Taller buildings, higher density recommended for Summerside housing

Summerside will have to create more of a mix of housing density to make homes more attainable in the city, according to a report by the mayor's task force on attainable housing.

There were 30 recommendations in the report, which was presented at a Summerside special council meeting Tuesday night. One recommendation includes reviewing bylaws for regulatory changes to support housing supply, such as increasing allowable building height, density and variety of housing.

Summerside Mayor Dan Kutcher said the next step is to put another team together.

"Now we will get staff to put together an implementation team and that's the next project to implement this. This will form a made-in-Summerside housing strategy that will be integrated into our official plan," he said.

The city is ready to zone for higher density too, Kutcher said.

"We have been doing that. We've got a lot of higher density development happening right now in the city. As I said in council I think we have over 400 units in construction. We have a lot of apartment buildings," he said.

"We do need more varied development here in the city. We need to make sure that we are building the right housing we need today and we are going to need in the future."

Accessing federal funding

Building housing density is a key component of accessing money through the federal Housing Accelerator Fund.

At Tuesday night's meeting city staff highlighted some of the needs to access that funding, which includes automatic right of way for four-unit builds. Kutcher said the city is willing to allow that.

"We have seen that before, we heard that from our housing task force, and now we are being asked to explore that from the minister," he said.

"That doesn't mean there are going to be four units all over the place — and there will be some areas where technically that won't be viable — but we need to make sure we have the right types of housing for people and it's not just singular zoned housing across the city."

Council will look at the application for federal housing funding at a later date and decide on approving it, Kutcher said.

'A growing vulnerable population'

Creating a community outreach centre in Summerside was another recommendation from the mayor's task force.

"We certainly have a growing vulnerable population here in our community and we are seeing that across P.E.I. and across our country," Kutcher said.

"We continue to have ongoing conversations with the province about getting some temporary emergency shelter, to get more shelter services here in our city and we're really trying to catch up. So far those conversations have been positive but we are running out of time for a lot of folks."

Recently there was a standing committee public meeting in Summerside to discuss homelessness in the area. At that meeting council members stated they didn't want to repeat the way services have been delivered in Charlottetown.

There have been complaints from people who live near the community outreach centre in Charlottetown including public drug use, property damage, theft and discarded needles.

Coun. Bruce MacDougall, part of the task force on attainable housing, is happy to see the recommendations put forward to council, but it should have been done sooner, he said.

"Maybe its a year or two late, but we need to accept this document the way it is. It cannot sit on a shelf. We need to act and to implement a lot of the recommendations," he said.

Another recommendation from the task force is to allow developers to present predesigned concept plans to council to make it easier for residents to understand what could be put in their community.

"It is always nice if we have a concept plan to look at," he said.

"If we had a concept plan, even though that concept can change, it gives the public, it gives the council something to think about.

With the need for housing in the area is growing daily, council needs to act quickly on the recommendations, MacDougall said.