There’s room for up to 327 medium-density residential units between two locations in Minnow Lake and Lively, and the city is seeking developers to get building.
In an expression of interest which closes on Sept. 30, the city wants a developer to come forward to build on these two municipally owned properties.
The Minnow Lake property is off of Bancroft drive, and the Lively location is on White Road.
“These sites have been identified as priority locations for affordable housing development as part of the city’s Housing Supply Strategy and Housing Accelerator Fund Action Plan,” according to the expression of interest document, which promotes it as “a unique opportunity to contribute to the future of housing in Greater Sudbury, while utilizing financial incentives and municipally supported development pathways.”
The city's affordable land banking efforts, approved by city council in 2020, have seen the city set municipally owned lands aside to accommodate affordable housing developments. The intention is for these lands to be shovel-ready for quick development, or as a municipal report notes, to “de-risk city-owned land, prepare properties for development, and ensure they are ready for affordable housing projects.”
There’s a well-established housing shortfall in Greater Sudbury, particularly when it comes to affordable housing, and the population has been rapidly growing.
The city’s elected officials voted in November 2023 to purchase 5.21 acres of vacant land in Minnow Lake from the Sudbury Catholic School Board. It joined adjacent land the city already owned in creating a larger parcel of property available for a future affordable housing project.
“The site was evaluated using the criteria established through the Affordable Housing Community Improvement Plan, which prioritizes servicing feasibility, proximity to public transit and other services and amenities, and scored high,” a city spokesperson told Sudbury.com at the time. “There are no immediate plans for the property, but it will be available for future affordable housing opportunities should they arise.”
The White Road land in Lively is three acres in size with 290 feet of frontage on the north side of the road and was declared surplus by city council in April.
The city-owned land scored well under the affordable housing community improvement plan matrix for being situated within a settlement boundary, its proximity to a GOVA Transit line and having adequate wastewater capacity (once the Lively-Walden upgrade project is complete).
It’s also close to other municipal services and a commercial area which includes a grocery store approximately 275 metres away.
A past report cited room for 218 units in Minnow Lake, which places the 109-unit balance of the 327 units advertised in the expression of interest in Lively.
Another plot of land which was almost included in the city’s affordable housing land banking strategy was a northern portion of the Lionel E. Lalonde Centre property in Azilda, which a 9-3 vote of city council shot down in May.
In response to staunch opposition to the housing proposal by area residents due largely to it taking away land currently used as green space, Ward 4 Coun. Pauline Fortin tabled a successful amendment to keep the land status-quo until "the aquatic review plan for Azilda is confirmed, finance and construction has commenced on such aquatic facility.”
It’s unclear when the long-talked about aquatic facility in Azilda might get built.
Meanwhile, a much smaller affordable housing development kicked off recently at 416 Melvin Ave., where Habitat for Humanity is building a single-family house. Also part of the city’s affordable housing land banking strategy, a unanimous city council voted earlier this year to sell the city-owned property for a nominal fee of $5.
Affordable housing is defined as 80 per cent of market cost. Deeply affordable housing is geared-to-income at 30 per cent of a household's monthly adjusted family net income, while supportive housing includes supports, as its name suggests, such as what’s being offered at the Lorraine Street transitional housing complex, which as of this week had 19 of its 40 rooms occupied as part of a gradual ramping up of operations.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.