We got our response from the city this week telling us that our humble house has “Character Merit”! This is an important step for a number of reasons unrelated to our egos and love of old houses. The City of Vancouver has some planning policies in place to encourage the retention of houses deemed to have Character Merit that we now qualify for provided we don’t remuddle the house. This is different than a “Heritage” designation which is much more involved.
What is Character Merit
Basically it is what we have. The city looks at the overall shape, form and size of the house and how it fits into the street scape. They consider the pitch of the roof, the cladding, original entrance, window openings and period details. Most homes built before 1940 will meet these requirements if they have not undergone extensive renovations. For the most part homes built in Vancouver in the early part of the century were built with locally sourced timber by local craftspeople. This was long before global supply chains and mass production as we know it today and the city wants to protect some of that original housing stock. Of the 14 houses on our block, 5 are original to the 1920’s and ours has the most character. (I have to accept though that what the city designates as character merit also represents a particularly white colonial aesthetic.)
How to Apply
The application process is really easy and took me all of 20 minutes once i got my act together and had a dry day to take pictures. (keep in mind this is for Vancouver but check with your municipal planning department to see if they have a similar program)
- Find which zone your house is in on this map
- Take 5 to 8 photos of your house, the streetscape, and any details such as windows, trim and other character features.
- Find the year your house was built. You can get this from BC Assessment
- Find your current square footage, (I used BC Assessment again.)
- Apply online here.
Then wait. It took about two weeks for us to hear back.
What a Character Designation Does
Having a Character Merit designation allows you to build a slightly bigger building than might otherwise be allowed on your lot. It might not sound like much and we don’t need it for our current plans but it opens a few doors for the next owners whenever that happens.
Our lot is a standard 33 x 122 foot Vancouver lot with a total sq ft of 4026. With the standard FR of .7 you can build a house of 2818 sq ft. With Character Merit we can go up to 3,019 sq feet. 200 sq feet might not seem like much of a difference but if you consider that an average apartment bedroom is 132 square feet, it does make a difference. Our house is about 2200 sq ft and we plan to add about 300 sq feet so this exercise is totally unnecessary but it was free so what the heck. The real benefit is that it would give us or the next owners the ability to add shed dormers or even a full second story. It will also allow a larger laneway or infill house if the new owners want to go that way. We are not going to get rid of the back garden.
There might be more benefits i am not currently aware of, and if i learn them, i will update this or do a new post.
Useful links
These are a bunch of City of Vancouver resources i tracked down during my research.
- Vanmap Property Viewer
- City of Vancouver Heritage Action Plan
- City of Vancouver Character Home Retention Incentives Program
- Guidelines For Additions, Infill And Multiple Conversion Dwelling In Association With The Retention Of A Character House In An RS Zone (PDF. This is awesome and pretty technical. I’d say it is recommended reading if you plan an extensive reno or redevelopment of your property. Your builder will know all of this but it might help you with your scope document. )
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