Waterloo votes for more housing

City giving 25 acres to a developer while seeking minister’s zoning order to fast-track project

Waterloo council voted 8-0 Monday to move past its housing slump by putting hundreds of homes on a vacant field owned by city government.

“This is an opportunity for Waterloo to really do our part to build more homes faster,” Mayor Dorothy McCabe said. “People need places to live.”

City hall intends to turn 25 acres over to a developer while seeking a minister’s zoning order from the province to fast-track housing on the site, which is designated for employment.

Such an order is a streamlined approval that overrides local planning and is not subject to appeal. Without it, local planning would take years to allow homes on an employment site at 2025 University Avenue E., just north of the RIM Park recreation complex.

“That we feel is a really long time when we’re facing a housing crisis,” Michelle Lee, planner and executive officer to the chief administrator, told council.

Developers have long complained about slow municipal planning. Some owners have bypassed city hall to ask a provincial tribunal to approve 40 residential towers.

A preliminary concept, which is not the final plan, says the site (the size of 14 soccer fields) could support 730 dwellings in buildings of four to six storeys.

This includes 480 stacked townhouses and 250 apartments, enough to house more than 1,000 people. Homes would be rented and owned, some deemed affordable and some provided at market rates.

City hall never used the land after purchasing it in 1999 to help develop the adjacent recreation complex. The city has not made its appraised value public.

It’s designated to support up to 293 jobs, but it is poorly located for employment and is unlikely to be developed for jobs any time soon, council was told. The city owns a different parcel of vacant land just south of RIM Park that’s not part of this housing proposal.

Council plans to seek a housing developer (possibly non-profit) by July and may provide the land for free in exchange for housing deemed affordable.

City hall estimates Waterloo is short almost 3,500 affordable homes, while two-thirds of current renters can’t afford marketplace rents.

Council could recover the sale price as part of a $22-million hous

ing grant provided by the federal government. Supplying water and sewer services is estimated at $7 million; this might also be paid with federal housing funds.

Council hopes to have details by December on how the site will be developed, before approving the project for construction next year.

It’s estimated 16 acres could be developed. About one-third of the site is constrained by drainage, with a pond on the field, and by a hydro corridor.

Public consultation is planned in May and June.

Waterloo aims to add 16,000 homes by 2031, but must almost triple the pace of construction to achieve this goal. The housing shortage has forced up costs and rents and contributes to homelessness.

Waterloo is adding just 12 affordable dwellings per year, on average.

“The growing gap between housing costs and incomes has a disproportionate impact on lower and moderate income households, hinders the city’s ability to attract and retain talent, and has a negative impact on community prosperity,” a city report states.

“A significant increase in the supply of deeply and moderately affordable housing units is needed.”