Windsor councillor wants to revisit housing money decision

A Windsor city councillor wants to revisit the city's application for up to $70 million in housing funds, after council voted to effectively turn down the money earlier this month. 

Ward 9 Coun. Kieran McKenzie says the original motion was rushed, with councillors told they had to make a same-day decision on suggested changes to Windsor's federal Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) application.

But, he says, he wants to see the decision revisited now that there could be more time available after he discussed the issue with local members of Parliament. 

"What I'm asking for is for council to be given another clean shot at looking at the report and coming to a decision with respect to the Housing Accelerator Fund application," McKenzie said. "We may very well land in the same place."

To access between $40 and $70 million in HAF money, the City of Windsor would need to to allow four residential units by right on any property zoned for a single-family home —also known as fourplexes. 

The city's application to the HAF would allow fourplexes in some areas of the city, where staff said they felt intensification was supported by infrastructure, but wouldn't allow them everywhere.

Councillors voted to keep the city's application the same in mid-December. 

Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens said in a statement to CBC News he was asked by the federal government to make a decision, either by himself through a letter or as a council decision, by the beginning of the holidays. 

He said he asked council if they needed more time to consider the report on the proposed changes. 

"No member of city council asked for more time," he wrote in an email.

In a recording of the council meeting, Dilkens asked council if they needed "a few more minutes" to read the report. 

During the meeting, McKenzie asked staff for clarification on the timeline and what risk that would pose to the city's application. 

McKenzie says he's spoke with Windsor-Tecumseh MP Irek Kusmierczyk about the timeline after council's decision.

"He indicated to me that the government would still be open to considering the application if it was resubmitted or submitted with a different recommendation up until early to mid January," McKenzie told CBC Windsor. 

McKenzie says it's not an issue with the city's staff, who he says responded to the timeline handed to them. But, he says there was no time for public input on the issue. 

He is asking for a new report on the decision at the next council meeting on January 15. 

City needs to allow fourplexes to be considered for funding 

The federal government returned Windsor's HAF application in early December, noting the city would need to allow fourplexes across the entire city to meet the minimum bar for getting HAF money. 

The city currently allows three residential units per single-family zoned properties, or threeplexes, across the city. 

McKenzie said council acknowledged that not changing the application would make Windsor's bid for money "significantly weaker than a number of other communities across Canada," and that the grant would likely be turned down. 

After the decision, Dilkens told CBC Windsor he stands with the initial decision to submit the application without changes. 

He said approving fourplexes by right anywhere in the the city is "disrespectful" to Windsor residents but the city's application would allow them in some areas where infrastructure like transit could support more density. 

Public concern about infrastructure

Council initially made its decision over concerns about flooding, intensification, quality of life and pressures on city infrastructure.

McKenzie said there should be a harder look at the concerns about infrastructure and at the rate fourplexes would be built. 

"It's not a reasonable thing to think that suddenly across the entire community people are going to be converting their homes into fourplexes," he said. 

Mike Moffatt, executive director of Place Institute at the University of Ottawa, which examines housing issues, previously told CBC News at allowing fourplexes isn't much different than building other types of homes.

And, he says, Windsor is lagging behind other municipalities in meeting its housing targets. 

"You should be allowed to build a fourplex as of right... the same way you could build a McMansion as of right," he said. 

McKenzie said with large developments like the NextStar battery factory and the Gordie Howe bridge in the works, he expects Windsor's gpopulation will continue to grow.

"People are already coming. It's not the housing form that actually puts the pressure on the infrastructure—it's people," he said.

"Apartment buildings aren't what's driving people coming to the City of Windsor. It's the bright future that we have in front of us."