Council Eyes End to Front Garages

[O-tacular]

Excerpt:

Monday, February 8, 2010

News Calgary & Alberta
Council eyes end to front garages

Advocate worries this will kill backyard gardening

By SHAWN LOGAN, Calgary Sun

Last Updated: 8th February 2010, 9:35am

Backyard paradises in Calgary could soon be concrete gardens, warns a local activist.

As city council pores over proposed changes to its Land Use Bylaw Monday, the Calgary Food Policy Council fears a plan to force garages into the rear of new homes with back lanes would see the booming business of home gardens wilt.


Link: http://www.calgarysun.com/news/alber.../12782346.html
...

Thoughts?

[frinkprof]

Does anyone know of any studies comparing back-lanes vs. no back lane housing development? Land consumption, density, crime, greenspace-per-lot, etc.? I'd be interested to read something on the matter before forming an informed opinion. Not sure about the claims by the CFPC. Seems to me a back garage doesn't preclude gardening. I could see it limiting the size of garden though I guess.

My uninformed opinion - I hate snout houses. Almost everything about them.

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Need to add a link O-tacular, and technically can't copy-and-paste the entire news story here.

[mooky]

No matter where you put the garage, it still takes up roughly the same amount of area, right? So why not slide the house forward on the property and gain more in the backyard?

[bookermorgan]

Mattamy has some not too bad looking front garage homes

[freeweed]

Pretty bizarre idea to completely ban one form or another like that.

Personally I'm not a fan of wasting that much land on *2* vehicular accesses to a property - a street AND a back lane is just that much more concrete for the same living space. Seems even more auto-centric. But some prefer it, so let them both be built.

About the only sensible "all back lane" style that I've ever liked was some streets I saw in Winnipeg (copied from somewhere else) - all houses had back lanes only, but their front yards had no street in between. Creating a wonderful greenspace between the houses, with a nice sidewalk running down the centre.

Bad quality picture, but gives the idea.

Not sure what this whole "eyes on the street" thing is supposed to protect, anyway. Forcing everything into back lanes just means the "bad guys" go there instead. Plus, at least in modern (past 30 years or so) Calgary developments, back laned houses typically have much larger back yards than front - so people still spend all of their time in the back yard. Next to their garage/driveway...

If anything, I'd rather see the City try to stop this "every single lot must be completely fenced off from its neighbours" mentality. I loved living in a house where 10 or 12 neighbours all had no fences, and you had this wonderful greenspace in between all the houses. Now everyone just jams themselves into a tiny postage stamp yard, walled away from ever seeing your neighbours.

[freeweed]

Originally Posted by bookermorgan

Mattamy has some not too bad looking front garage homes

Yes, and we could also look at moving garages to the side of houses, where they used to be in many places. Best of all worlds, although it does require completely different lot dimensions. You don't have these ridiculously deep narrow lots; instead you have wide, shallow lots. Same space, but MUCH more attractive.

The biggest driver behind modern "snout" design is space savings - developing above a garage is a great way to have more space on the same sized lot. I just wish it was to the side of the house instead of jutting out front, personally.

[Full Mountain]

Heres a thought what about rather than getting rid of the front garage altogether restrict the distance from the front door to the front of the garage....ie the front/main door can only be x meters or a percentage of width rearward from the front of the garage...This would maintain the eyes on the street while allowing for the choice of front garage with rear garden

[DizzyEdge]

Originally Posted by bookermorgan

Mattamy has some not too bad looking front garage homes

Those are definitely better than others I've seen.

This one is a decent example as well:



http://www.flickr.com/photos/skomra/

[Ramsayfarian]

Originally Posted by freeweed

Pretty bizarre idea to completely ban one form or another like that.


About the only sensible "all back lane" style that I've ever liked was some streets I saw in Winnipeg (copied from somewhere else) - all houses had back lanes only, but their front yards had no street in between. Creating a wonderful greenspace between the houses, with a nice sidewalk running down the centre.

This was tried in Dover.

[Riise]

Originally Posted by freeweed

...a street AND a back lane is just that much more concrete for the same living space. Seems even more auto-centric. But some prefer it, so let them both be built.

...

Not sure what this whole "eyes on the street" thing is supposed to protect, anyway. Forcing everything into back lanes just means the "bad guys" go there instead.

The ban on the supply of snout houses isn't intended to have a single goal but allow for the achievement of linked goals. As Mooky pointed out, the removal of the garage from the front allows for the elimination of pointless and often under-utilized front yards, this allows houses to be pushed closer to the sidewalk and create a more human-scaled environment, this environment can be easily surveyed via the additional windows that can be placed on the extra frontage space made available, and putting garages in the rear allows for the creation of mew housing that could be situated above the garage and provide surveillance on the mew/back-lane.

[WhipperSnapper]

I've seen a number of studies and laneways do require more land and the garages do take away from the backyard. Pushing the houses forward towards the street is not always an option with respects to city allowances where they sometimes own half your front lawn.

Roof top terraces are taking over infill in central Toronto. It does require the homeowner's attention and is several flights up from the kitchen but does provides a fair amount of outdoor space for a house that covers around 80% of the property.

[Full Mountain]

Originally Posted by Ramsayfarian

This was tried in Dover.

There are some condo units in Renfrew that have a similar layout ie all the units back on to the parking lot and face towards the street and park around it These Here

[frinkprof]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

Pushing the houses forward towards the street is not always an option with respects to city allowances where they sometimes own half your front lawn.

I would think this could be mitigated by moving utility easements to the back lanes, thereby allowing the building envelope to move forward toward the sidewalk.

[korzym]

This will just act as another tax on Calgarians. If this goes through many will be forced to pay the cost of paving their back lane. If the gov wants to intervene in any way, make it a law that the driveway cement area cannot be wider than the width of the garage door opening.

Personally I always though it would look better to have two concrete strips go up to the garage with a tile in between the two cement strips for your tires that lets a bit of grass and vegetation grow, through criss-crosses in the tiles

There are better options out there if you put your mind to it, lots of decent examples brought up already in pics.

[You Need A Thneed]

I definitely don't think there should be a complete ban on front garages, but I hate driving through communities where there are only front garaged homes, that all look pretty much exactly the same.

I do like the look of some of the houses up in Sage Hill (elsewhere I'm sure too) where the second floor extends out over the entire garage - it makes the garage seem much less prominent.

Thinking about place like McKenzie Towne, there are lots of streets with no front garages, but the houses are all about 10 feet from the sidewalk - there isn't room for anything in the front yard.

[fusili]

I understand the motivation for this initiative, but think it might be a little extreme. As someone else mentioned, locating front entrances closer to the front property line is a good compromise. Personally, I don't see the point of having both a street on the front and a lane on the back, either one is made redundant. I really don't see the problem with not having a back lane in the first place. It saves on space too.

[zooropa]

As a Mckenzie Towne resident, I can tell you that our small front yard does get used very little, except for some flower gardening and time spent on the porch. the backyard, despite the fact that it has a double garage, still gets used more and we also have a garden. not sure why having a garage in the back means there is no room for a garden...it's a garden, not a farm! ours is a raised garden that runs the length of the garage and is no deeper than i can reach with my arm...and it is more than we can manage sometimes. initially the only hang up i had about the detached garage in back was the walk in winter or rain into the house. and now after doing it for a few years i can say that a 10 second walk across the yard is such a small inconvenience that i much prefer it, with a nice looking porch out front, to the convenience of the attached front facing garage with no nice porch.

[Riise]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

I've seen a number of studies and laneways do require more land and the garages do take away from the backyard.

Yeah, they do take up more space but I think it is a compromise that can be accepted and made easier to do so if the paving surface is made out of a permeable surface.

Originally Posted by fusili

I really don't see the problem with not having a back lane in the first place. It saves on space too.

If the back lanes turn into mews then it provides the ADUs with direct access to the street/lane.

Originally Posted by zooropa

not sure why having a garage in the back means there is no room for a garden... it's a garden, not a farm!

Very well put!

[Xelebes]

Hey O-tac, please post the link to the article source and use an excerpt from the article, not the whole article.

[Stang]

I'll jump in with a little bit of "me too".

I personally don't like the look of front garages, but I'm not sure that a ban is the way to go. I think that if there were more options for rear garages, people could make a choice. Garrison Woods is a good example of some good-sized houses with rear garages - much nicer to look at. Most new neighbourhoods that I have seen either offer smaller "starter homes" (although I hate the term), or larger houses with front garages.

I often joke that we don't see the neighbours across from us (ours isn't a front garage, but across the street is) because the "mouth" opens up and sucks their vehicle in. Then spits it out later.

I actually like what Korzym says about having a couple of strips for your tires and then let the grass grow in between. If maintained, could look very nice and much better than a giant slab of concrete. The garage door would still be a bit of an eyesore, however.