Trina Schmid and her husband bought a small home on a big lot in Saskatoon’s Montgomery neighbourhood about a year ago with plans to build a garage suite.

Their plans have been thwarted by the City of Saskatoon’s proposed rules for garage suites, which stipulate any garage or garden suite be an “accessory” to or smaller than the main residence.

The problem for homeowners like Schmid is the city’s regulations combine the square footage of the garage and the suite’s living area when calculating size.

With this restriction, a garage suite matching the city’s maximum size of 829 square feet, if built on top of a garage of at least the same size, would require the related home to be at least 1,658 square feet.

The Schmid family home is about 800 square feet, presenting an obvious problem when trying to build a garage with an adjacent suite while conforming to the city’s rules.

“That’s why we bought it,” Schmid said Monday at Saskatoon City Hall.

“It’s a half-acre lot. We’re on our third application. We just want the rules to not change.”

The Schmids have appealed the city’s rejection of their most recent application to the Saskatchewan Municipal Board.

With one child and another on the way, Schmid said the city’s proposed rules have been a source of frustration. The family is renting the house and had hoped to move into the garage suite themselves.

The proposed rules were approved Monday by city council’s planning, development and community services committee. City council must still give final approval.

Jeff Nattress, owner of Laneway Suites, which has made most of the 13 applications to build suites, pointed out that in two construction seasons since the original rules were introduced, no garden or garage suite has yet been completed.

Nattress is building the first approved garage suite behind his 900 sq.-ft. North Park home.

“It can no longer be built with the amendments being proposed,” Nattress said.

He estimated only about a third of property owners in Saskatoon could consider building a garage suite under the proposed new rules. He added smaller houses tend to be located in the core neighbourhoods where rules for building suites are designed to encourage infill.

Ward 2 Coun. Pat Lorje said size restrictions make sense to prevent people from “plunking down a second house” on a single property.

“Surely if a garage or granny suite is to be an accessory to a primary residence, it should be smaller than the primary residence,” she said.

Ward 1 Coun. Darren Hill, who voted against approving the new rules, said he has heard “nothing but positive comments” about the suite Nattress is building in North Park. The other proposed changes aim to make the application process less expensive and faster.

ptank@thestarphoenix.com

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