Richmond Hill Singles

Gary Campbell recently took a couple of shots of our Richmond Hill singles. We're quite proud of these two houses that Casa DeVille built a few years ago. You can see these and more Singles in our Singles Gallery.

Architect Profile in Homes and Living

Stephen would like to thanks Homes and Living for featuring him in their Oct/Nov 2014 issue. He would also like to extend thanks to Lisa Monforton for the article, Arda Ozum for the photographs of the Sidebottom Residence, o2 Developments for the photographs of their Mount Pleasant Infill, and Brian Burke for Stephen's portrait.

Herald Article on R-CG

Jason Markusoff from the Calgary Herald wrote a short piece about Council's approval of the new R-CG district. This new district allows for R-C2 parcels to be redesignated as R-CG to allow for the construction of rowhouses rather than single-detached or semi-detached houses.

Essentially, by omitting the requirement for sideyards, the R-CG district gives developers more design flexibility in the creation of inner-city freehold projects. As well, the district does not have a parcel width requirement; rather, it has a minimum street facing facade width of 4.2 metres. This gives designers even more flexibility in unit configuration.

We're excited to find out the direction that the communities of Capitol Hill and Banff Trail go with this new district. We think it would be a great fit in their neighbourhoods.

Just a note of clarification: even though it is Stephen that is pictured in front of our Parcside Townhomes, it was in fact Trent that designed this project for Group 905. 

Council Approves Inner City Rowhouse District

Yesterday afternoon, Calgary City Council approved Bylaw 24P2014, introducing the R-CG district. Ostensibly replacing the Cottage Housing District (R-CH) which saw little to no interest from developers and builders, this new district allows for fee-simple rowhouses in Calgary's inner city.

Rowhouses, as described by Calgary's Land Use Bylaw, are residential units that are located side-by-side and face a public street. They are different from the Bylaw's townhouse units, which can be within larger developments and can face internal streets or green spaces. Oddly, rowhouses have been allowed out in Calgary's suburbs since 2008 in the R-2M district. Only with this new amendment have rowhouses finally been allowed within Calgary's inner city neighbourhoods.

This new district is exciting for builders and developers because it fills a niche between the ubiquitous R-C2 district, which allows for single and semi-detached dwellings, and the M-CG district, which allows for lower density multi-residential buildings. There is now an opportunity for a developer to redesignate an R-C2 parcel into an R-CG parcel and potentially increase the allowed density by 50%. This new district does allow for three units to fit on a 50' lot!

There are still challenges for developers. Principally, when this new district comes into effect, there will be no parcels in Calgary with the R-CG designation. This means that a developer will have to apply for a redesignation, and will have to present before Council. While everyone knows that this introduces a delay and uncertainty, the prospective developer should keep the following advantages in mind:

• The new district is consistent with the goals of Calgary's Municipal Development Plan, specifically helping Calgary achieve a more compact city, great communities, and good urban design.
• Neighbours and communities won't likely be as opposed to this district being adjacent to existing dwellings as it uses the same building typology as existing development: street/front yard/house/back yard/garage/lane. The previous option for increasing density—the M-CG district—allows alternative unit configurations that can result in front doors and amenity spaces in sideyards and backyards.
• There is a permitted use Rowhouse Building in the new district, which means that if the proposed design meets all of the related rules, the Building is permitted and is not subject to appeal.
• By increasing the number of units over and above what is possible in the R-C2 district, it is possible to both get more value out of the property and to place the new units in the market under the price of a typical semi-detached unit.

This new district is exciting for communities and homeowners because it encourages modest increases in density and affordability which will encourage more people to purchase new homes in existing neighbourhoods, which will in turn support existing schools and businesses, not to mention decreases in travel times and making transit even more effective.

We at Inertia are very excited to work with our clients to take advantage of this new district.

The Residential – Grade-Oriented Infill (R-CG) District will come into force on October 17th, 2014.

Parcside Townhouses

We've uploaded photos of the Parcside Townhomes to Houzz!

We took a clear and direct approach with the design of this luxury townhouse project in Calgary's gentrifying community of Altadore. Unlike many multifamily projects which try to confuse the true number of units in a project, we wanted each unit to boldly and identifiably stand alongside its neighbours. As well, the building proudly rises to it's full three storey height. However, this formality erodes somewhat at the entries where a half-wall and shallow canopy embrace and lift visitors towards each front door. Hidden in behind the building, each unit has a full-width terrace and attached under-drive garage.

Take a look at the photos here.