A much-needed affordable housing project at the site of the former OPP detachment in north-end Barrie — with an estimated cost of $185.7 million — is coming into focus and will likely include a mix of 176 residential affordable housing and mixed-income units.
Simcoe County council approved, in principle, moving forward with the staff recommendation highlighted during a presentation at Tuesday's committee of the whole meeting.
The presentation included four options for council to consider, ranging from 154 residential affordable housing units, a split of 154 residential affordable housing and mixed-income units, as well as the possibility of deferring construction until such time that "substantial" capital funding could help reduce debt.
A big sticking point during the more than two-hour-long discussion, however, was what many county councillors felt to be the extremely high cost for an above-ground parking garage on the property, located at 20 Rose St., near Bayfield Street and Highway 400.
In his presentation, Brad Spiewak, the county’s director of social housing, pointed to a link from the two buildings to large parking structures, which he acknowledged carries a "significant cost."
“When we are in big urban areas, we either need to put parking underground or above-ground," he said. "Underground is the most expensive, while above-ground is less expensive, but still carries a fairly heavy price tag.”
Parking has been reduced as much as possible, he added, taking into account that they know from previous experience at other rent-geared-to-income units that “half a space is plenty” when it comes to available parking.
“That’s what we have at almost all our other 30 buildings," Spiewak said. "When it comes to commercial use, we can’t really restrict parking. That’s a mandated thing and it’s needed for employees and staff. For market units, we’ve given one space per unit, so we have squished the parking down as much as we possibly can knowing it is a significant cost.”
The proposed parking structure is for approximately 229 parking spaces and is designed as a multi-level parking building. The first level is partially below grade, and the two levels are above grade. The cost to construct the proposed parking structure is estimated to be approximately $18 million, which equals approximately $78,600 per space.
Wasaga Beach Mayor Brian Smith admitted he struggled when looking at some of these proposed projects.
“I look at this project in Barrie, which is a beautiful project, but now we are getting into having to build parking structures, which is at such a cost," he said. "I realize people who need affordable housing often drive, but in this particular case in Barrie — a great city with great transit — everything is fairly close. Why do we have to have even half a car?
"The amount of units we could build and have people who need a roof over their head in a unit versus a place to park a car in a city that has all the transit and walkable viability one could probably want is mind-boggling to me,” added Smith.
The Rose Street project is providing an opportunity to put a lot of deserving people in a beautiful home with a roof over their head, he said.
“I grew up in a poor family. The mayor of Barrie grew up in a poor family … I can tell you when it came to needing a roof over our head, we didn’t care if we had parking space. We wanted a warm place and food in our bellies,” Smith said.
Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall agreed, adding his family’s parking spot was rarely used for a vehicle.
“Most of the time growing up, our parking spot was used for hockey. If there’s any opportunity to reduce the parking footprint … I would support that,” Nuttall said, adding there's a system in place where those who don’t have the means to own a vehicle can apply for a free bus pass.
The proposed multi-use, energy-efficient building has been designed to include two wings: one that is eight storeys tall and the other 10 storeys tall and will include a combination of affordable housing units, replacement rent-geared-to-income (RGI) units, and community services designed for individuals, seniors, and families.
The ground-floor commercial space has been designed to contain other agencies, such as licensed child care or other compatible social service providers, pending further design details and discussions with community partners.
The facility also includes second-floor resources and supports through County of Simcoe services, including Ontario Works, Children Services, Community Services, and Social Housing services.
The project’s operational sustainability includes the combination of investing in quality building materials and practices up front, says the staff report, as well as accounting for the necessary capital reserves to ensure that the building will not require additional levy investment for the next 50 years.
In addition to the previously approved allocation to the project of approximately $6 million from the 2024-25 Ontario Priorities Housing Initiative (OPHI) and Canada-Ontario Housing Initiative (COCHI) combined allocations, an additional $1 million is set to be allocated to the project from the social housing reserve, as well as all proceeds from the sale of scattered single-family units in Barrie, says the report.
The project’s operational sustainability, explained the report, includes the combination of investing in quality building materials and practices up front, as well as accounting for the necessary capital reserves to ensure that the building will not require additional levy investment for the next 50 years.
“One of the unique things that we do at the county that is a bit different than anywhere else is we build a project that is front-end loaded in expense in order to pay for its lifetime of operating and maintenance costs," said Mina Fayez-Bahgat, the county’s general manager of social and community services. "In order to do that and for a build for this size and have it be sustainable, we needed to introduce a mixed-income model as an alternative option."
The mixed-income model follows one of the best practices they have seen, and has been proven to be successful in both North America and Europe, he added.
“The more mixed models you have, the less social impacts on the community you will see as you start to introduce a good balance,” Fayez-Bahgat said.
Nutall agreed, adding it's incredibly important the project is not simply units.
“I grew up in a housing project with 120 units all the same (socio-economic backgrounds). You have to have multiple means there so those kids that don’t have opportunities can see some who do and the integration is taking place,” he said.
The staff report noted that combining residential and commercial units builds on both the financial advantages and a client-centred approach, both of which have proven to be successful in a Collingwood project and is included as a best practice approach in the Orillia and Bradford West Gwillimbury affordable housing developments.
The proposed design includes a mix of durable building materials, including brick, architectural coatings and finish assemblies (ACF), and precast concrete for an attractive, low-maintenance building.
Smith also voiced concern about the cost of the proposed units, which were noted to be between $400 and $800 per square foot.
“I shake my head wondering how we could possibly be building these units at these prices and referring to them as affordable housing? These are prices that are at regular residential square-foot pricing and higher," said the Wasaga Beach mayor. "We like to tout that we are building affordable housing units, which we are, but we aren’t building nearly as many as we need to.
"We are putting units in these buildings that are at full-market rent, or what we still call affordable housing, but which (are) only 10 or 20 per cent below average market value (and) which we all know full well is still not affordable for a vast majority of our people,” Smith added.
Collingwood Mayor Yvonne Hamlin admitted she wished the project was more ambitious.
“Having heard there are more than 5,000 people on a waiting list, what is proposed here (means) less than three per cent of those people could be accommodated," she said. "Given the crisis we are in in every municipality, if I could take my pen to the paper I would probably double the height.
"I see it as a lost opportunity. I would try and maximize the use of all this land here,” added Hamlin.
Other members of county council also questioned why the design doesn’t go higher than 10 or 12 storeys in the various designs, which staff explained is due to the soil conditions. In order to consider going higher would mean revisiting structural costs to support it.
“This has gone from a site that was purchased for affordable housing, to a site that’s used as a temporary shelter," Nuttall said. "My gut is, having gone to knock on doors, that this is a place that's going to accept this and be supportive of it. We don’t always get this in Barrie."
The Barrie mayor said intensification is "not always popular."
“If there are opportunities that (county staff) can identify that they feel would create more units ... There are always efficiencies to be found and if they are found, I would like us to take advantage of that.”
