Skip to content

McCausland looks to free up more land for housing

An Official Plan amendment by Ward 4 Coun. Geoff McCausland would open up institutional zone properties to housing and review municipally owned properties for potential housing projects
010222_TC_Housing_Official_Plan Sized
The Luxury Hyland Place Apartments building is seen at 347 Hyland Drive. The apartments fill and expand upon a building that housed École St-Denis until the school’s new building opened on Centennial Drive. This repurposing of an institutional zone property is the kind of development Ward 4 Coun. Geoff McCausland wants to see come out of an amendment to the city’s Official Plan he tabled last week.

In an effort to free up more land for housing, Ward 4 Coun. Geoff McCausland has tabled an Official Plan amendment to make it easier for new builds and renovations to get approved.

In his recently passed resolution, institutional zones would allow for residential uses and city staff would look at amendments to permit housing on more properties the municipality owns.

“We know that there’s a bunch of churches and schools that are going to be coming on the market in the next few years, and a lot of people are hesitant to buy them because they require rezoning to turn them into housing,” McCausland said.

Other jurisdictions have found success by taking similar steps that do away with barriers, he added

The City of Barrie recently introduced a number of zoning changes to open the city up to housing options, including allowing residential uses in institutional zone properties.

Situations such as this allow for the creation of community hubs, McCausland said, including buildings where seniors can live on site alongside institutional services they might benefit from.

“Maybe it’s a bunch of single apartments with some other community use on the institutional side of things,” he said. 

It’s not that projects such as these aren’t already getting approved in Greater Sudbury, he clarified, pointing to the old Canadian National Institute for the Blind building at 303 York Street as a recent example. 

The project’s proponent came to the city’s planning committee earlier this month to apply for a zoning change for the building to accommodate up to 32 bachelor and one-bedroom units.

Although the committee approved the project, McCausland said the zoning change added a hurdle for the developer – one that included community opposition to the project due to traffic concerns which various steps were taken to resolve.

“We need housing, and we especially need the kind of housing that (project) will provide,” he said of its affordable housing units. 

Another example is the Luxury Hyland Place Apartments at 347 Hyland Drive, which fills and expands upon a renovated building that housed École St-Denis until the school’s new building opened on Centennial Drive

The project was completed in 2015 and includes 64 units ranging from bachelor to two-storey apartments.

Panoramic Properties built, owns and manages the property. The company’s vice president of operations, Angelo Butera, said the old school offered an ideal location and various selling points within its existing structure.

Constructing residential units within an existing building requires creative thinking, which he said results in unique layouts residents enjoy. The old gymnasium, for example, has been renovated to create units that contribute to an “urban townhouse kind of feel.”

Institutional buildings are also typically overbuilt in order to avoid problems down the line, which he said adds even greater flexibility to what developers can do with them.

McCausland’s amendment to the Official Plan is a “great idea,” Butera said, adding that it will remove a hurdle developers often face, which is always a help.

“There are many ways to solve the housing crisis, but allowing for multiple purposes in a zone will help,” he said. “We’re always working on trying to rezone things.”

As for his push for the city to open up more municipally owned land for housing, the councillor pointed to the transitional housing complex on Lorraine Street as a situation in which it would have benefited the city.

Although the complex for the chronically homeless was supported by city council in the end, area residents expressed opposition to the project after city council selected a Lorraine Street property prior to public consultation.

The rush to select a site was the result of a ticking clock on a $7.4-million grant from Canada Mortgage and Housing. Lorraine Street topped what city administration called a short list of city-owned properties available to house the project and was the only ideal location.

By rezoning more municipal land for multi-residential developments such as this, McCausland said the city would become more shovel ready when future funding opportunities arise.

“This would allow us to be more agile, where we’d be able to put community housing developments on municipally owned lands and be able to move more quickly when there are these funding opportunities.”

McCausland’s proposed changes to the city’s Official Plan will be factored into the draft document the public is slated to weigh in on during a public consultation process expected to begin within the next few months.

The Official Plan helps guide the city’s development and land use and helps inform decisions over the next 20 years. The Official Plan is revised every five years, and the city is currently in the midst of phase two of its latest revision. 

Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com. 


Comments

Verified reader

If you would like to apply to become a verified commenter, please fill out this form.