Grey County is recommending that the province focus its efforts on getting more affordable rental housing built around the province.
At its meeting on Nov. 9, Grey County council endorsed a report from Deputy CAO Randy Scherzer that calls on the province to focus development charges exemptions on affordable rental housing in order to make that sector the top priority.
The report provided council with the comments the county submitted to the province about Bill 134 - the Affordable Homes and Good Jobs Act.
Scherzer said the county continues to have concerns about the province’s plans (through Bill 23) to exempt affordable and attainable housing from local development charges. He said the county envisions an administrative nightmare on the matter. The provincial regulations in Bill 23 require affordable ownership housing to remain affordable for 25 years in order to receive the exemption from development charges.
Scherzer said that creates the need for the county and local municipalities to set up an administrative system to monitor the status of any affordable ownership homes built in the county to ensure they remain affordable for 25 years.
Agreements for development charges exemptions between the county, local municipalities and developers would have to be registered on title of the property and be monitored for 25 years.
He noted that this could create financial headaches for developers and lenders, as the development charges exemption requirements could effectively form a lien on a property.
“The county remains concerned about the administration burden applied to municipalities based on the proposed development charges exemptions,” Scherzer said in his report.
On the plus side, Scherzer said the province has now provided definitions for affordable rental and ownership housing.
The definitions state that "affordable" rent be no more than 30 per cent of the annual income of a household in the 60th percentile of the applicable municipality or average market rent (whichever is less) as set out by the affordable residential units bulletin put out by the ministry of municipal affairs and housing.
For affordable house ownership, the definitions put out by the province state the sale price is an annual cost of no greater than 30 per cent of the household income at the 60th percentile in the applicable local municipality or 90 per cent of the average purchase price (whichever is less) set out by the affordable residential units bulletin put out by the ministry of municipal affairs and housing.
The province has not defined attainable housing as yet. Scherzer said as a result of the challenges envisioned with monitoring affordable ownership homes, the county has recommended the province focus development charges exemptions on affordable rental units.
“If the province decides to still move forward with development charges exemptions then it is recommended that the province remove the attainable residential exemptions from the development charges act as well as the affordable ownership units and to just focus on affordable rental housing exemptions,” he said in the report.
“This would reduce the potential impact to municipalities caused by the proposed development charges exemptions under Bill 23, while still incentivizing the affordable rental housing stock, which is greatly needed throughout Grey County and the province.”
