The City of North Vancouver has approved a proposal for a coach house with a floor area close to 50 per cent above the existing limit.
Designer Jamie Martin came to council Monday night seeking a permit to build a "Level B" coach house on his clients' property at 349 East 15th Street.
Under the coach house guidelines - the product of several years of deliberation - a Level B structure can be no more than 1,000 square feet and 22 feet tall. The coach house must be subordinate in size to the main home and complement its esthetic design.
Martin's proposed two-bedroom structure fits easily within the height envelope, but is not obviously subordinate to the main home, nor does it take any design cues from the '50s-era rancher.
Most striking though, is that the coach house would have 1,490 square feet of floor area. But as Martin hastened to explain, the additional 490 square feet are all in a cellar whose sole purpose is to house a large 10,000-gallon rainwater collection tank.
"This is something that is quite unique we're going to tie into this project," Martin said. "You're reducing your consumption and the amount of water that goes into the storm sewer."
The system could also be retrofitted to capture and filter grey water from showers and other appliances, Martin said. The stored water could be used for gardening, car washing, or other nonpotable purposes.
"I think if we're given a chance to include this, I think it would be an incentive for other people in the neighbourhood and the area to look at these systems more seriously."
Speaking on behalf of his client Alicia Lee, a neighbour, real estate agent Bill Mason said the design was unacceptable.
"This is a big leap forward as far as coach houses go," he said. "It's larger than many townhomes, it's larger than my house, it may be larger than some of your houses. I don't see it as a coach house, I see it as a second house on this property.
"I don't care if you put rainwater or cows in the basement. It really doesn't matter; it's a larger building than was ever envisioned for coach houses."
Mason said even a regulation Level B coach house was too large for the neighbourhood, and said the two parking stalls provided were inadequate for a pair of multi-bedroom homes.
Lee, who lives directly across the laneway from the proposed building, said she had seen the density in her neighbourhood get "higher and higher."
Coun. Pam Bookham took issue with the clashing design styles of the two buildings and didn't accept Martin's argument that the aging rancher would eventually be replaced by a new home echoing the coach house.
"My greater concern is that this building is definitely not subordinate in scale to the principal building," she said. "I get the feeling that what we are being asked to approve is a kind of pilot that a designer has an interest in promoting. . . . The designer really didn't give much weight to those guidelines that we carefully considered within our community."
Under questioning by Coun. Guy Heywood, Martin conceded that the roughly $4,000 tank would not save the owner any money, because single-family homes don't have water meters. Heywood also pressed him on if the basement could potentially be repurposed in the future.
"I'd like to know how they would get that tank out," replied Martin.
City staff added that the basement had no windows and very awkward access, making it "extremely difficult" to make habitable.
Heywood called the rainwater tank "an interesting indulgence."
Mayor Darrell Mussatto was unimpressed with Martin's application.
"You didn't explain this well to council," he said. "This is different from anything we've seen before. You're asking for an exemption for something that we don't normally do. I'd rather you deep-six this whole greywater system thing, put it at 1,000 (square feet) like we should normally do, and get tuned up about educating members of council about what's before us. . . . I can see the confusion here, and quite frankly I'm confused as well about what it's going to be used for."
"With all respect to you, your worship," said Coun. Rod Clark, "it's a tank in the basement. It catches water and that water can be used to water the garden or wash the car or whatever. There's no mystery to it."
Clark acknowledged it was the first such application, but said he saw the value in "having that water when there are sprinkler restrictions on. In general, it's being a good neighbour and resident of the City of North Van and indeed of the Earth."
Although both spoke critically of Martin's plans, Mussatto and Coun. Linda Buchanan both ultimately voted in favour, helping approve the coach house 5-1, with Bookham the lone dissenter.
Coun. Craig Keating was absent from the meeting.
