Sophistication. Elegance. Come home to both at Aspac’s River Green ›› p.5
Urban village living
May 20, 2010
Life can be a village in Metro Vancouver MAGGIE CALLOWAY Traditionally, we all lived in urban villages. Schools, factories, shops, services and homes all shared a common geographic location. In the 19th century, families didn’t have cars and so relied on public transportation or, more likely, walked to jobs, schools, etc. Now, everyone seems to acknowledge that this is the preferred way to live: an eco-sensitive lifestyle, and a less stressful one. It’s interesting that in this modern world of high-speed everything, we are using our grandparents’ way of life as the model for our future. Some people are even digging up grandmother’s recipes for housecleaning products using readily available, non-toxic ingredients. We may be Twittering, e-mailing and Facebooking, but overall, we seem to be moving toward a simpler pace of life. Over the past 50 years, homebuilding has gone from massive expansion of the sub-
From yoga to Kins Farm market to cafés and fresh fish, Port Moody’s NewPort Village offers a sustainable, urban village lifestyle to its residents. Rob Newell photos
urbs to high-density highrise living, both of which, for the most part, are dependent on the car for just about everything. It is only in the past dozen or so years that downtown condo living has been supported by a variety of retail and other businesses
within walking distance. Urban village living is a hybrid of both styles. Built on the outskirts of cities, even in what was once the essence of suburbia, we CONTINUED ON P.2
Strong new home starts in April: CMHC Vancouver laneway housing means more new rental units in the city TRICIA LESLIE April was a strong month for new home construction in the Vancouver Census Metropolitan Area, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Concrete was poured for 1,260 residential units throughout the month in the region, CMHC reports, while starts for single-detached units stayed strong, comprising 35 per cent of total starts, most of which were in Surrey. Condo apartment starts totalled 525 units and were primarily in Surrey, the City of Vancouver and North Vancouver. “This year, we are seeing an increase in rental units, some of which are laneway housing,” notes CMHC senior market analyst Robyn Adamache. For the year thus far, rental units as a share Robyn Adamache of new housing starts in the Vancouver CMA are about 9.3 per cent, compared to just 3.3 per cent a year ago. Most of the 415 new rental construction projects are traditional multiple-unit rental buildings and about 35 are laneway housing. The majority of the laneway housing dwellings are located in Vancouver. “We do expect the rental market to improve this year,” Adamache says. “Given the aging stock of rental units in the CMA, the increase in new rental housing projects is timely.” In the Abbotsford CMA, 55 homes were started during April, compared to 65 at the same time last year. Provincial housing starts in urban areas CONTINUED ON P.2