A special meeting of Essex council will be held Monday evening to discuss future development on the site of the former Harrow High School.
The school closed in 2016 and was eventually purchased by the Town of Essex.
Back in February, council voted in favour of exploring the possibility of converting the school into new high-density housing.
A report from administration recommends council support the inclusion of an affordable housing target of 20 per cent in the redevelopment proposal.
"We know the provincial policy and our official plan is pushing us to have 20 per cent affordable housing in our housing stock," says Essex mayor Sherry Bondy.
"It's really hard to do with anything existing, so do we want to incorporate it into this tender so that we can guarantee there is some affordable housing renters there? That is something that is up to council on Monday," she said.
Bondy says it's important to note that only the school site would be sold off and the surrounding green space would remain municipal property.
"The property is going out for tender and for multi-residential housing, so it's really important we have this public discussion and council members can weigh in on do they want to see affordable housing, main floor commercial?"
She says before tender can go out, a few more studies including traffic, servicing and soil still need to be completed.
"We want to be turn key for potential developers so that they can walk up and they can know what they are building. They can know the capacity of that area, and this way all they have to do is apply. They don't have to take the chance in buying something that they don't know the servicing for."
Bondy says there is already a lot of interest from developers in the property.
The meeting will take place at 5 p.m. Monday.
-With files from CTV Windsor