Belleville City Council has approved a recommendation to submit an application for Round 2 of funding to the Housing Accelerator Fund that also includes an action plan supporting the program “in principle.”
Council also approved committing to implementing four units as-of-right, or a fourplex, on a parcel of urban residential land where a detached dwelling, semi-detached dwelling, or freehold townhouse dwelling is allowed.
After being denied for the first round of funding, the federal government relaunched the Housing Accelerator Fund Round 2 (HAF2) on July 15, 2024. The fund encourages municipalities “to propose an ambitious and innovative action plan to boost housing supply, remove barriers, and support the development of affordable, inclusive, equitable and climate-resilient communities.”
In order to be eligible for funding, the city had to meet the following requirements:
- Minimum annual growth rate of 1.1%;
- Minimum annual growth rate percentage change of 10%;
- Commit to implementing four units as-of-right;
- Submit an action plan with a minimum of seven initiatives;
- Complete or update a Housing Needs Assessment report; and
- Submit periodic reports to CMHC.
Based on the city’s plan with HAF2 funding, it expects it could create 460 additional housing units with the city projecting it could be eligible for $16.8 million in funding.
Eight initiatives are part of the city’s action plan.
- Encourage alternative housing solutions for sustainable living;
- Develop city-owned lands for housing to create rental and affordable housing units;
- As-of-right permissions for urban housing options;
- Identify municipal infrastructure needs to enable additional development potential;
- Refresh the city’s Community Improvement Plan with additional affordable housing and missing middle programs;
- Expand residential development opportunities through policy updates;
- Streamline and enhance development approval process for missing middle and affordable housing; and
- Enhance zoning provisions to enable diverse housing supply.
During discussion of the recommendation at council Monday, Councillor Chris Malette asked if there would be any concerns of provincial barriers to the funding as Premier Doug Ford had previously expressed his disproval of an Ontario-wide fourplex policy.
The City of Belleville’s Director of Engineering, Stephen Ashton, said the decision to move up to a fourplex would be up to council and that the city needed to show the committment to a four units as-of-right policy in order to access funding.
Councillor Paul Carr said he understands there might be some hesitation with going to four units as-of-right, but said the density will help combat some of the rising home costs being seen in the area.
“Before a speck of dirt gets moved, we’re seeing land costs triple,” Carr tells council.
“I’ve seen so many zoning applications come through planning, get approved at council, and then that land goes up for sale and it’s selling at triple or quadruple the cost of what it was the day before and not one piece of dirt has been moved off. That has simply been a change in zoning. So that drives up the cost. So you’re looking at $250,000 to $300,000 for a building lot before you’ve even dug a hole. So right off the bat, that’s where the costs are getting higher.”
Carr said he is glad to see the city commit to the fourplex stipulation.
“I expressed last application that we weren’t explicit on the four units, as I was watching decision trends across the city and the Federal Minister of Housing blasting back to some mayors in writing to basically say it’s either four units as-of-right or no money,” Councillor Carr said to council.
“So it’s good that we’ve picked up on that messaging, if you will. We’ve learned our lesson that we weren’t successful in round one, and hopefully we’ll see better success in round two.”
The city anticipates that funding announcements would come in the fall of 2024.
If the city does get approved for HAF2 funding, city staff will bring forward an implementation plan for council’s approval at a future meeting.
