Summerside passes an affordable housing incentive program

The City of Summerside is moving ahead on creating more affordable housing.

Phase one passed unanimously Monday night

Natalia Goodwin · CBC News · Posted: Jan 22, 2019 6:50 AM EST | Last Updated: January 22, 2019

Unexpected expenses and lower wind energy revenues are being blamed for the city of Summerside ending the year with a deficit of more than $2-million. (Natalia Goodwin/CBC)

The City of Summerside is moving ahead on creating more affordable housing.

At its meeting Monday night, council passed phase one of its Affordable Housing Incentive Program.

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City of Summerside pursuing affordable housing for downtown

The first phase is immediate and sets out incentives that the city can provide to developers. Those include

Property tax grants that could give tax relief up to a maximum of 10 years.
Waiving development and permit fees.
Bonus incentives for building in the downtown business improvement area.

The program also has an option for the city to issue a request for proposals to identify municipal lands that may be suitable for an affordable housing project.

Phase two coming

A task force will be formed to look at phase two of the program, and firm up details around the long-term incentives, how long the city wants to run the program, and how often it should be reviewed.

Carrie Adams, who chairs the policy and bylaw committee, says the policy is a work in progress. (Natalia Goodwin/CBC )

"We're going to work with developers to see what they need, what would make them want to come and build here, and also what our residents need," said Carrie Adams, chair of the policy and bylaw review committee.

"We want developers to come to us with their idea. And if they see something that we have that they want to get in on, and it will make them want to come here then definitely, come to us and ask. We're not saying no to anything at this point."

Each application to the city for development would go through an evaluation team, which the city will form in the future.

That team would score the proposal on a variety of criteria, such as number of affordable units, location and proximity to amenities, and impact on municipal services. Public, non-profit, Crown agencies and private developers are all eligible to apply.