Builder seeks waiver for senior housing project
Developer urges Amhertsburg to send ‘clear message’ on affordable housing
A Toronto developer wants Amherstburg to waive the development charge on a seniors’ affordable housing complex he plans to start building later this spring.
Steve Newman outlined the 32unit, five-storey project slated for Pickering Drive for council this week.
Because the complex is for qualified seniors 65 years and over, he’s asking the town for a conditional grant which would basically waive the $175,000 he and his partners will otherwise owe in development charges.
“We go ahead no matter what,” Newman said of the project. “What it will do is change what we spend our money on.”
Newman noted that other communities such as London and Peterborough automatically waive development fees for affordable housing projects.
“Amherstburg has got to make a policy decision,” he said. “For affordable housing, I think they have to send a clear message that ‘we’re open and we want it in our community.’ ”
If the fees are waived, Newman said the project would add more features designed to reduce energy costs, specifically a geothermal heating system.
“That’s the big one,” he said. “It’s a sustainable, renewable system that’s shown a 26 per cent reduction in total energy costs.”
He said residents of the new South Pointe Apartments will pay their own hydro bills.
Council asked administration to look at a development agreement with Newman and also examine the bylaw that offers an offset grant.
“A past council put a bylaw in place that allows for the consideration (of a waiver) but didn’t put in all the pertinent details,” Mayor Aldo DiCarlo said. “This could obviously open the door for more developers coming to council with this request. We need to know what criteria we’re going to use to gauge or judge each one.”
DiCarlo said more senior housing is “definitely something we should look at and support that kind of thing. It’s good for the town.”
The Windsor-Essex Community Housing Corporation oversees 4,708 units throughout the region and has nearly 3,500 names on a waiting list for affordable housing.
Newman told council 15 per cent of those on the region’s waiting list are in Amherstburg. That represents 520 requests from Amherstburg for all forms of affordable housing, including families, individuals and seniors.
“We have a need to fill for a lot of people,” said Jim Steele, CEO of WECHC.
Statistics from the Central Housing Registry show Amherstburg has 246 units of either rent-gearedto-income or subsidized housing.
WECHC oversees 24 family units in Amherstburg and another 67 mostly one-bedroom units in two apartment buildings on Victoria St.
Asking for a waiver on development fees is “a pretty standard request,” Steele said. “It’s something we all look at as developers of affordable housing — not just here but elsewhere in Ontario and across Canada. We’re all looking for help with fine margins or budgets.”
Newman is working within a budget set by the Ministry of Housing.
According to Steele, no community in Essex County automatically waives fees for affordable housing. But earlier this year, LaSalle decided to waive fees on apartmentstyle dwellings, special residential care facilities and commercial building construction until Sept. 2018.