A Cambridge councillor's pitch to open up city-owned parking lots for affordable housing has caught the attention of one of the country's foremost experts in sustainable urban design.
Coun. Scott Hamilton wants the city to consider allowing non-profit developers to build apartments over public parking lots while retaining the public parking spots that are on the surface now.
The key to the concept, and what makes it unique, is the idea of offering virtually free land as an incentive to not-for profit developers to build more affordable housing.
"This is prime urban space that is mostly empty for 95 per cent of its existence," Hamilton says while standing in the lot at 30 Wellington St., steps from the Ainslie Street transit terminal and future home of the southern terminus of the ION.
"Right now, if someone wanted to come and buy this land, it would be insanely expensive and the city would lose possession," he says.
Instead, he proposes the city keeps possession of the land and leases it for $1 a year in an extended lease agreement that requires the units to be offered below market rate for at least 50 years.
Depending on the size of the lot, buildings could be anything from a few storeys over surface parking to higher density developments built over parking podiums, with dedicated spots for public parking.
It would create more homes in the core, create more walkable neighbourhoods, boost local transportation, "boost safety because you have more people walking around, and you also help local businesses," Hamilton adds.
"There's all of this talk about how important it is to have land in the core, how important it is to densify and then look at how many large urban areas we have that are, as I call them, concrete wastelands."
Hamilton will pitch the idea to fellow councillors when his motion is tabled Dec. 19.
He's hopeful it generates the same support around the horseshoe as it has in the two weeks since his notice of motion went public.
Among those lauding the idea is University of Waterloo planning prof. Dr. Brian Doucet.
The Canada Research Chair in Urban Change and Social Inclusion has been a longtime supporter of the concept of turning city-owned properties into prime urban space dedicated to affordable housing.
"To see a motion that calls on the city to actively do that, I think, is fantastic," he says.
It's a proactive solution that "ticks a lot of the boxes in terms of really thinking about solutions that address the root causes of the housing crisis, and moving beyond what the market normally does, which is very little in terms of genuinely affordable housing."
The province is relying too much on the idea the market will solve the housing crisis if municipalities make it easier for developers to increase supply, he says.
So far it hasn't worked in Cambridge, where dozens of private housing developments sit in limbo two or three years after being approved.
And even when those homes are finally built, the new supply will do little to address the affordability crisis since they'll be listed at market rate.
Using public land for affordable housing, on the other hand, is one of the best things a municipality can do with that land, Doucet says, because it controls the type of housing that's built there while reducing gentrification in city centres, a situation caused when only affluent residents can afford to live there.
"If you do it well and you do it right, if you get the right partners involved, you're going to get the type of housing that you're simply not going to get with a typical, private-sector-led development, even if you have inclusionary zoning, even if you have 'affordable units.'"
And while the idea is being pitched with the proximity to transit in mind, Doucet says Cambridge doesn't need light rail transit to begin to consider how to use public land in different ways.
"The idea that surface parking lots should remain as static pieces of municipal assets is, I think, in any community very antiquated thinking," he says.
"A vibrant, healthy city doesn't align with acres and acres of surface parking."
"I worry that some people are going to see this as an either or."
In developing his motion, Hamilton says he was inspired by the "Action plan for housing stability in Ontario," a document put together by the Greater Toronto United Way and others as a call out to municipal leaders to come up with innovative solutions to the housing crisis.
Recent stats included in the motion are the fact that between 2021 and 2022, population growth in the region was twice the rate of the Canadian average, with rental prices rising 141 percent. That put 6,500 families on the wait list for affordable housing, including more than 1,500 in Cambridge facing an average wait time for housing at more than seven years.
While Hamilton admits his motion is "ambitious," he says it is equal to the scale of the crisis.
"If we want things to change, we have to start acting differently," he says.
Hamilton doesn't expect everyone to be on board with the idea knowing how concerns over loss of parking supply have been weaponized in the past to stall development proposals.
But, he says, any loss of public parking spaces would be fairly minimal and only impacted by support structures, stairs and elevators.
Even if spaces are lost, it's rare to see public or private parking filled to 100 per cent capacity during business hours, when visitors to the core are most likely there to shop or access services.
Council will be asked to support the motion next Tuesday and if approved, staff will be directed to provide a list of potential sites where the idea could work in Cambridge.
The Region of Waterloo will then be asked to determine if such a project could fall under its Affordable Housing Plan to develop up to 500 new homes per year.
Once that's known, staff will be asked to report back to council with their findings, including a list of any housing providers who might be interested, and if the region has any funding for a prototype or pilot project.
