Plan to create homes doesn’t fly with local conservation group
A satellite view of Lake Simcoe.
From MidlandToday, October 28, 2022
By Shawn Gibson
A local conservation group says an initiative by the province is “disguised” as something it isn’t.
The Ontario government’s Bill 23, More Homes Built Faster Act, looks to address the housing crisis by building 1.5 million homes over the next 10 years.
The proposals in the act, if passed, would aim to assist municipalities with the creation of both ownership and rental housing types, from single-family homes to townhomes and mid-rise apartments.
“Ontario is expected to grow significantly over the next 10 years and we need to be able to accommodate this growth. The More Homes Built Faster plan will allow Barrie and Innisfil to unlock more housing and give people the foundation they need to thrive,” Andrea Khanjin, MPP for Barrie-Innisfil, said in a news release.
The release stated the plan puts in place actions to support the development of “gentle density” — housing like triplexes or garden suites — that bridge the gap between single-family homes and high-rise apartments.
One example given is it would remove exclusionary zoning, which allows for only one single detached home per lot. Instead, it would allow property owners to build three units without lengthy approvals and development charges.
The province says plan, which contains about 50 actions, addresses the housing crisis by reducing government fees and fixing developmental approval delays that slow down housing construction and increase costs.
But in a news release from the Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition, executive director Claire Malcolmson questioned the plan and what it was truly about.
“Omnibus legislation came out yesterday that guts environmental protection. It is disguised as an affordable housing strategy, but this claim is not supported by the evidence in the content of the bill and its associated policy proposals,” she said. “It doesn’t need to be like this. We can build more affordable homes with the environmental protections we have come to expect.”
Malcolmson continued by saying, if passed, Bill 23 would “presumably allow more lands to be developed,” something she said isn’t needed.
“We need more middle or gentle density in serviced parts of our towns. What we don’t need is more expensive infrastructure to be built before we have fully utilized the infrastructure that taxpayers and developers have already paid for,” she said.
Emails to Khanjin’s staff went unanswered.
More information on the provincial plan can be found here.
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