N.B. to look at allowing municipalities to require affordable units in new construction

It's a common refrain when plans for new apartment buildings go public: Will it be affordable?

"Any affordable housing units planned for the building?" a person commented on a recent CBC story about a 12-storey apartment building proposed in Moncton described as "luxury."

There are often questions why municipalities aren't requiring new residential buildings to include some affordable housing, similar to Montreal.

It's something municipalities in New Brunswick can't do. 

"I would love to see that, but we're not allowed to do that by legislation," Fredericton's Mayor Mike O'Brien told CBC in 2019.

What's known as inclusionary zoning would require changes to provincial law. Dorothy Shephard, as minister of Social Development in 2019, called it an interesting idea worth exploring. 

Anne Mooers, a spokesperson for the Department of Local Government and Local Governance Reform, said inclusionary zoning will be "looked at" as the province undertakes broad municipal governance reform. 

Willy Scholten, the president of the NB Apartment Owners Association, told CBC in 2019 the group opposes inclusionary zoning, which he described as a "hurdle for development."

Without inclusionary zoning, municipalities have been left with several other tools that depend on the developer wanting to include affordable units.

Last year, Moncton approved a policy that offsets the cost of permits if a building includes affordable units. The policy would consider housing affordable if it is 80 per cent or less of the median rent in the city.

But Mayor Dawn Arnold said in November there's been little uptake as builders see more value in higher-end units.

"I think our market is just so hot, that developers are just building for what the market is demanding," Arnold said. "That's called free enterprise."

The city's affordable housing strategy approved in 2019 called for the city to explore inclusionary zoning and another tool: density bonusing.

A 2017 change to the province's Community Planning Act introduced density bonusing. 

It can allow a developer to go ahead with a building that exceeds some bylaw limits like height or density if they include some affordable units. 

Fredericton has pursued density bonusing. Moncton doesn't have a bylaw necessary to allow density bonusing, but it's something city staff say is being explored.

Bill Budd, Moncton's director of urban planning, said it may be part of a report coming to council in the near future. 

"We're going to be looking at developing an urban growth strategy to guide how we're going to develop as a city over the next twenty five years," Budd said. 

"That is an area where I think we can use that [density bonusing] as a tool to try to leverage more affordable housing in certain parts of the city."

However, that still leaves it to developers to opt to include affordable units in a city where low vacancy rates have led to a boom in apartment building construction, most of which is advertised as higher-end or luxury.

Budd said the city's recent approval to fund Rising Tide, a non-profit that expects to buy properties to build or renovate existing buildings to serve as affordable housing, should help address the issue. 

Inclusionary zoning isn't something the Cities of New Brunswick Association has been lobbying for specifically. 

Adam Lordon, mayor of Miramichi and president of the association representing the province's eight cities, says the group has largely focused on broad tax and municipal reforms. 

Lordon said in an email that the group has generally pushed for greater provincial support for affordable housing and homelessness. 

He said Miramichi has recently enacted an affordable housing development incentive that gives a per unit subsidy to developers for every unit built. 

Consultations on municipal reform are expected to take place throughout the year. The province has indicated that implementation may begin later in the year.