Britannia Street Housing Project

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Proposed Britannia Street Affordable Housing Project

At its April 24, 2017 meeting Stratford City approved in principle a proposed plan to build 55 new affordable housing units on a hectare of City-owned land adjacent to Britannia Street, at the former Fairgrounds property.

A public open house has been planned for Thursday October 19, 2017, to provide more information about the proposed development, and to give the community an opportunity to provide input on the project that will help to guide Council's decision-making process.

The open house will run from 7-9 p.m. at the Stratford Rotary Complex Community Hall at 353 McCarthy Road West, and will include a brief presentation by staff and the housing development consultant, followed by a question-and-answer period. Architectural designs, including renderings, colour boards and samples, will be displayed.

Animation of Britannia Street Housing Project

Brittania Street Housing Project - Site Gateway

Site Gateway Britannia Street Housing Project

Britannia Street Housing Project - Building Entrance

Building Entrance Britannia Street Housing Project

Brittania Street Housing Project - Street Frontage

Street Frontage Britannia Street Housing Project

For background, here is the management report from April 10, 2017 outlining the project:

To:	Infrastructure, Transportation and Safety Committee
From:	Carole Desmeules, Director of Social Services CEO, Perth & Stratford Housing Corporation Ed Dujlovic, Director of Infrastructure and Development Services André Morin, Director of Corporate Services
Report#:	ITS17-019
Attachments:	City of Stratford - Housing Division New Affordable Housing Business Plan Summary Tim Welch Consulting, February 2017

Title: Proposed development of affordable housing units on the former Fairground lands. 10-2017 Apr 20 Council Fairground Lands Report FINAL

Objective: To provide information and obtain approval from Council on the proposed business plan to build 55 new affordable housing units on 2.47 acres or one hectare from the former Fairground Lands.

Background: This is a subsequent report to the "Proposed Development in Fairground Lands" Management report dated April 10, 2017. In February 2017, Social Services staff contracted Tim Welch Consulting Inc. to review the Stratford Fairground Lands and to provide a business plan to develop new affordable housing utilizing funds provided by the Federal and Provincial government as part of the Investment in Affordable Housing Program (IAH) and Social Infrastructure Fund (SIF).

Highlights from the proposed Business Plan are identified below:

Summary:

The proposed project would have two phases:

Phase 1 creating 35 units, with construction beginning in early 2018; and
Phase 2 creating 20 units with construction beginning in 2020.

Fairground Lands Retained:

Fairground Lands Retained:

The proposed business plan identifies retaining a total of the 2.47 acres or one hectare. For which 1.8 acres or 0.73 hectares land would be used for the development of Phase 1 and 2 for a total of 55 affordable units with an additional 0.67 acres or 0.27 hectare dedicated towards green space/park land common area.

Britannia Housing Concept Image

Public Consultation:

Public Consultation:

The project would be designed to blend in with the streets scape of the neighbourhood and public consultation would take place to ensure community feedback and suggestions are taken into consideration.

10-Year Housing and Homelessness Plan Commitment:

The 10-Year Housing and Homelessness Plan for Stratford, Perth and St. Marys identified that 98 affordable housing units should be created by 2024. As of April 2017 the total number of units created is 20. This represents about 20% of the 98 unit proposed target.

Analysis: The 55 new units created in phase 1 & 2 would provide much needed affordable housing for low to moderate income families in Stratford. Once the 55 units are completed a total of 75 affordable housing units would have been created in the City of Stratford.This would represent 76% of proposed targets of 98 affordable units be created as outlined in our 10-Year Housing and Homelessness Plan for Stratford and as shown in table below.

The 10-Year Housing and Homelessness Plan for Stratford, Perth and St. Marys - targets
Community	Population	New Affordable Units Created		New RGI and Rent Supplement		Total New Affordable, RGI & Rent Supplement Created by 2021
		Required	Projected to 2021	Required	Projected 2021	Required	Projected to 2021	Percentage Completed
Stratford	30,885	98	75	26	31	124	106	85%
St.Marys	3,655	12	5	3	12	15	17	113%
North Perth	12,635	40		11	3	51	3	7%
Perth East	12,030	38		10	0	48	0	0%
Perth South	3,995	13		3	2	16	2	11%
West Perth	8,915	28		8	0	35	0	0%
Total	72,115	228	20	61	48	288	128	0
*55 units included to the total for Stratford

Affordable Rents:

In the Provincial Policy Statement, 2014, affordable rental is defined as a unit for which the rent does not exceed 30% of gross annual household income for low and moderate income rental households. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) provides statistics on rental rates which are for buildings that have 3 or more units.

In Phase 1 of the proposed project 14 units would be rented at 80% of market rent at $582 per month while the other units would be rented at the CMHC market rent.

In Phase 2, 10 units would be rented at 80% of the market rent at $582 while the other 10 units would be rented at CMHC market rent. For Stratford, the CMHC market rents are more affordable than the actual market rents.

	1 bedroom	2 bedroom	3 bedroom
CMHC Market rent	$728	$873	$1,010
80% of CMHC market rent	$582	$698	$808

Holding Company:

The proposed development would be owned by a separately created City of Stratford municipal non-profit housing corporation, which would allow the City to hold the land and the proposed development. This asset would be owned by the City of Stratford as a sole shareholder and would be managed through the Housing Division.

Timelines:

To utilize the funding provided by the Federal and Provincial government as part of the Investment in Affordable Housing Program and Social Infrastructure Fund the project has to be approved by July 2017 to ensure the public can be consulted and recommendation taken into consideration so that construction can begin in 2018. This project would also position the Corporation to utilize any future funding from the Federal and Provincial government towards the development for Phase 2 of this project.

Financial Impact: The estimated value of the 2.47 acres or one hectare land is $500,000. After 20 years the estimated value of the land and property is projected to be around 4-5 million dollars. The project is self-sustaining with 4% of revenue allocated towards capital replacement reserves from year 1. The estimated annual operating surplus for Phase 1 and Phase 2 is projected to be $20,067 and $9,562 for a total of $29,629 annually. The surplus would be placed in a housing reserve to be used towards the creation of new affordable housing units within the City of Stratford.

Staff Recommendations: THAT the report and business plan to build 55 new affordable housing units at the former Stratford Fairground Lands be received for information;

THAT the proposed plan to construct 55 new affordable housing units be approved in principle, in accordance with Investment in Affordable Housing Program and Social Infrastructure Fund timelines and funding guidelines; AND THAT Staff report back on the components of the Business Plan requiring Council approval, as described in this report.

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