I had lunch with a friend from Dunbar this week. She was very upset about a beautiful old home that was coming down two doors from them. The house was being demolished to make room for a new home with laneway house. The new structures would take up every square inch of the 33 x 122 foot lot, leaving no green space.
“How is this the greenest city?” she asked, “if we’re demolishing a perfectly good home and taking it to the landfill?”
The original home is not quite old enough to qualify for heritage, and it’s not the only one that’s come down in that neighbourhood; it’s a trend, one that’s changing the fabric of neighbourhoods all over Vancouver.
“They’re not doing anything illegal, they have all the right permits,” she explained. “But this ecodensity thing sure isn’t my vision of a greenest city.”
I doubt that it would be any consolation to my friend to hear that the city encourages homeowners to practice “green” deconstruction of these beautiful homes.