Affordable housing developer asks Waterloo to waive fees

WATERLOO — A new affordable housing building is coming to Waterloo, but first the developer wants to know if the city will waive development charges for the Erb Street East project.

“The need for affordable housing has remained strong,” Mike Maxwell of Maxwell Building Consultants told Waterloo’s finance committee on Monday.

His project has already received $3.4 million in funding from the province’s social infrastructure program. The Region of Waterloo has also waived its portion of development charges at about $323,000.

Now Maxwell wants the city to do the same. The problem is that Waterloo does not have a policy in place to give out incentives for affordable housing projects. Maxwell estimated the city’s portion of development charges at about $185,600.

Waterloo’s finance committee voted to defer the request until it has a report from staff outlining some potential options. It also asked staff to look at how Kitchener and Cambridge respond to such requests.

“While we won’t be able to turn around a new policy inside a month we will perhaps be able to begin that process through the lens of this project,” Coun. Jeff Henry said.

A report is expected to return to council in July.

Kitchener approved incentives last month that include delaying development charges until occupancy and also waiving building permit and planning fees.

Cambridge approved even deeper measures last fall that allow affordable housing projects to not pay development charges for 20 years. Building permit and planning fees are also waived.

The idea is to encourage more developers to pursue affordable housing projects in the region by waiving fees and giving them tax breaks. Right now, there are about 3,000 names on the region’s wait-list for affordable housing units. The average wait time for a unit is about seven years.

“I’m very happy to see one-bedroom and family units,” Mayor Dave Jaworsky said to Maxwell.

Maxwell hopes to begin construction later this summer and have units ready by early 2018.

Three other affordable housing projects received provincial and federal funding earlier this year through the Region of Waterloo.

They include a 36-unit apartment building on Hespeler Road in Cambridge, a redevelopment project with 50 one-bedroom units in Kitchener, and units for people living with developmental disabilities in Elmira.