THUNDER BAY — The city’s plan to turn parkettes in several Thunder Bay neighbourhoods over to developers to help meet the community’s ambitious housing target is being met with scorn from some nearby residents.
“I don’t much care for it,” said a Thornloe Drive resident, who did not wish to be named, after a sign was put up in a vacant parkette across the street from his home, stating the lots are too narrow to build proper housing and not large enough for development.
On June 3, city officials plan to ask council for the go-ahead to put the lots up for sale, with the caveat that developers will be required to build housing units on the properties within a given timeline.
The city is attempting to have 1,691 units built between now and February 2027, part of a provincial and federal plan to increase the country’s housing stock.
Joel DePeuter, Thunder Bay’s director of development services, said the city is looking for every advantage it can find to help spur development, while at the same time trying to maintain a level of fiscal responsibility when it comes to infrastructure and maintenance costs.
Adding new housing to existing neighbourhoods is one way to accomplish this goal, he said.
“An important part of the strategy to meet the housing target is to unlock property that’s on existing services. This is really important to meeting the housing goals, but also to assist the city’s financial situation,” DePeuter said on Monday, as the list of properties was unveiled.
Council directed administration to find surplus properties, including parkland, DePeuter and his staff reviewed excess properties and have compiled a list of about 40 potential candidates. The first batch was unveiled earlier this year.
The second batch includes sites across the city, including 628 Thistle Cres., 724 Holly Cres., 740 Grey Cres., 661 Thornloe Dr., 125 Birchwood Cres., 172 and part of 168 Woodside St., the untraveled portion of Bruce Street located on the south side of Minot Avenue and 837 Hodder Ave., plus a portion of untraveled Corona Street.
DePeuter said just about every kind of housing development is on the table at this point, but there will be preference toward multiple forms of housing.
“We do have a very ambitious housing target. Many of these properties could support more than one unit, so that’s something staff could be looking at through offers,” he said.
The city is giving nearby residents a chance to have their say on the pending sales, providing feedback on any perceived impact adding more housing units to their neighbourhoods might cause.
Deanna Walker said feedback can be provided to the city’s property agent, Lisa Zawadzki, whose contact information is on signs posted on each individual property.
“That can be provided by written letter or by email to Lisa.”
Feedback has already started coming in, though city officials did not disclose whether it was positive or negative.
“We do anticipate a great level of feedback on these properties, given the nature of them,” said Deanna Walker, the city’s manager of realty services.
“We understand that. We’re gathering (the input). We’ve had significant interest so far, and a synopsis of all of that feedback will be provided to council when we go on June 3,” Walker said.
The public notification process, which included signs and letters to nearby property owners, began last Friday.
Walker said the city will get back to everyone who submits feedback.
