Nine questions that decide your project before a designer is hired
Every one of these can end a project or change its shape, none of them needs a drawing, and all of them together cost less than the first phase of design. Most landowners do them in the wrong order.
Trent Praski · October 28, 2026 · 9 min
Port Moody folded the new rules into its existing zones. Here is what that means for your lot.
Port Moody applies small-scale housing across all its single detached zones and specific multi-residential properties. The unit thresholds are clean. What the city publishes about parking away from transit is not.
Trent Praski · October 25, 2026 · 8 min
Maple Ridge added a use instead of a zone, and set the region's highest parking rate
You cannot read a Maple Ridge zoning label and know what a lot allows, because the permission was added as a use inside existing zones. And at 1.5 spaces per unit, parking will decide more projects there than elsewhere.
Trent Praski · October 24, 2026 · 8 min
Delta is drafting a houseplex zone. Here is what applies until it lands.
Delta added small-scale housing to its existing zones rather than building a new one. Staff reported in April 2026 that a standalone houseplex zone is coming. It is a Council consideration, not a rule you can design to.
Trent Praski · October 23, 2026 · 8 min
Two Langleys, two rulebooks, and one adopted a new zoning bylaw this year
The Township caps small-scale housing at four units and licenses non-stratified extra units as suites. The City adopted an entirely new zoning bylaw in March 2026. Same name on the map, different projects.
Trent Praski · October 22, 2026 · 8 min
Pitt Meadows put the unit count in the zone name
Most cities buried their small-scale rules inside existing zones. Pitt Meadows eliminated three zones and built three new ones whose names tell you the unit count, then tied parking to unit size.
Trent Praski · October 13, 2026 · 8 min
On the North Shore, the exemptions matter more than the zoning
The District of North Vancouver names five exemptions from small-scale housing and identifies one as the most significant locally. On a hillside municipality, that changes which lots are actually in play.
Trent Praski · October 12, 2026 · 8 min
Coquitlam's four small-scale zones, and why R-4 sets a floor instead of a cap
Coquitlam rebuilt its residential zoning into four new zones rather than bolting rules onto the old ones. One of them requires a minimum of three units. That is a different kind of rule than anywhere else nearby.
Trent Praski · October 11, 2026 · 9 min
Servicing is the quiet gate on a multiplex project
Zoning gets all the attention. But several Metro Vancouver municipalities make municipal water and sewer connection an eligibility requirement, not a detail, and the pipe at your street was sized for one house.
Trent Praski · October 10, 2026 · 8 min
Your zoning allows four units. Your title might not.
Provincial housing legislation rewrote a lot of zoning. It did not touch what is registered on your title, and Pitt Meadows says so directly on its own information page.
Trent Praski · October 9, 2026 · 8 min
Parking is where Metro Vancouver cities disagree most
The provinces set the unit counts. The cities kept control of parking, and they used it differently. Maple Ridge asks 1.5 spaces per unit. The City of North Vancouver removed the requirement entirely in its transit areas.
Trent Praski · October 8, 2026 · 9 min
The six-unit transit rule is narrower than it sounds. Here is where it actually applies.
Every summary of BC's housing rules says six units near frequent transit. Read the cities' own pages and the picture changes. Coquitlam says no stop in the city currently qualifies. Delta ties it to one corridor.
Trent Praski · October 7, 2026 · 9 min
What is a multiplex? Duplex, triplex, and fourplex explained
A multiplex is one building split into three to eight homes, each with its own front door. Here's how that differs from a duplex, a triplex, and the multi-family buildings people often confuse it with.
Trent Praski · August 30, 2026 · 8 min
Frequent transit areas: how transit unlocks more homes on your lot
Being within 400 metres of a prescribed bus stop can raise the homes your lot is allowed to hold from four to six under BC's housing rules. Here is what "frequent transit" precisely means, where the transit-oriented tier goes even further, and how to tell if your lot qualifies.
Trent Praski · July 19, 2026 · 8 min
What is your land worth to a developer?
A Vancouver lot is worth more to a developer than its listing price, because a developer values what can be built on it. Here is how that calculation actually works, and why no honest answer comes without a property-specific analysis.
Trent Praski · July 18, 2026 · 8 min
New Westminster and Coquitlam: SSMUH across the eastern suburbs
The same provincial housing law that reshaped Vancouver landed in New Westminster and Coquitlam too. Here is how two very different eastern cities translated it into local rules, including one detail about Coquitlam's transit that surprises almost every owner.
Trent Praski · July 15, 2026 · 8 min
Multigenerational housing in Metro Vancouver: building a multiplex for two generations
Surrey alone has nearly one in ten households living across two generations under one roof. Multigenerational housing built as a multiplex under Bill 44 is now the most practical way to make that work, separate legal units, separate front doors, separate lives that stay connected.
Trent Praski · July 13, 2026 · 6 min
Richmond's RSM zoning: building a multiplex on your lot
Richmond rezoned about 27,000 single-family lots into four RSM sub-zones for small-scale multi-unit housing. Here is what each one lets you build, and the local rules, flood levels, sub-zone lot sizes, the sixth-unit condition, that quietly shape the real number of homes.
Trent Praski · July 11, 2026 · 8 min
Burnaby's small-scale multi-unit housing rules in 2026
Burnaby put its SSMUH zoning in force in 2024, and by 2026 there's enough built experience to see how it actually works. Here's what the R1 district permits, how the transit bonus reaches further here, and how it differs from Vancouver.
Trent Praski · July 7, 2026 · 7 min
What "missing middle" housing means for Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley
"Missing middle" is the housing that sits between a single house and an apartment tower. Here's why Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley lost it for decades, and what it looks like coming back to ordinary lots.
Trent Praski · July 5, 2026 · 10 min
Vancouver's R1-1 zoning: a plain-language guide for homeowners
Vancouver folded most of its single-family neighbourhoods into one zone: R1-1. Here's what it permits, what "Residential Inclusive" really means, and how the rental option changes the math.
Trent Praski · July 1, 2026 · 10 min
SSMUH explained: what Bill 44 means for your Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley lot
Bill 44 forced every Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley city to allow multiple homes on lots that used to permit one. Here's what the legislation actually requires, and where it stops short of a green light.
Trent Praski · June 29, 2026 · 10 min
Let's talk about your property
A conversation, not a commitment.
Whether you're curious about the multiplex value of your land or looking to partner on a missing-middle build, we're here to start the conversation.