Saugeen Shores Apartment Development Concept Plan (Photo from Saugeen Shore Council Presentation)
A developer is proposing to construct three new, four-storey high rises in Port Elgin.
The proposal from Lord Elgin Estates Development Limited was presented to Saugeen Shores council at a recent meeting.
The application for the project seeks to adjust the Saugeen Shores Official Plan to add a site-specific provision to the Highway Commercial designation, to allow for high density residential uses on Waterloo Street and Devonshire Road in Port Elgin.
The application also looks to amend the zoning by-law to include a site specific provision to the Highway Commercial Holding zone and allow for residential uses.
Saugeen Shores Supervisor of Development Services Jay Pausner says the proposed apartment buildings would be built on 1.97 hectares of land.
“The roads are there, the water and sewer are already available to the property, so they would just be connecting to the existing services. In terms of the costs it is all there for the proponent to take on,” says Pausner.
The presentation to council was only given for information purposes and the application will return at a future date.
Should it be approved, it would allow for a multi-unit apartment development in addition to commercial uses on the subject lands.
Pausner says the estimated 170 units would be mix of housing types and densities to meet the projected needs of future residents.
Apartment dwellings, multi-unit dwellings, nursing homes, retirement homes and townhouse dwellings would be among the permitted uses.
Thirty per cent of the development should be available as rental housing, and 30 per cent of the new housing would be allocated as affordable housing.
“Generally price is the most important rate related to affordability, there are certainly other metrics like accessibility, adequacy, in other words not falling apart, and meets people who have mobility needs or other disabilities, affordability on the price. So we are definitely in need of rental accommodations below 80 per cent of the market rate, which is sort of the rule of thumb we use when we try to determine what is affordable,” says Pausner.
Residents have submitted some issues raised with the proposal including increased noise and traffic, decreased commercial options, loss of views and green space, impacts to the infrastructure and services, and the height and density of the apartment buildings.
Mayor Luke Charbonneau says as the proposal makes its way through the planning process, he is pleased to see developers sending in applications for larger-sized, high density, apartment style rental units.
“We need affordable housing and we need rentals primarily. The higher the density, the more attainable that housing will be for people who need housing in our community. It is great to see developers proposing that, I am hoping over the course of 2022 we are going to see a few more similar applications and that is going to help us take a bite out of the affordable housing issue in our community,” says Charbonneau.
Charbonneau says the least affordable form housing is that for a single family, that price gets cheaper the higher the density.
“Getting apartment buildings built, in terms of making housing more attainable, is the best thing that can happen and we in the community have been really putting a lot of pressure on our developers over the last couple of years the bring us those kinds of proposals, to come to us with apartment proposals and they are starting to do that and it is great,” says Charbonneau. “The more of that kind of supply we can get on the market, the more attainable housing is going to be for people who are trying to live and work in our community.”
Charbonneau says there is currently no date for the proposal to return to council as the planning process is still underway.
