London, Ont. councillors pledge to build 47,000 housing units by 2031

City councillors in London, Ont., officially pledged Tuesday night to have 47,000 new housing units built by 2031.

The pledge is in response to a letter from Ontario’s minister of municipal affairs and housing calling on London to build 47,000 units as part of the province’s goal to have 1.5 million units built over the next 10 years.

Councillors agreed to direct staff to develop a housing supply action plan to help ensure the pledge is met.

While some councillors had concerns about whether the pledge would constrain the city in its possible actions, Mayor Josh Morgan reiterated the city would be open to work freely.

The housing supply action plan has three pillars for achieving the housing goals: financial supports, enterprise-wide resources, and shared accountability.

Morgan said shared accountability includes a broad group of people, including the city, the province and the housing industry.

“The idea of shared accountability is really important,” Morgan said during the Feb. 7 strategic priorities and policy committee meeting.

The action plan lists nine strategies that will be implemented over the course of eight years to reach 47,000 units. Some include developing areas primed for residential development and using community improvement plans to incentivize affordable housing development.

A key initiative from the province is promoting “gentle intensification” in neighbourhoods – small-scale redevelopments or renovations that modestly increase the number of dwelling units.

The city will amend a zoning bylaw to be in line with the province’s Bill 23 that gives “as-of-right permission” for up to three residential units on a serviced land zoned for residential use.

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Other strategies the city plans to utilize include: improving the application process; changing development charges; and facilitating intensification in priority areas across the city. City staff say intensification can account for around 45 per cent of the 47,000 units to be built.

Another area the action plan will focus on is reusing vacant commercial and office spaces in the core area. A rough estimate could not be provided Tuesday as to the number of conversions possible from vacant offices, but staff said that work is ongoing to determine the figure, noting many spaces are unique in structure and thus maybe not be useful for housing.

The report to the committee on the pledge and action plan notes the city already has 18,000 units that have been approved or are close to being approved for construction. The report’s long-term forecast projects London to need 82,350 new units by 2046.

Part of the action plan will be to assess how the 47,00 units will be divided between single dwelling, family and high-density units.

Along with ongoing public engagement, the city will utilize a housing supply reference group that will work on the pledge of 47,000 units, and an affordable housing reference group will focus on the affordable housing goal of 3,000 units.

Councillors passed the recommendations as staff wrote, except for a slight amendment stating the housing supply group may expand to more members when appropriate in the not-for-profit and housing supply research areas.

A letter from Morgan to Steve Clark, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, is also to be completed by March 1 highlighting council’s pledge and the strategies and actions the city will use.