Housing Summit 2019
On March 18th and 19th of 2019 the City of Belleville hosted a Housing Summit to address housing issues in Belleville.
2019 Housing Summit presentations |
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Some presentations included:
To obtain a copy of the presentations listed above please contact planning@belleville.ca |
2019 Housing Summit videos |
At the Belleville Housing Summit, Council passed a number of resolutions and amendments. Planning Staff have consolidated these motions into seven ‘action items'.
Status of action items from Housing Summit
1. Develop an Affordable Rental Housing Community Improvement Plan (CIP) and update the existing Brownfields CIP and Downtown CIP (complete) |
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Status: complete The purpose of this action item is to provide incentives for affordable rental units. The City has approved an Affordable Rental Housing CIP. The Community Improvement Plan is now available on our Community Improvement Plan page. |
2. Staff recommendation on ‘next steps' for housing strategy for affordable and attainable housing (ongoing) |
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Status: City Staff are working on the following items before making a recommendation to Council:
The purpose of this action item is to have a housing strategy that:
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3. Update development charges (complete) |
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Status: Complete The purpose of this action item is to reduce Development Charges by 50% (excluding areas inside the Central Business District which already receive this benefit) for all apartment units being built that enter into an agreement with the City to charge rents at market rate or less for a defined period of time. Market rates will be established by the County of Hastings. And to reduce Development Charges for properties with a minimum of a six (6) unit apartment building to a maximum of 1,000 units by 2025. |
4. Expand the scope of the Official Plan Update to include modernizing housing policies, intensification policies and mixed use policies (complete) |
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Status: Complete (It is expected that Dillon Consulting, who is preparing the new Official Plan will have the document completed in mid to late September and submitted to the City and the Ministry of Municipal Affairs as part of their one-window review process.) The purpose of this action item is to increase the supply of lands available for medium and high residential along with mixed use development (ground floor commercial with residential above) which will ultimately increase the supply of rental units in the City. |
5. Recommendations be referred to the 2019 budget process (complete) |
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Status: Complete City Council approved the budget for the development of the Affordable Rental Housing Community Improvement Plan (CIP). |
6. Management prepare a policy for Council consideration regarding property allotment (ongoing) |
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Status: Discussions and Strategies will have to be developed through the City Departments including Clerks and Development and Engineering. There may also be a requirement to include this through the City's Affordable Rental Housing Community Improvement Plan (CIP) Study. The purpose of this action item is to provide an annual property allotment from the City to Habitat for Humanity and like Organizations in the City of Belleville of four (4) to six (6) properties for their use/purposes. |
7. Update the Second Units Policy (ongoing) |
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Status: City Staff from Planning, Building and Fire & Emergency Services have met to establish a process of how an individual property owner can apply to legalize an illegal second unit. The process is shown on our Second Units page. In terms of encouraging new secondary units that include loans or grants, this would be part of the Housing CIP which would also consist of a financial analysis by Watson and Associates. It should also be identified and recognized that Council approved/confirmed through the update to the City's Development Charge By-law, that development of second units (including additions and coach houses) are exempt from development charges. The Affordable Rental Housing CIP will examine if there are any opportunities to provide incentives to update/recognize illegal units so they become legal units and then to look at ways to encourage new secondary units that could include loans or grants. Once this occurs Council will consider this type of incentive as part of the 2020 Operating Budget. The purpose of this action items is to allow for the process to bring illegal units to legal units and then to look at ways to encourage new secondary units that could include loans or grants. |
The City has developed Guidelines for the Reduction of Parking Requirements for Affordable Rental Housing to offer an incentive for the development of affordable rental housing.
If you are considering building a coach house (separate from the main house), here is some information from the province on Building or Buying a Tiny Home.