
We are retirees who now can’t afford to stay in the neighbourhood we love. We have lived in the city since 1997 and built both a house and a coach house. The building process with the city was good both times. The coach house ended up over budget, as is often the case with construction. Instead of helping us in our retirement, it is costing us more than we rent it out for. We added rental stock but can’t sustain the cost.
Stratification would be a progressive way to address the housing shortage, improve affordability and help older homeowners remain in North Vancouver.
Jacques and Manjula Dufresne
North Vancouver
