City council to consider how selling surplus land may help Thunder Bay meet its housing goals

The City of Thunder Bay is seeking feedback about municipal properties that could be used for new housing developments.

Signage was posted at eight city-owned properties on Friday – six of which are parkettes — letting residents know that they are being considered as potential surplus and could be put up for sale.

Surplus means lands identified as either no longer needed or that can be repurposed, explained Deanna Walker, the city's manager of realty services, during a media scrum on Tuesday.

Last year, city council directed staff to look at all city-owned lands, including vacant lands, parklands and parking lots, which could be declared as surplus.

"We brought the first batch [of properties] earlier this year. This is the second batch of properties," Walker said. "We will continue to bring batches forward on a regular basis for council's consideration, declare surplus and then go toward marketing them for sale."

While the city itself isn't responsible for building housing, its role involves incentivizing development, which can be achieved through zoning amendments and providing grants to those that commit to construction.

The project is part of the city's broader strategy to meet its ambitious housing target. The city aims to build 1,691 units in the next three years, using $20.7 million from the federal Housing Accelerator Fund to spur that building. 

The following properties are being recommended for surplus:

• 628 Thistle Cres.
• 724 Holly Cres.
• 740 Grey Cres.
• 661 Thornloe Dr.
• 125 Birchwood Cres.
• 172 and part of 168 Woodside St.
• An untravelled portion of Bruce Street located on the south side of Minot Avenue.
• 837 Hodder Ave., plus an untravelled portion of Corona Street.

Residents have until 4:30 p.m. on May 28 to submit feedback to the city about these properties, after which staff will be completing a report for council's review on June 3. Council is expected to ratify its decision on which properties will be declared as surplus on June 24.

'Everything is on the table'

Joel DePeuter, the city's director of development services, said he acknowledges Thunder Bay's housing goals are ambitious, which is why building on existing infrastructure is a key priority.

"This is really, really important to meeting the housing goals and also to assess the city's financial situation to generate more taxes, more housing units on existing services," DePeuter said on Tuesday.

All surplus lands sold by the city would then need to be built on. While "everything is on the table" as far as what kind of units could be constructed, DePeuter said most of the properties are large enough to support multiple units.

He also confirmed that affordability is among the criteria that will be considered as offers start coming through.

"I think a fast and steady pace of construction will be required to meet the targets, and there's varying levels of goals, right?" he said. "There is the goal to meet housing targets and there's the goal to provide an appropriate range of uses for people who need them."

Walker said the city has already received significant feedback from the public about the properties. 

"We acknowledge that several of these properties are identified as parkland properties and wanted to let everyone know that it is the intent that all net proceeds of those sales would be directed toward parkland supports," she said.

Public feedback can be submitted to senior property agent Lisa Zawadzki by emailing Lisa.Zawadzki@thunderbay.ca or calling 807-625-2527.