To the editor:
Re: "Heritage foundation launches search for laneway homes," Aug. 17.
Backyard houses are a stupid idea foisted on us by the city in an attempt to increase their tax base. You can dress it up by calling them "laneway houses" or more absurdly "coach houses" but the fact remains that they increase density, increase car traffic, increase noise and increase congestion, without any benefit to the neighbourhood while the city makes the absurd claim that they "fit in with the neighbourhood." Each has a full basement suite for rental, and a back yard house. Density is instantly tripled, but where's the benefit to existing residents? Oh, I forgot. It's EcoDensity! Sticking the prefix "Eco" in front of anything is supposed to convince us it's good. In fact, it's the opposite. Destroying Vancouver's single-family neighbourhoods by building backyard houses and cramming people in cheek-by-jowl only benefits this city's development-based economy. The residents and a century-old lifestyle, on the other hand, are the losers.
Robert Wilson,
Vancouver
