Granny flat: A place in Hamilton for aging parents to call home

The last of Eleanor Boeringa's six children has left their Ancaster home.

But now, as recent empty-nesters, she and her husband are turning their attention to her parents.

They are in their 80s, still lead independent lives in a retirement village but will eventually need someone nearby to offer support.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also made them reassess living away from family with the spectre of being cut-off from them during periods of restrictions, Eleanor notes.

They never wanted to be a burden to their children, so they're very proactive about making sure they have their next steps in place."

So the Boeringas want to build a granny flat" for them where the garage sits next to their bungalow on a large suburban lot.

Last year, they hired a professional to draw up plans and do the legwork to get permission from the city to build the 900-square-foot secondary dwelling.

We were told in no uncertain terms that Ancaster would not allow anything like that," said Eleanor, a part-time librarian whose husband, Peter, is an auto technician.

After spending quite a bit of money" before even putting a shovel in the ground, they're at a crossroads.

We're kind of reluctant to spend more without really knowing what the outcome is going to be," Eleanor said.

The city knows the red tape wrapped around secondary units is so sticky it hinders would-be applicants from even giving them a shot.

That's why planning division staff propose zoning updates and regulations to harmonize a hodgepodge of policies that date back to Hamilton's preamalgamation towns.

New Ontario legislation - the More Homes, More Choice Act, passed in 2019 - also obliges municipalities to allow for secondary dwelling units in official plans.

The idea is to provide more options in a tight housing market that's starved of supply and increasingly unaffordable for many.

But viewed through an environmental lens, secondary units - whether they're laneway houses, basement suites or converted garages - can help prevent urban sprawl.

This could be a really fantastic way for the city to positively promote the kind of gentle density that we want to see happen right across our city," Lynda Lukasik, executive director of Environment Hamilton, told councillors this week.

The Ontario government's 2019 growth plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe predicts Hamilton will reach 820,000 people by 2051, bringing 236,000 more into the city limits.

Environment Hamilton, along with others, has urged the city to hold its current urban boundary and not expand it to allow residential development in rural areas to accommodate the growth forecast over the next 30 years.

Lydell Wiebe sees all of the advantages of building density in urban Hamilton through secondary units.

But like the Boeringas, his motivation is providing a place where his wife's parents, who are in their 60s and live just outside Hamilton, can eventually be close neighbours.

It's better to plan ahead and have things in place at least before you have to move, because things can change quickly as you age and you don't want to be stuck."

But Wiebe, a McMaster University civil engineering professor, says they, too, ran into red tape in trying to build a laneway house at the back of their Dundurn Street South property.

Despite their home's large lot, planning staff took issue with certain details of the laneway suite's design.

So Wiebe pulled his application from the city's committee of adjustment for a minor variance to make the proposed laneway home accord with zoning.

In my view, it would be good not have everything have to go through the minor variance process."

But Wiebe says staff's recommendation of a maximum size of 75 square metres - about 800 square feet - for a detached secondary unit is an arbitrary limit that ignores differing lot sizes.

I don't see a lot of baby boomers who are keen to live in something that small."

City staff have proposed a reduced fee of $600, down from a range of $3,230 to $4,145, for minor variance applications involving secondary units that don't meet updated regulations.

However, the reduction in fees does not mean it is a free-for-all," senior planner Tim Lee told the planning committee Tuesday. It's still highly advised" to meet all the proposed regulations.

Those parameters, which come after public consultation, touch on a variety of planning standards including heights, setbacks, servicing and parking.

For instance, in most of Hamilton, the rule is one parking space per secondary dwelling unit, but for a swath of the denser, lower city, there's no requirement for a dedicated spot.

At least half of front yards must be landscaped, while there are minimum obligations for green space between main houses and the secondary units themselves.

Secondary units must be fenced or screened on both sides, have setbacks and can't be taller than six metres.

Generally, there was an overall support for (secondary dwelling units)," Lee said, referring to public feedback. But he noted a desire for more flexibility" in the regulations.

Along with the support, there are also expressions of concern over potential parking headaches and predominantly single-family neighbourhoods losing their character.

Several times I have had a problem backing my boat into my driveway because of cars parked on the street," one email posted to the city's agenda complained. We need to eliminate these (secondary dwelling units) and get these residential areas back to normal."

So far, the limited reaction of city politicians has been varied, as well.

Coun. Chad Collins predicted investors would seize on the eased regulations to create secondary units for profit, making property values even less affordable in an already overheated market.

Essentially, these are just scooped up by developers," Collins, pointing to student rentals around McMaster University and Mohawk College, told the planning committee Tuesday.

I'm very concerned about what this does to housing affordability ... and the market itself."

Coun. Jason Farr, however, said he was pleased to see that there's a great deal of potential here" after listening to architect Emma Cubitt's recommendation for fewer restrictions to allow projects to move forward.

After hearing from delegates, city councillors opted to defer any decision on the proposed policies until April 20.

Cubitt designed one of two laneway houses that have been built in Hamilton under a 2018 pilot project restricted to a limited part of the lower city.

But with the potential for new policies, Invizij Architects Inc. has seen a spike in interest in secondary units, she said in an interview.

Her firm's roughly six projects are all for middle-class clients, including Lydell Wiebe, who hope to build suites for family members and stay in their neighbourhoods.

So far, none of my clients have been just doing it for a speculative motivation," she said, but acknowledged the investor-driven property flips are bound to be part of the dynamic.

Still, the backyard nature of secondary dwellings trends toward owners who want family or friends sharing their property and not strangers, she said.

Satisfying the city's zoning requirements has been more onerous than she anticipated, Cubitt said.

You really do need to have the rules at the beginning to be flexible enough so it works for people, otherwise, it's hard to get the permissions later, or you just don't know."

Hemson Consulting, which prepared the population, employment and household predictions for the province's growth plan, expects 5,200 secondary units to be created in Hamilton by 2051.

Cubitt says that seems to be a reasonable" target.

She points to a Facebook group called Laneway Suites in Hamilton" that has close to 800 members inquiring about potential sites and sharing information.

That number of people actually really surprises me and shows there's a lot of latent interest."

Hamilton's demographic trends also provide a pool of people who could see secondary units as viable options in coming years.

A city staff report presented this week that deals with a renewed Age Friendly Plan" points out Hamilton has 160,170 residents who are 55 and older, representing about 30 per cent of the population.

Increasingly, older adults want a broader range of housing options available when making decisions about where they want to live as they age. Most older adults want to age-in-place in their own homes and familiar neighbourhoods" it reads.

Lydell Wiebe said he and his wife bought their two-storey home on Dundurn Street South a year ago because it was well suited for a laneway suite.

Wiebe wasn't just thinking about his in-laws, but also foresaw a day when he and his wife would take up residence in the backyard and leave their home to one of their three children.

My intent was this would be the last property move I would make; one more move when I'm older to the laneway house."

It's a plan he says will help take pressure off the health-care system, with family members caring for one another as they age.

So it's kind of frustrating when we run up against roadblocks that seem kind of arbitrary."

Eleanor Boeringa in Ancaster feels the same exasperation over the bureaucratic hurdles.

We feel like we're actually operating in the dark."

Her parents are in good health, which makes it an ideal time to make the move, she says.

Under the circumstances, the way the world is at the moment, that would just be the best solution for all of us."

And like Wiebe, she, too, expects to move into the secondary suite someday.

So we have a long-term plan for this."

Teviah Moro is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach him via email: tmoro@thespec.com