Thursday, January 6, 2011

44 feet 6 inches. width ain't nothing but a number.

our lot is 44' 6" wide. five years ago that meant nothing to us. but when the city re-wrote the planning policy for inner city homes, it became a big deal.

previously, to subdivide a lot, the minimum width was 50ft. however, in their efforts to increase inner-city density, planners found some interesting solutions when they looked at the numbers. the result was a new minimum lot width for side-by-side building of 44ft. when that policy passed, we happily found ourselves with 6 inches to spare. (insert your terrible double entendre here).

the reason for the change in minimum widths works like this:
- the minimum width size for a detached home is 25ft. in communities like sunnyside and bridgeland there are lots of lots this size. 
- a 25ft lot with a detached home has 3ft of side setback on each side.
- put two detached homes on lots beside each other and you have 6ft in-between them.
- but if these detached homes are instead attached, you remove the need for 6 extra ft...take that 6ft away from a 50ft lot and you're left with 44ft.

side-by-side homes on these 44ft wide lots will end up being the same width as detached homes on 25ft lots - about 18ft... give or take a few inches, depending on your build (insert your terrible double entendre once again).

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