THE RISE AND SPRAWL

At the corner of Austin St. and Selkirk Ave. E. in North Point Douglas, it appears that development of a vacant lot that has been eyed for non-profit housing for years, is finally moving forward. But first, let’s see if two new houses will be detrimental to the surrounding neighborhood or not.

Subdividing this 7,854 square foot lot into two means both lots will fall below the 2006 Zoning By-law’s mandated lot size of 5,000 square feet, which is where the Board of Adjustment comes in.

Doing urban infill in this neighborhood already faces an uphill battle against City regulations. A 25-minute walk to Portage and Main, and built up entirely by 1910, the neighborhood around Austin and Selkirk falls outside the boundaries of the “Urban Infill Area” which grants modest concessions to old neighborhoods with regards to meeting the Zoning By-law’s standards for landscaping and parking, “[i]n order to promote infill redevelopment in older portions of the city.”

As has been pointed out by this blog before, the North End is not part of this Urban Infill Area. Polo Park and Norwood is, but the North End is not. This includes North Point Douglas, William Whyte, Dufferin, St. John’s, Luxton, and other neighborhoods that, by virtue of them not being built on a walking scale and not exclusively for automobiles, are “too small or shallow” for City standards.

Does infill not need to be “promoted” in these North End neighborhoods?

Anyway, down the street stand a row of houses built in 1907. This may appear to be a typical scene in the old City of Winnipeg, a good example of fairly dense, walkable Prairie urbanism (these particular houses echo Chicago), and a model of “sustainabile development.” It is actually sub-standard; the less-than-right thing to do: the lot area for these properties are all under 3,500 square feet—far short of the Zoning By-law’s standard of 5,000 square feet.

The zoning standards of the 2006 (not 1956) Zoning By-law do not make sense in every new suburban neighborhood. In the urban city centre, they are simply absurd. While these regulations don’t directly prevent infill development, they do complicate it, slow it down, and can make it more costly. With enough holding back infill development in the North End already, why should arbitrary zoning codes?