Welcome to the neighbourhood — sort of

As a matter of right.

It’s a simple sentence that continues to stoke fear among some Winnipeggers.

This apprehension is fuelled by a sense that pending zoning amendments will cause serious alteration to Winnipeg’s neighbourhoods by allowing, “as a matter of right,” some forms of multi-family housing to be built in what has otherwise been predominately single-family areas.

City council will debate these words next week as it moves to fast-track housing investment tied to the federal Housing Accelerator Fund. Much of the debate will centre on the fourplex and its potential to disrupt the design and character of older neighbourhoods.

The debate will raise the spectre that swaths of single-family homes will be demolished and replaced by larger duplex, triplex and fourplexes. This will trigger followup questioning regarding height incompatibility, shadowing on lower properties and certainly traffic concerns.

These are legitimate questions property owners have a right to ask. In contrast, the city will argue that “as a matter of right” does not preclude any proposed project from meeting the highest standard for design.

This includes restrictions on what can replace a single-family home, how tall it can be, how much of the lot it can cover and other considerations.

The outcome of the debate is not likely to satisfy all perspectives.

However, it is critical to point out that these words have also historically limited change to neighbourhood structures, ensuring a neighbourhood can only contain single-family homes. This has resulted in higher density housing, public housing and fourplexes being relegated to only zones that allow such. Furthermore, any application to change or alter zoning in a single-family area often faces a complex path of variances, appeals and hearings to limit the ability of such change.

Thus on one side of the debate, the current model gives residents a voice in shaping how neighbourhoods change over time. In contrast, this approach has been used as a discriminatory tool to push what are considered non-conforming uses to the margins of cities and into less desirable locations.

On a personal note, I grew up in a fourplex in South Osborne.

Our home backed onto a cemetery and faced a busy high school. It was built in 1972 (the year we moved in) during a wave of infill projects intended boost rental properties in Canada throughout the 1970s.

Interestingly, the debate over the location of the 1970s rental housing boom focused on the same rhetoric we hear today, namely, yes, we need such housing, but it needs to be located elsewhere.

Winnipeg has a very distinct pattern of fourplexes built during the 1970s, often in marginal locations or acting as a buffer on busy streets. For example, in my Fort Rouge area, you see a high number of duplex and fourplexes built near the railyards in Lord Roberts.

Incidentally, this is also the location we see infill public housing in the same neighbourhood. Perhaps the thinking was out of sight, out of mind.

Additionally, you see the same vintage of fourplex scattered along very busy thoroughfares in many parts of Winnipeg. I often comment that my childhood home was a cookie-cutter fourplex, right down to the colour of the bricks. It is always fun noting twins of my house while driving throughout Winnipeg.

What we need to understand in the pending debate is that more housing is desperately needed, including a range of types from single-family to larger multi-unit homes.

We also need to understand that the design standards being advanced will offer tools to ensure what is developed proceeds with purpose and control. These tools can also be changed and adjusted as needed.

The interesting part of this debate is growing up in a fourplex was no different than the single-family home I live in now.

It was simply a place in which my parents, who emigrated out of Italy, found as an affordable way to ensure we had a good upbringing. It took me some time to realize that our 1,100 square feet was distinct from a home that did not share a common wall.

Looking back, I think we ended up being good neighbours. My mother, who is 90, remains in the same fourplex we moved into in 1972. Many of the nearby families and others have also been very long-term residents.

Perhaps it’s time to say “welcome to the neighbourhood,” more often.

Jino Distasio is a professor of urban geography at the University of Winnipeg.