City begins process to get affordable housing on two city-owned properties

The city hopes an empty field on the corner of Grand Ridge Drive and Cedar Creek Road and the former St. Ambrose School at 25 Chalmers St. in Galt can one day be home to hundreds of people seeking affordable places to call home.

The city will welcome delegations to an upcoming statutory public meeting about plans to rezone the two city-owned properties for affordable housing.

The two properties that are the focus of the Nov. 12 meeting were part of council discussions in September.

Council gave approval to move ahead with a concept at 0 Grand Ridge Drive for up to a 50-unit apartment building.

At 25 Chalmers St. staff recommended a concept for two seven and nine-storey buildings with up to 360 units, but that idea got scaled back by council to limit the height of the buildings to four storeys.

Both properties were among four concepts pitched by staff in the spring to get housing on city-owned properties and meet targets set out in the federal Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF).

The city is eligible to receive about $13 million through the Canada and Mortgage Housing Corporation if it follows through with several ideas to generate more housing.

Under the HAF, Cambridge needs to lay the groundwork to get just under 3,000 units built within the next three years before CMHC releases the final portion of its funding.

Targets are based on the types of units the city approves and can range from low-to-medium density, also known as "missing middle housing," to high-density apartments with units in close proximity to transit.

Any unit built within city limits can count toward the overall target and the city only needs to ensure 5.34 per cent of its 3,000-unit target is "affordable."

At the Grand Ridge Drive property, the city will seek public input on an official plan amendment and zone change from open space to multi-residential and an increase in density to 116 units per hectare to a maximum height of four storeys.

At 25 Chalmers St. S., the city will seek public input on the plan to amend the official plan for the site from low/medium residential to high density residential. The zone change would allow for the increased density and require a minimum parking rate of 1.25 spaces per unit.

The public meetings begin at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 12.

Anyone who wants to speak is asked to register in advance.

The statutory public meeting will be followed by staff reports and recommendations back to council.

Once the sites are "upzoned" to council's approval, staff will ask council for direction to sell the land with the condition that whoever buys it builds housing as directed, including any requested amenities.