Another small step forward for the former Harrow High School.
Essex council held a special meeting on Monday evening to discuss requirements that council would like to see included in the request for proposal (RFP) for the former school site.
The school, which closed in 2016, was purchased by the Town and in February 2024 council voted in favour of converting the school into new high-density housing.
On Monday evening, council approved the recommendation from administration to ensure that 20 per cent of the redevelopment be considered affordable housing, and to approve $37,000 for costs incurred for various studies that needed to be completed on the site prior to the RFP being released.
To be considered high-density housing, there must be 80 units per hectare - which would result in a minimum of 109 units for the former school. With 20 per cent of the build needing to be affordable, that would mean at least 22 units would be set at affordable rates.
Kate Giurissevich, Director of Corporate Services with the Town, says the Town can include a line in the RFP to ensure those needing an affordable home can get one.
"What we've seen in other municipalities is unique partnerships with housing corporations, and so that would be a value added within the RFP, we have it there if you can come up with a partnership, they already have the tools and they already have the lists for who needs the housing. So that's also included in there."
Doug Sweet, Chief Administrative Officer with the Town, says the Town wants some of these units to be affordable.
"There are some unknowns but we're going to keep working on that and get some answers so hopefully we have minimized that risk. You don't even have to look at affordable, you could just have this as residential and get whatever you get, but as a municipality this is one thing we wanted to bring forward. I think this council feels it's important that we do something to truly be affordable."
Lori Chadwick, Director of Development Services with the Town, says they would enter into an agreement that would stay with the property opposed to just the building owner.
"I believe it's a 20 year threshold, if not longer, where the units would need to stay affordable and that value would be available to municipalities, to our municipality, and reviewed on an annual basis by the province."
Administration will now finalize the RFP, including all of the updates from Monday's council meeting, and will go back to council in November for final approval before being released to the public.
The RFP will be open for a minimum of three months with no dates at this time for when the tender will be posted.
Affordable housing could be rental, ownership, or even a mix of both, however based of the Town of Essex's by-laws, the maximum height of the development would be six-storey's.