Council approves new plan to incentivize housing developments

As housing costs continue to soar, the City of Barrie has passed its latest plan to help ease affordability concerns.

On Tuesday, city councillors gave final approval to a new Housing Community Improvement Plan (CIP). Following the updated Affordable Housing Strategy (AHS), which was approved earlier this year, the CIP includes various tools to help incentivize development by easing financial pressures.

"The Community Improvement Plan is a fund that's created to help create housing in the City of Barrie," said Mayor Alex Nuttall. "It used to just be affordable housing that we needed to incent, but as we all know, we're in the middle of a housing crisis. And so we've actually been putting dollars aside to see how we can ensure that there's enough housing being built to meet the demand of very folks here going forward."

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In light of the updated AHS and recently acquired funds from the federal and provincial governments, staff have been working to update the CIP. About $4.4 million of the existing funds will be transferred to the new fund.

City staff have recommended that approximately $162,000 be retained for any outstanding grants under the current heritage grant program.

In March, the City of Barrie received a multi-million dollar investment from the province's Building Faster Fund. A majority of those funds, approximately $5.6 million, have been allocated to the recently approved CIP.

"There's a lot of money that's being contributed by the federal and provincial governments, which is giving us the opportunity to increase the size of the CIP and perhaps try things that we wouldn't have been able to try previously," Nuttall said to CTV News in May.

"We're one of the few municipalities that received both federal and provincial funding," Nuttall added.

The financial incentive programs included in the CIP are:

• Per-door grant
• Development charges equivalent grant for fourplexes
• Approval to defer development charges to occupancy permit
• Tax increment equivalent grant
• Exemption from planning application fees
• Barrie bonus for additional residential units
• Homeownership forgivable loan
• Surplus municipal lands for affordable housing program

Staff have recommended that the CIP's annual budget be increased to a minimum of $3 million as part of the updated AHS.

When drafting the CIP, staff relied on data from the City's Housing Needs Assessment, which flagged a stagnancy in purpose-built rentals over the last few decades. That assessment said the lack of affordability in the ownership market is placing increased pressure on the rental market, with staff looking to use the CIP to address these concerns.

"Another piece that's inside the Community Improvement Plan is the deferral of development charges. The opportunity, instead of paying them upfront to pay them once occupancy comes, which removes one of those financial barriers in the way of getting new housing product started," said Nuttall.

"So there's quite a broad scope when it comes to finding tools that hopefully will incent the right type of housing being built here in the City of Barrie."

As part of the provincial funding acquired in March, the City must meet 80 per cent of its target of 1917 housing starts by the end of 2024. While more funding could be made available if that target is exceeded, challenges in the market have the mayor uncertain if they'll be able to achieve more than expected.

"I think the world has changed this year in terms of housing starts right across Ontario, probably across Canada," Nuttall said.

"I don't think I can commit to exceeding it today, but we have a plan, and we're working on that plan. Hopefully it will yield the results necessary."