Monday, 1 April 2013

Laneways and Density in Downtown Kamloops

I have decided that the best way to tell people about the affect that building laneways will have on downtown Kamloops is to show you. I have taken a snapshot of an aerial image that includes part of the downtown core from the City of Kamloops website. I then imported this picture into AutoCAD and modified this image to show what the density of the area would look like if there was a laneway house built on almost every lot. One image shows only the lot lines and the building footprint of the existing houses in the area and the second image shows the lot lines, the existing houses, and the proposed laneway houses. The point of these two images is to show how the density is not greatly affected by the incorporation of laneways. The lot lines are shown in red, the existing house footprints are shown in blue, and the proposed laneway house footprints are shown in green.

Lots with Existing Houses


Lots with Existing Houses and Proposed Laneways


Original aerial photo was retrieved from http://www.city.kamloops.bc.ca/maps/maps.shtml.
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4 comments:

  1. Unknown3 April 2013 at 21:25

    Hey Tarlynn,
    I really like your picture this is the perfect way to display densification without demolition that we had discussed earlier.

    The problem with demolition is not only that you are left with a lot of left over demolition debris as well as the consumption of new materials, but also the amount of energy you consume demolishing, transporting, recycling, labor costs and travels.

    I think laneway homes are a great idea and impressed with your blog so far!

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  2. Unknown4 April 2013 at 10:41

    This is a great image! Definitely helps show how much room is actually available for expansion. The Kamloops downtown core won't be getting any smaller and since being in Karri's class, I know the people of kamloops prefer buildings under 4 storeys. Laneway houses would be an excellent idea to keep the city portion low but highly populated! After going to all of your proposal meetings, on average how many people would you say disliked the idea of this type of expansion? It would be interesting to see how many green areas would turn red about the idea of a house in their backyard!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Unknown4 April 2013 at 10:51

    This is a great way to show how property size and space has become more valuable over the years with a constant increase in population. And how we now think of better ways to use up the space then we did back then when those properties were first introduced. My grandma lives on one of those properties, and when we were doing the laneway design, I definitely thought of her lot and how she has plenty of space to create a laneway house if she desired. Great Work!

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  4. Unknown4 April 2013 at 17:07

    Thanks John, I thought that image would be a great way to show the densification of the area as well.

    Thanks Sean, I did take what Karri taught us about the size of homes in Kamloops into account when I was starting my research. When I attended the proposal meetings, there were about 4 people who showed up and were against the idea of laneway houses. Most of these people were neighbours who were resistant to change but the city was able to approve the rezoning once I updated the plans.

    Thanks Kristyne, it is definitely important these days to think about how valuable space is and coming up with new ways to save space is key for future expansion of the city.

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