Kerry Gold
Special to the Globe & Mail
Moodyville has converted 300 small homes into a neighbourhood with about 2000 units – with the support of most residents
Urban planners are increasingly using the term “gentle density,” to describe the attempt to increase the number of residents in established neighbourhoods, though often, there’s nothing gentle about the process of wholesale change.
But North Vancouver seems to have pulled off a rare feat. It has converted an area of about 300 small detached homes into a mixed-use, multifamily passive-housing neighbourhood soon to be filled with about 2,000 new homes and apartments – more than six times as many as before – in addition to a big park and pedestrian-friendly laneways. and they did it with the support of most area residents.
Some townhouses will include lock-off basement suites, so homeowners have the option of renting them out, making their mortgages more affordable.
As a nod from the industry on how to get it right, North Vancouver won a gold award for Moodyville for Excellence in Planning Practice (City & Urban Areas) at this year’s Planning Institute of British Columbia annual awards.