The Project Manager for the Rural Ontario’s Rural Housing Information System said the planners she’s spoken with recently are working hard to do what they can to create more affordable housing.
But Kezia Cowtan said they’re still waiting to see what the consequences of the Province’s proposed More Homes Built Faster Act will be.
“The devils in the details as to what that actually looks like and what it means for each of the municipalities,” said Cowtan. “Will it be standardized across the board that zoning will go out the window kind of thing and they are working hard to remove the barriers and the red tape to allow for more development in their communities.”
Cowton explained as far as development charges and incentives are concerned, they’ve partnered with the Eastern Ontario Wardens Caucus and in their communities.
“In the county of Peterborough, if you are applying for affordable housing or any kind of duplex, multi-plex, anything like that, the development charges are already waived as an incentive to increase housing.”
She said Peterborough is not alone and there are other municipalities that are reducing or waiving development charges on affordable housing and hoping the property taxes generated by the creation of more houses will help offset the cost of waiving the development charges.
