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The City of Vancouver’s first laneway apartment building may soon be built in the city’s West End.

Council has approved four small rental apartment buildings with a total of 37 suites as part of a program to encourage densification, called Laneways 2.0.

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One project that is awaiting a development permit is on the lane behind 1176 Burnaby, to the south of Davie Village. The five-storey apartment building will have nine suites of between 400 and 510 sq. ft in size.

W. Neil Robertson is a partner with Stuart Howard Architects Inc. which has designed the new apartment building and applied to the city to develop the site.

Robertson said the planned tower is on a site similar to several others in the West End that have a significant paved area off the lane used for parking.

“We’re really excited about it. We think it’s a great way to densify,” he said.

“The whole concept is that you take these paved over rear yards and you take some of the parking and you convert it to small micro-apartment buildings that are accessed off the lane.”