Richmond’s Thompson neighbourhood has one of “the most diverse" mixes of housing in the city, according to Evan Dunfee who has called the neighbourhood home for five years.
The Olympic speed walker has lived in the neighbourhood since 2019 and says the area has almost every type of home imaginable.
During a walk through the neighbourhood, although at a bit slower than the race walker's competition speed, Dunfee pointed out the various apartments, co-ops, new and old townhomes and large and small detached homes in the area.
“There’s like a huge diversity and a really small area here that I think enriches the neighbourhood,” he said.
The diverse housing makes other subdivisions in Richmond feel “kind of stale” with only one or two types of housing visible, he added.
Richmond city centre is known for its high-rises while Seafair has a majority of single-family detached homes.
Eight homes on one lot
Tucked into the Thompson neighbourhood is one of the most unique housing structures, Tiffany Manor, that has eight homes on what could have just been a single-family lot, Dunfee pointed out.
Tiffany Manor at 6360 Lynas Lane is a three-level, eight-unit building.
The lot size is larger than typical single-family lots in the neighbourhood, but not by much.
Tiffany Manor sits on a lot that is 1,386 square metres, while some single-family lots across the street on Walton Street are just under a thousand square metres.
The building was completed in 1985 with about two parking stalls for each unit.
“It catches you off guard and you’d never expect (an eight-unit) townhouse apartment complex right here,” said Dunfee.
Dunfee told the Richmond News that this housing form was often rejected by community members because “it’s too dense.”
“This is a good example of how we could be building more of the housing that we need to accommodate young families and people looking for something a bit smaller,” said Dunfee.
He added there is a mix of units with two floors, or a top or bottom floor.
“Honestly, I think it’s just brilliant and there’s not many things like this in Richmond. It’s just tucked in the corner here doing its thing and just happily existing.”
Tiffany Manor also sits right next to a pedestrian and cyclist pathway that splits Lynas Lane in half.
The pathway, Dunfee highlighted, has been beneficial to residents of the neighbourhood in the sense that it promotes more walking and cycling and less driving.
“This little bit of modal filtering means that ... kids going to school can bike or walk instead of taking a car, which in turns gets one more vehicle off the road,” he said.
“I think that’s something Richmond is very unique for and, in general, having more of these kinds of pedestrian cut-through neighbourhoods would be beneficial.”
The Thompson neighbourhood has around 2,435 single-detached homes, 65 semi-detached homes, 1,275 row houses, 350 apartment duplexes, 100 apartment units with five or more storeys, 1,220 low-rise apartment units and five movable dwellings, according to a City of Richmond compiled report from the 2021 Census.
However, the census data values are "randomly rounded either up or down to a multiple of '5' or '10'" for confidentiality reasons, reads the report.
The Thompson neighbourhood is defined as south of Sea Island, north of Granville Avenue and west of Gilbert Road.
Nearby is a new Pathways building, currently under construction, as well as the Thompson Community Centre.
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