‘Strong mayor’ powers needed to speed affordable housing: City staff

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Strong mayor powers could soon become a more common tool at London city hall, with the suggestion it could get affordable housing built faster.

Coming up for final approval at Tuesday’s city council meeting is a contract award to Wastell Developments Inc. for two buildings with 100 combined affordable units at the site of the former St. Robert’s elementary school at 1958 Duluth Cr., near the Clarke Road-Trafalgar Street intersection.

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While council’s community and protective services committee recommended the contract be awarded, a staff report makes an interesting proposition: that the city’s top politician step in to speed things up from here on out.

“Civic administration will explore opportunities to request that the mayor consider exercising strong mayor powers to advance the award of these projects that are funded through the Roadmap to 3,000 which is a property tax-funded program,” the staff report reads.

The Roadmap to 3,000 is a city initiative that leverages city-owned land and offers grants to guarantee affordable housing.

Matt Feldberg, the city’s director of municipal housing development, said in an email to The London Free Press that such a move could mean up to a six-week time savings in turning around a contract.

When procurement on a new construction contract ends, there is a four- to six-week turnaround as its evaluated by city staff, then brought to committee for a recommendation which gets passed on to full city council, the staff report says.

“In some cases, timing could be critical to secure federal government funding and multiple partners could be selected to deliver multiple projects,” the report says.

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In an interview with The Free Press, Mayor Josh Morgan confirmed the report is the first instance of city staff requesting the use of strong mayor powers, granted to the city by the provincial government last year.

The sweeping powers dictate that Morgan produce the city’s budget, and gives him the power to veto any amendments council makes. The powers also give Morgan the ability to override council and veto bylaws that go against provincial priorities like housing, and allows him to bring bylaws directly to a city council meeting.

“Early on, I asked staff (and council) to consider this as one of the tools in the tool box, that I don’t need to actually use in isolation of either staff or council, but something that we could consider. There may be options where there’s a positive benefit to the municipality and Londoners,” Morgan said.

London’s mayor already has used the powers a handful of times, including recently to push for redevelopment of city-owned parking lots, and offer financial incentives to help convert office buildings into housing.

Strong mayor powers give Morgan the ability forego review by committee, something he could have done for this contract, but wished to get his colleagues’ opinions. Council can still weigh in during the final approval meeting, he said.

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Given that affordable housing is a council priority, yet opportunities are infrequent, Morgan says Londoners can expect a strong-mayor move on similar contracts in the future.

“It would be civic administration bringing them forward to me, not me going out and seeking them myself,” he said. “There’s probably about four or five of them out there that I would be aware of that are probably being worked on in some way or another, and are at various stages of the process that could potentially come forward.”

jmoulton@postmedia.com
@jackmoulton65

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