The City’s draft guidelines call for lot-splits only on streets with back lanes, in the City’s mature (pre-1960) communities. Areas like Niakwa Park, with 60-foot-wide lots, are spared because they do not have lanes. I do support the residents there, who have called for no lot-splits.
Why require lanes? Because splitting lots on lanes will “minimize points of conflict with pedestrians, reduce sidewalk interruptions, provide more on-street parking and protect boulevard trees”.
Despite this theory, City planners have backed lot-splits in Glenwood, where there were no sidewalks, and mature trees were torn down. The lack of sidewalks at certain locations has never been applied, as a relevant factor, by planners in Glenwood where every lot-split application has been approved.
On Kingston Crescent, the planners have a vision that there would be no lot-splits on the river side, as there is no back lane! Properties in the interior loop of the crescent could be subject to lot-splits, when they have a decrepit back lane! Where is the sidewalk (as far as it exists)? On the river side. Homeowners on streets like Berrydale and Sadler can breathe easy, despite having lots that are 50 by 200, they are not suitable for lot-splits as they have no back lane! Instead, the lot-splits would affect streets like Portland, where the lots are 50 by 100, but they have a lane.
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