‘Visitable’ housing in planning stage
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Updated: November 18, 2009 7:36 AM
One of the new home buzzwords is “visitability,” which means designing houses with a no-step entrance, wider doors and a bathroom on the main floor.
Those three features ensure everyone, regardless of mobility, will be able to visit or live in such a home.
Local contractor George Katchmar is planning to build visitable houses in the Aspen Ridge development.
“I think there’s a need for it in 100 Mile and people I talk to would like to see that.”
Katchmar’s plan calls for houses with 900-plus square feet on the main floor and 400 square feet on the second.
The development, planned for the area behind the Traveller Trailer Court on Horse Lake Road, will be landscaped with room for individual gardens.
Katchmar says he also plans to build energy-efficient houses, possibly using heat pumps that provide heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer.
“Everybody’s counting their pennies these days and the more efficient you can make them the better off they are.”
Land-use consultant Nigel Hemingway says the development would be fenced all around with a pathway leading to future parkland.
He adds the concept would appeal to older people
who want to downsize and have somebody else do the yard work.
“It’s [accessibility] a big push across North America and we’ve done a
wonderful job of not creating mobility problems in public buildings, but
haven’t concentrated on housing mobility.”
Katchmar intends to do some preparation work this fall and then start the project next spring.
Mayor Mitch Campsall says District of 100 Mile House council is always excited about low-density housing as is the case with this project.
“We don’t have enough housing right now; we don’t have enough low-income housing either and we’re hoping to get into some of that
as well.”
The mayor says other developers are looking at developments but those ideas aren’t on the table yet, so council has to wait until they come to the forefront before commenting on them.
