Approximately five acres of land in Sudbury’s Minnow Lake neighbourhood has been cleared for purchase by the City of Greater Sudbury.
The planning committee of city council greenlit the proposal during the closed portion of their Nov. 6 meeting, and their decision was ratified by city council as a whole the following night.
The land is located north of Bancroft Drive and west of First Avenue, and is being purchased from the Sudbury Catholic District School Board.
Meeting chair and Ward 10 Coun. Fern Cormier told Sudbury.com the purchase includes 5.21 acres of land, with 67 feet of frontage on Bancroft Drive and 498 feet of frontage on First Avenue.
It joins adjacent land the city already owns in creating a larger parcel of available property.
The land, Cormier said, is “specifically for affordable housing.”
Whether the city gets a ton of money dropped on them from a senior level of government or a non-profit group wants to build affordable housing, he said the land has been earmarked for this purpose.
“It just made sense for us to purchase that property and consolidate everything together,” Ward 11 Coun. Bill Leduc told Sudbury.com.
The land is located within Leduc’s ward, and he credited the impending purchase as a positive move toward shoring up more much-needed affordable housing in Greater Sudbury.
The purchase follows the city’s Land Banking Strategy, which city council approved in 2020 and includes reviewing and assessing surplus school sites as they become available.
“The site was evaluated using the criteria established through the Affordable Housing Community Improvement Plan, which prioritizes servicing feasibility, proximity to public transit and other services and amenities, and scored high,” a city spokesperson told Sudbury.com.
“There are no immediate plans for the property, but it will be available for future affordable housing opportunities should they arise.”
“It’s a big site,” Cormier told Sudbury.com. “It’s a really good site for that kind of development.
“Over the years, we’ve been approached numerous times by different organizations that have enough money to do a build and operating costs, but very rarely do they have money for land acquisition.”
With limited city-owned land available for such a project, he said this purchase is of particular importance. This shortcoming of city-owned land came up a couple years ago when selecting a location for a transitional housing complex, which limited city council’s options to two proposed locations; Lorraine Street and 1127 Bancroft Drive, also known as Minnow Lake Place.
City council ended up picking the Lorraine Street property, which best fit their requirements.
Cormier said it is not yet public how much the city intends to spend on the Bancroft Drive property the planning committee voted in favour of purchasing on Nov. 6. Sudbury.com will report on this amount as soon as it is publicly available.
This is the latest in a series of notable land purchases the City of Greater Sudbury has made in recent weeks, and joins a series of properties in the city’s downtown core city council recently approved the purchase of to accommodate an arena/events centre project. The total cost of purchasing the downtown properties has been approximately $12.5 million to date, which does not include the buildings’ demolition.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
