THUNDER BAY — New areas of the city could be added to a list of places targeted for increasing urban density.
The lands in question include a large swath to the east of the Cumberland Street-Hodder Avenue corridor, as well two as smaller areas — one east of Syndicate Avenue near Walsh Street and another just south of Gore Street in Westfort.
Residential development projects in those areas could become eligible under a pair of funding streams developers and homeowners can apply to for the purpose of building more homes.
The mayor’s taskforce on building more homes will consider the recommendation to expand lands eligible for funding under two grants, aimed at multi-unit residential builds and at creating additional dwellings on properties with existing residential or mixed-use buildings.
Should the committee officially adopt the recommendation, it would go to city council for approval, likely in June, said Summer Stevenson, the city’s housing accelerator project manager.
“These lands are all fully serviced, and have access to municipal services,” Stevenson said. “So, no additional infrastructure is required to support more housing units on the public side, which is great news.”
Speaking to the lands’ suitability for development or further intensification, Stevenson said the lands help “with gentle density, and (help) bring more housing options into existing neighbourhoods, while not changing the look and feel of those neighbourhoods.”
“It also helps support our infrastructure deficit by allowing more homes to use existing services.”
The two funding streams are included within the city’s overall allocation of federal housing accelerator money — delivered through the municipality’s housing community improvement plan — which is to provide Thunder Bay with up to $22 million to spur local housing development.
The recommended extension of the eligibility boundaries, Stevenson said, was done through routine monitoring of how the program was working. That, she said, found when the boundaries for eligibility were initially drawn using city roads as borders, parts of neighbourhoods fell just outside of them, even though the lands met the main criteria of being fully serviced.
This recommendation, Stevenson added, intends to correct that.
“This update will allow (developers and homeowners) to apply online, access the online portal, without having to contact us and ask for an exception,” she said.
Stevenson said that expanding the boundaries is “a preemptive change” for an expected third application window — subject to the city receiving its scheduled next accelerator funding payment from Ottawa in 2026.
The second application window closed on April 17.
