City councilors in London, Ontario officially pledged on Tuesday night to build 47,000 new housing units by 2031.
The pledge is in response to a letter from Ontario’s Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing to build 47,000 units as part of the province’s goal to build 1.5 million units over the next 10 years.
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Councilors agreed to direct staff to develop a housing supply action plan to help deliver the pledge.
While some councilors were concerned about whether the pledge would constrain the city in its potential actions, Mayor Josh Morgan reiterated that the city would remain open to acting independently.
The Housing Supply Action Plan has three pillars for achieving the housing goals: financial support, enterprise-wide resources and shared accountability.
Morgan said shared accountability involves a broad group of people, including the city, the province and the housing industry.
“The idea of shared responsibility is really important,” Morgan said during a Feb. 7 Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee meeting.
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The action plan lists nine strategies that will be implemented over the course of eight years to reach 47,000 units. Some include prime developing areas for residential development and using community improvement plans to encourage affordable housing development.
A major initiative of the province is promoting “gentle intensification” in neighborhoods – small-scale redevelopments or renovations that result in a modest increase in the number of housing units.
The city will amend a zoning bylaws to conform to the province’s Bill 23 which allows “as-of-right” up to three residential units on land zoned for residential use.
Other strategies the City plans to use include: improving the application process; change development fee; and facilitating intensification in priority areas across the city. City staff say intensification could account for about 45 percent of the 47,000 units to be built.
Another area the action plan will focus on is the re-use of vacant commercial and office spaces in the core area. A rough estimate could not be provided Tuesday as to the number of possible conversions from vacant offices, but staffers said work is underway to determine the figure, noting that many locations are unique in structure and that types may not be useful for housing.
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The report to the Committee on Pledge and Action Plan states that the city already has 18,000 units that have been approved or are close to being approved for construction. The report’s long-term forecast projects London needs 82,350 new units by 2046.
Part of the action plan will be to assess how the 47,000 units will be divided among single dwelling, family and high density units.
Along with ongoing public engagement, the city will utilize a housing supply reference group that will work on a pledge of 47,000 units, and an affordable housing reference group focused on an affordable housing target of 3,000 units.
As staff wrote, councilors passed the recommendations, except for a minor amendment expanding the housing supply group to more members when appropriate in the non-profit and housing supply research sectors.
A letter from Morgan to Steve Clark, the Minister for Municipal Affairs and Housing, is also to be completed by March 1, highlighting the council’s pledge and the strategies and actions the city will use.
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