Mayor Gregor Robertson announced Wednesday that changes will be coming to single-family home neighbourhoods in Vancouver to accommodate more affordable forms of housing such as townhomes and duplexes.

In a speech to a crowd of about 300 developers and business people at the Pinnacle Hotel downtown, Robertson said the "time is right to advance a conversation" about how the city can create more affordable housing while still preserving the essence of single-family home neighbourhoods.

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"We want to make sure we do this very carefully," the mayor said in a 45-minute speech to guests and members of the B.C. chapter of the Urban Land Institute. "But at this point, we need to see change, we need to see new homes, new supply in our single-family home neighbourhoods."

Robertson didn't provide specifics but city council has heard previously from city staff about the so-called "missing middle" in Vancouver, where there is a shortage of affordable townhomes, row houses and duplexes.

An analysis by city staff, he said, showed that 70 per cent of all current development proposals are for condos, 16 per cent are for rental apartments and less than 10 per cent are for subsidized housing.

He said city staff will provide more details in the weeks to come on changes to single-family neighbourhoods and four other strategies to increase affordable housing options, including freeing up more city land for development, a push for more housing around transit stations, adding homes along arterial streets and allowing more density to the "hundreds of blocks of aging apartment buildings that desperately need reinvestment at a time when our vacancy rate is near zero."

"Why aren't we adding a fourth floor to the three-storey walk-ups that are all over the city?" the mayor said.

Robertson said he believes there are ways of adding more affordable housing options into single-family neighbourhoods without land assemblies, where residents on a block get together and sell their homes to one developer to maximize their profits.

"The choice isn't between change and no change because the single-family home neighbourhoods are changing right now," the mayor said. "We're seeing character homes being razed and replaced with much larger single-family homes. So the essence of the neighbourhoods is already in great flux."

He noted the most recent census data shows neighbourhoods on the west side of the city are losing residents. Kerrisdale has 800 fewer residents than in 2011, Arbutus Ridge has lost 700 and Dunbar dropped by 300 people.

"Prices are going higher, less people live there and whatever change is taking place is not creating more opportunities for people to move into the neighbourhood," he said. "A neighbourhood that's made up of perfect character or heritage $5 million homes is not healthy, frankly, if there's no kids there."

mhowell@vancourier.com

@Howellings