Orillia city council has approved a host of changes to its affordable housing incentives policy with the aim of bringing more affordable homes to the city.
The changes come in the wake of Bill 23, provincial legislation introduced last year, which removed the requirement for development charges for non-profit affordable housing projects province-wide.
Prior to the bill, waiving development charges served as a key incentive for developers to build in Orillia, which has since been “significantly diminished” by the provincial legislation, noted a report from the city's affordable housing committee.
“The province’s change removed one of the city's major incentives, which was in the original document, that allowed us to grant removal of the (development charges),” Cam Davidson, chair of the affordable housing committee, said at Monday’s council meeting.
“As a result, the affordable housing committee has recommended to council that the affordable housing incentives policy be changed in four major ways.”
City politicians approved the committee’s proposed four changes to the city’s incentive policy.
Among the changes are removing the current $25,000 funding cap on planning, building, and engineering review fees, as larger affordable housing projects can easily exceed that threshold. As an example, the administrative fees for the 130-unit County of Simcoe hub on West Street North exceeded $294,000.
The affordable housing fund reserve will be used to augment the city’s cash-in-lieu of parking policy, where developers are able to pay the city cash in lieu of building the required number of parking spaces. Moving forward, reserve funds will be used as a grant for the cash-in-lieu policy on affordable housing projects.
The city will also offer a new grant of $10,000 per affordable unit, to be issued upon full approval of a project, and the city will ensure that no more than 50 per cent of its affordable housing reserve fund balance is spent on any given project to protect the balance for future developments.
Coun. Jay Fallis, while supportive of the changes, questioned whether council would be able to revisit the cash-in-lieu of parking policy at a later date.
In August, the city applied for a $15 million federal grant for affordable housing, and city staff said providing cash-in-lieu of parking is part of that process.
“As part of that, we had to put together initiatives that we're going to undertake to increase the supply of housing in Orillia,” responded senior planner, Jill Lewis. “One of those initiatives is … we will be looking at reducing parking requirements for not-for-profit, affordable housing developments, (which) is work that we promised that we would do as part of the grant process, so council will need to make a decision on whether or not you want to proceed with that or not.”
Coun. Tim Lauer had no issue with providing incentives to developers, but he raised concern about providing other levels of government – like the county – with additional funding to carry out affordable housing projects.
Currently, the city provides the County of Simcoe with $2.6 million in annual support for housing, and Lauer argues that further assistance will only subsidize taxpayers from other townships who similarly fund county projects.
“When we subsidize a county project, what we're doing, basically, is subsidizing (another township’s) taxpayer, and given the fact that Orillia is well below the provincial average in regards to income – I'm not sure I think that's too fair,” Lauer said.
“I'm definitely in favour of all those incentives for non-profits, and even for private developers who will commit to certain affordability, but I am not in favour of subsidizing the county on this at all.”
Lauer proposed an amendment to the policy regarding his concerns, which city staff recommended he bring forward at a later date.
Monday's decision is subject to ratification at council's Sept. 25 meeting.
