In a special meeting on Tuesday, September 3, Lakeshore council voted to pass a zoning by-law amendment that would permit four units as-of-right on residential properties.
Permitting four units on residential properties is a requirement for grants under the federal government's $4 billion Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF).
In August 2023, council submitted an application to the HAF, however their application was denied.
Lakeshore mayor Tracey Bailey says the municipality plans to reapply for funding and said the bylaw change was a critical decision that needed to be made.
"We're in the middle of a housing crisis. Difficult choices needed to be made to prepare for the future. This really about creating and ensuring our long term success as a municipality and also creating a future for our children."
Bailey says this doesn't mean fourplexes would pop up at every corner in Lakeshore and housing growth would continue to be dictated by where the infrastructure will allow it.
She pointed to the upcoming infrastructure enchancements on County Road 22.
"That work is going to happen. We need to take advantage of the fact that the road is getting done now and we should be upsizing the pipes that are in the ground today. The pipes in the ground today aren't serving our exisiting residents. This gives us an opportunity to meet the needs of our existing residents while also unlocking some growth capacity down one of the major corridors."
She says this will be an opportunity to fix failing and aging infrastructure as the municipality gets set to go through the upcoming Water and Wastewater Master Plan.
"You're seeing price tags on those plans as high as $3 hundred million. $74 million that's going to be needed to fix the east end of our municipality that's still situated with lagoons and some of that work is going to have to get done. Any opportunity we have to partner with provincial or federal government to ensure that our landscape has good infrastructure for todays residents is incumbent upon us to do that work."
Bailey says the municipality plans to submit its application by mid September and they also plan to apply again in Janaury 2025.