A need for more staff and a municipal housing pledge.
Windsor city council held a wide ranging discussion over the impacts of Bill 108, Bill 109, and Bill 23 in terms of what it means for Windsor.
Bill 109, the More Homes for Everyone Act, came into effect on January 1 in response to the province’s goal of addressing the housing supply shortage across Ontario. Bill 23, the More Homes Built Faster Act, is the provincial government’s legislation to support the province’s newest Housing Supply Action Plan.
Ultimately the reports were accepted and passed after debate.
As part of the reports, administration communicated the need for a restructuring of the planning department and the hiring of six additional full time staff members.
According to the reports, without sufficient staff resources in planning, it will be a challenge to process the record level of applications within the legislated time frames and should city council not approve the proposed development process changes, significant risks associated with the refund of application fees will negatively impact revenues and ultimately impact the tax levy.
Additionally, council also agreed to support the province's housing pledge of 13,000 new homes in a decade for the community.
As part of the report to council, it lays out how the City has already adopted a series of Official Plan amendments to encourage and facilitate residential development, including additional dwelling units particularly along major transportation corridors.
Ward 1 councillor Fred Francis says Windsor will be in competition for those support dollars from the province and it makes sense to send this message.
"So I don't think now is the time to send the signal that we're not prepared to take on that task, or we're not prepared to reach aspirational pledges know that may be an outcome. I certainly don't want to leave any money on the table, I don't think anyone does, so for those reasons I'll support the motion."
Mayor Drew Dilkens says all three levels of government have articulated very clearly what they feel about the housing challenges in our communities, and this is just a show of support for the provincial plans.
"With respect to the legislation, they believe that will make a difference. They've put a target in place... will it be a challenge? For sure, if we do things the way we've always done it and we look at the numbers, we'd have to double our output. That will be a significant challenge, but some of the steps that you're taking today is setting the pathway to hopefully allow us to meet that challenge."
Ward 9 councillor Kieran McKenzie voted against the pledge, saying there's not an appropriate plan that he can support.
"We have a good plan in place, the Windsor Essex Housing and Homelessness Master Plan, we should continue to work towards that plan and if we can exceed what's envisioned within that plan I would be delighted. But I haven't heard anything that convinces me that we have the capacity to achieve 13,000 homes in eight years."
The six additional full time positions will be coming to council during the budget process, where they will have an opportunity to approve them following further work by administration to determine what exactly the City needs.
A number of process changes to the development approval process are included in the reports, which includes a new two-stage pre-consultation process and reallocation of existing fees to reflect the process.