Utilizing city-owned land for reasonably priced housing just isn’t going to resolve the housing disaster by itself however delaying concepts which have labored in lots of different municipalities isn’t a viable answer both, says Oshawa Councillor Derek Giberson. The Ward 4 councillor is introducing a movement Monday to direct employees to have interaction the general public and stakeholders to determine areas thought-about to be “strategic priorities” for municipally-owned lands, and to make use of these lands as leverage in reaching aims for housing affordability. “We are in a housing affordability crisis,” Giberson stated. “There’s a lot of work we need to do get out of the crisis. This one thing is not going to fix everything in Oshawa but what we don’t need is to delay it.” Giberson introduced the movement to committee lately the place it was advisable the thought be despatched for an Official Plan evaluation. That, says the councillor, won’t fly. “It would be several years before any action sees the light of day. We need action now.” Giberson stated he can’t take credit score for the thought, which is neither new or uncommon. “Many municipalities have been doing this for years and many others are starting to do the same, including both upper-tier and lower-tier municipalities. Oshawa needs to step up.” “We know this works. We just need to get into the game.” Oshawa Councillor Derek Giberson The town has bought or transferred land for use for reasonably priced housing prior to now, however it has been on a “piecemeal, one-off basis” and Giberson needs employees to develop a “unified, clear strategic direction” on how they need to be used sooner or later. Council accepted an utility to the federal Housing Accelerator Fund final September with quite a few housing activation initiatives, together with a proposed initiative to create a program for the redevelopment of surplus city-owned lands and acquisition of lands for housing tasks. The appliance, nevertheless, was unsuccessful. Regional Councillor Brian Nicholson stated the town the town has already supported loads of reasonably priced housing initiatives within the latest previous and took umbrage in a social media put up over any allegations Oshawa was not dedicated to securing reasonably priced housing for its residents. “Oshawa was one of the first municipalities to do this and continues to support affordable housing by transferring land to Durham Region to support more housing units in our city,” he stated. In south Oshawa alone Nicholson cited 5 examples of the town transferring land or working with the area to develop reasonably priced housing: Land on Centre St. S. was transferred to Habitat for Humanity to help their now accomplished housing undertaking;
Land and buildings on Dean Avenue have been transferred to Durham Area for renovation of a seniors’ constructing and land was additionally transferred on close by Normandy Drive to Behavior for Humanity for his or her 60-plus-unit townhouse complicated;
The area additionally acquired a switch of land on Christine Crescent for the pending building of 160 extra reasonably priced items;
An unused street allowance at Malaga Highway and Glen Road was transferred to Durham for the event of greater than 400 new items;
The town additionally labored in tandem with the Area of Durham to protect the historic Ritson College and permit the adjoining lands on the property to be became 600-plus new items, with many put aside for reasonably priced housing. “These are real time solutions that provide much needed housing.”
Nicholson stated figuring out city-owned lands that may very well be used for reasonably priced housing should contain cautious consideration of impacts on surrounding makes use of akin to parks and open area, or the proximity of those items to providers wanted to help the brand new items locally.
“I will not support pushing residents in need into our industrial parks or eliminating community parks and open space or environmentally sensitive lands,” he stated. “We know that it is not enough and that much more needs to be done, but the suggestion that nothing has been done or is being done is not correct.”
Giberson stated growing a transparent technique for utilizing metropolis properties for reasonably priced housing would get rid of any random gross sales and make sure the proper properties are used.
“We don’t need to reinvent the wheel on this. It’s been successful in many other places,” he stated. “We definitely don’t need to overcomplicate and delay it either, by sending it off for an Official Plan review.”
“I hope we don’t see a bunch of excuses to delay it.”
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